CS 1 Semester 1 Block 4 9/26-10/7 Water Nitrogen Oxygen Carbon Cycles
Day 1
Standard: Biogeochemical Cycles ES 7a-7d
a) Students know carbon cycle of photosynthesis and respiration and the nitrogen cycle
b) Students know the global carbon cycle: the different physical and chemical forms of carbon in the
atmosphere, oceans, biomass, fossil fuels, and the movement of carbon among these reservoirs.
c) Students know the movement of matter among reservoirs is driven by Earth’s internal and external sources
of energy.
d) Students know the relative residence times and flow characteristics of carbon in and out of its different
reservoirs.
Text Section:
Ch. 9 Activity 7: The Water cycle p.553-560
Goals in this activity you will:
 Measure the amount of water transpired by a plant.
 Describe the process that takes in the water cycle.
 Provide examples of how human activities can affect the water cycle.
 Model the effects of acid rain on an ecosystem.
a) What do you think?


Is it possible that the molecules of water that Caesar exhaled many centuries ago, are still a part of
today’s environment?
Is it possible that these molecules could become a part of you?
b) Vocabulary: p.555-559 9words
Water (hydrologic) cycle, evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, groundwater, infiltration,
aquifer, transpiration
c) Reading: p.555-559
d) Notes: Water cycle
e) Biology to go p.559 1-5
1. Name and describe the four processes that take place in the water cycle.
2. What is the energy source that drives the water cycle?
3. How has the water cycle determined partly where people live in the United States?
4. What would happen to the planet if the hydrologic cycle stopped functioning?
5. Describe three ways in which humans can have a negative effect on the water cycle.
ICS 1 Semester 1 Block 4 9/26-10/7 Water Nitrogen Oxygen Carbon Cycles
Day 2
Ch. 9 Activity 8: Photosynthesis, Respiration, and the Carbon Cycle p. 561-566
Goals in this activity you will:
 Learn how oxygen cycles through photosynthesis and respiration.
 Describe the cycling of carbon in an ecosystem.
 Speculate how human activities can affect the carbon cycle.
a)
What do you think?

From where do the materials come to make up the mass of a mature tree?
b) Vocabulary: p.563-566
1 word
Carbon cycle
c) Reading: p.563-565
d) Notes: Carbon cycle-Photosynthesis and Respiration
e) Biology to go p.p.566 1-4
1. Explain why photosynthesis and cellular respiration are considered to be paired processes.
2. What is the importance of decomposers in the carbon cycle?
3. What effect does the burning of fossil fuels have on the carbon cycle?
4. Scientists have expressed concerns about the burning of the rainforests to clear the land for the planting
of crops.
a. Explain how burning of the forests could change oxygen levels.
b. What impact would the change in oxygen levels have on living things?
ICS 1 Semester 1 Block 4 9/26-10/7 Water Nitrogen Oxygen Carbon Cycles
Day 3
Ch. 9 Activity 9: The Nitrogen and Phosphorus cycles p.567 - 575
Goals in this activity you will:
 Investigate the chemical that promote and inhibit the growth of plant material.
 Explain the importance of nitrogen and phosphorous to organisms.
 Describe how nitrogen cycles in an ecosystem.
 Describe how phosphorous cycles in an ecosystem.
 Provide examples of how human activities can affect the nitrogen cycle.
a)
What do you think?


What are the sources of the excess nitrogen?
What are some of the negative effects of too much nitrogen?
b) Vocabulary: p.569-574 5 words
Nitrogen cycle, nitrogen fixation, Denitrification, phosphorous cycle, fertilizer
c) Reading: p.569 -574
d) Notes: Nitrogen and Phosphorous cycles
e) Biology to go p. 575 1-7
1. Why is nitrogen important to organisms?
2. If plants cannot use nitrogen in the atmosphere, how do they obtain the nitrogen they need?
3. How do animals obtain their usable nitrogen?
4. Explain why it is good practice to aerate lawns.
5. Why is phosphorous important to living things?
6. With each harvest, nitrogen is removed from the soil. Farmers have traditionally rotated crops.
Wheat, planted one year, is often followed by legumes planted the following year. Because legumes
contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria, nitrogen levels are replenished. The use of nitrogen rich fertilizers
has allowed farmers to not use crop rotation.
a) What advantages are gained from planting wheat year after year?
b) New strains of crops have been especially bred to take up high levels of nitrogen and
harvests have increased dramatically. Speculate about some possible long term
disadvantages that these crops might present for ecosystems.
7. Before municipal sewers, the backyard outhouse was standard behind homes. They can still be
found in some areas. To make an outhouse, a hole was dug in the ground to collect the human
waste. Explain why an outhouse poses a risk to neighboring lakes and rivers, using information that
you have gained about the nitrogen cycle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU17Q10GEE8&feature=related
Nitrogen Cycle Vital for organisms
75-80% of the atmosphere N2 gas – we inhale nitrogen gas but its not in a useful form
Gets into ecosystem by Nitrogen Fixation
Nitrogen Fixin bacteria ammonia Nh3 goes to gas when it hits water it becomes ammoniumNh4+
Nitrification converting amooninium NH4+ into nitrites’ NO2- to nitratesNO3Denitrification converting NO3- into nitrogen gas N2
Ammonification decomnposing organic nitrogen in aminoa acids or proteins into ammonium NH4+
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT3r2de8WqI&feature=relmfu
Phosphorous cycle
Phosphorous used in general as phosphates
Biotic process like eating and getting if from soil
And abiotic process like when rocs are eroded
Dna atp phosphor lipids
Erosion weathering rocks runoff to soil plants absorb the phosphate
animals eat plants then decomposers break the phosphates down
continuing the cycle
Water bodies sedimentation occurs and phosphates bonds
with other things and is turned into sediment again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV3rYB79lcU&feature=relmfu
Carbon cycle
The way carbon moves through organisms and the environment
Plants take in co2 photosynthesis making organic molecules
glucose
Organisms release co2 respiration burning the organic
compounds
Fires release co2 from organic molecules oxidation
Geochemical processes can absorb co2 and release it fossil
fuels being formed, eating cooling of water
Reservoir storage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VBhXtmyKqc&feature=relmfu
transpiration in plant view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At1BJJDcXhk&feature=player_embedded#!
Transpiration baghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Xum5MrOpY&feature=player_embedded
Fire truck simulation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6f2BiFiXiM
Winters biology class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKld3GO2c90&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLE81A9960D7D516
73
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd39izn4UV4&feature=related
Acid rain deposition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=893KB3s_jIA&feature=player_embedded#!
Water cycle
Evaporation moves from bodies of water into the atmosphere
Concentration of water molecules fall as precipitation when it
hits the ground it infiltrates the ground
Also runoff can occur where it doesn’t infiltrate the ground
Also can be stored in reservoirs such as ice caps glaciers or even by snow
Transpiration trees and plants release water out of leaves Transpiration is
when we get involved in the water cycle like perspiration