Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Office of Academics and Transformation
Comprehension Instructional
Sequences (CIS)
Middle Grade Science
Compiled
Professional Development
Resources
THE SCHOOL BOARD OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA
Ms. Perla Tabares Hantman, Chair
Dr. Lawrence S. Feldman, Vice-Chair
Dr. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall
Ms. Susie V. Castillo
Dr. Wilbert “Tee” Holloway
Dr. Martin Karp
Ms. Lubby Navarro
Ms. Raquel A. Regalado
Dr. Marta Pérez Wurtz
Mr. Logan Schroeder-Stephens
Student Advisor
Mr. Alberto M. Carvalho
Superintendent of Schools
Ms. Maria L. Izquierdo
Chief Academic Officer
Office of Academics and Transformation
Dr. Maria P. de Armas
Assistant Superintendent
Division of Academics
Mr. Cristian Carranza
Administrative Director
Division of Academics
Department of Mathematics and Science
Dr. Ava D. Rosales
Executive Director
Department of Mathematics and Science
Table of Contents
Quarter 1
Grade 6- SC.6.E.7.2 – The New and Improved Water Cycle ...................................................... 4
Grade 7- SC.7.P.11.2 – Canada is Ready for a Transformative Energy Experience ................. 13
Grade 7- SC.7.P.10.1 – Gamma-Ray Bending Opens New Door for Optics ............................. 21
Grade 8- SC.8.P.8.4 – An Oil Filter for Water ........................................................................... 28
Grade 8- SC.8.P.8.5 – Strontium: Breakthrough against Osteoporosis ..................................... 37
Quarter 2
Grade 6- SC.6.P.13.1– Baseball: From Pitch to Hits ................................................................ 45
Grade 7- SC.7.E.6.2 – Do Earthquakes Deposit Gold? New Study Shows That Fault Lines May
Be Linked To the Precious Metal .............................................................................................. 53
Grade 8- SC.8.L.18.3 – Life Beneath the ‘berg ........................................................................ 60
Quarter 3
Grade 6- SC.6.L.14.4 – “Zombie” Cells Created in New Mexico Lab Said to Outperform Living
Ones in Some Ways ................................................................................................................. 67
Grade 7- SC.7.L.17.1 - What’s Killing the Sea Otters? ............................................................. 74
Grade 7- SC.7.L.15.1 – Blindsight: Animals That See without Eyes ......................................... 81
Grade 8- SC.8.E.5.7 – Wrong-way Planets Do Gymnastics? .................................................... 88
Quarter 4
Grade 7- SC.7.L.16.1 – Animal CSI or From Science Lab to Crime Lab .................................. 95
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CIS: The New and Improved Water Cycle
By Joan Rose/ November 216 2012 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com)
P1
P2
P3
Are you experiencing pain, illness, economic problems and you a victim of the
new water cycle: hurricanes, flooding, pipe breaks, toxic blooms, boil orders, salt
water intrusion, severe contamination and droughts? This is not your
grandparents' cycle" -- and unlike resources like oil, water is considered to be a
"renewable resource." But humans are now coupled to the water cycle and have
modified this global resource which is necessary for all life on earth, where usable
and clean water are becoming scarcer.
CLIMATE IMPACTS ON THE WATER CYCLE: It is clear that humans have
now affected the earth's very large global climate system with a significant
influence on water and the water cycle. This has changed the amount of water
that returns as precipitation, where "how much" is important for flooding and
how fast it comes. Predictions are that parts of the United States will become
drier and other parts will become wetter. This summer the focus was on the
drought that spread widely across the country affecting not only water supplies
but food security. A new assessment has shown that over the last 60 years global
droughts have increased by about 0.8 percent(1). More recently, however, all eyes
were turned toward the east coast as we watched with horror as Hurricane Sandy
brought huge amounts of water that rushed with a dramatic force into streets,
subways and homes. Floods remain the number one disaster globally, causing
loss of life, economic damage and illnesses(2). The immediate impact on life and
well being, especially with a storm like Sandy, is clearly visible, but the long term
concerns are associated with water pollution. Untreated sewage containing
billions of bacteria, parasites and viruses are entering waterways and impacting
water quality. During the storm 18.3 million gallons of raw waste gushed into a
creek, a tributary of the Nansemond River, eventually closing shellfish beds; 500
million gallons of raw sewage every day was flowing into Newark Bay and more
than 12 municipalities in New Jersey issued boil orders for the drinking water,
but if you don't have power, what will you do? How will you gain access to safe
water? Can we adapt our cities, sewage systems and agricultural schemes through
water infrastructure to prevent and mitigate these ill effects? Maybe, but we need
to be thinking about these issues, as my conclusion is that both quantity and
quality will be affected under this "new water cycle."
GROUNDWATER LOSES: Our aquifers and wells are not going to be spared
as part of the new water cycle, which will impact our agricultural systems, coastal
communities and river flows in general. Intensive groundwater extraction (which
has a history of only about 50 years) is led by agriculture, and losses are
associated with this overdraft as we pump out more groundwater than is
recharged, thus dropping the water table. The Wells are going dry, even in places
like Michigan, where moving from rain fed agriculture to irrigation in the
southwest of the state has led to a drop in the available water from key aquifers.
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And it is not just quantity; the quality of water under dry conditions shows that
the groundwater contribution to our rivers here in Michigan is laced with human
fecal pollution markers eventually emptying into one of the Great Lakes. Sea level
rise and salt water intrusion also exacerbate groundwater conditions in places
like California. This is a global issue that threatens the global food market and the
benefits to billions of people around the world. Can we use groundwater in a
sustainable way while feeding the future? Can we enhance recharge? Maybe, but
it is my opinion that this hidden water resource needs to be brought to the top of
the list for vulnerability assessment and protection under the pressures of the
"new water cycle."
P4
P5
P6
P7
WASTEWATER AND WATER RECYCLING: One thing is for sure: water
does move in a cycle and we reuse it all the time. Even with 20 percent of the
surface freshwater in the Great Lakes, the goal is to keep return flows (water that
has been used by communities and industries) inside the basin. The largest
diversion of water allowed (one billion gallons of water per day) is the wastewater
from Chicago, which is now pumped by reversing the flow of the Chicago River
eventually to the Mississippi, instead of its natural flow to Lake Michigan. Early
in the history of this grand city, one of the greatest engineering feats ('Civil
Engineering Monument of the Millennium,' American Society of Civil Engineers)
was the building of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. This was done as a
public health measure as waterborne typhoid, a serious disease, was then
affecting between one person in every 500 to 1,500. Typhoid in the United States
disappeared as the treatment of drinking water and control of wastewater were
implemented.
The widespread use and unplanned reuse of wastewater is indicated by the
pervasive appearance of pollutants like viruses, Giardia and pharmaceuticals in
our water supplies. In countries like Singapore and in water-stressed states (CA),
however, planned water reuse is part of the management approach to address
both quantity and quality under the "new water cycle." Advanced treatment takes
care of pathogens and emerging chemicals of concern and the water can be used
for irrigation and even for drinking water. About 35 billion gallons of sewage are
produced each day in the United States and only five to six percent are reused.
Can we improve our reuse of water? Can we enhance our wastewater treatment to
produce water fit for beneficial purposes? Maybe. I believe that more water
quality testing, better wastewater treatment and acknowledgement of this
recycling is needed.
A NATIONAL WATER COMMISSION IS NEEDED: Over-exploitation and
manipulation of one part of the water cycle cannot be done without influencing
all parts of the cycle. Our attention span to focus on water problems has been
described by Dr. Robert Glennon as the hydro-illogical cycle.
We need a national commission to address this new water cycle, we need better
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science, better technology, better infrastructure and better communication. From
my perspective, U.S. engineers and scientists have the capacity as well as the
desire to address the nations and world's water resources constraints under this
new coupled human water cycle.
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CIS: Water Cycle
Title of
Text/Article:
NGSSS for Science
Benchmarks:
Content
Integration
CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies, Science,
and Technical
Subjects
Mathematical
Practices
New and Improved Water Cycle
Comprehensive Science 1
SC.6.E.7.2 Investigate and apply how the cycling of water between the atmosphere and
hydrosphere has an effect on weather patterns and climate Assessed as SC.6.E.7.4
SC.6.E.7. 5 (Cognitive Complexity: Moderate)
Explain how energy from the sun influences global patterns of atmospheric movement
and the temperature differences between air, water and land. (also asses: SC.6.E.7.1.)
Comprehensive Science 1
The student will be able to
 Describe and/or explain the movement of water in the water cycle can be manipulated
and changed by human infrastructure.
 Students will identify and/or explain that uneven heating of the parts of parts of the
earth cause temperature differences, which affect the movement of water.
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical
texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection,
and research.
MAFS.K12.MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MAFS.K12.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MAFS.K12.MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MAFS.K12.MP.7: Look for and make use of structure.
MAFS.K12.MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Teacher Notes:


Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question
Generation, etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question
Generation).
Preparations:
o Number paragraphs of selected text/article for ease of locating text evidence during
discussions.
o Develop and display Final/Complex Text-Based Question at the beginning of the lesson
to communicate upfront for students the lesson’s final question and learning outcome.
o Text-marking: Develop and display a code system appropriate for the CIS text to use in
text-marking. Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding coding
example(s) to model the text-marking process for students.
o Directed Note-taking: Develop a graphic organizer with headings appropriate for the
CIS text. Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding note(s) to model the
note-taking process.
o Question Generation: Select a small text segment and preplan a corresponding
question(s) to model the Question Generation process for students.
o Any audio visuals, specimens, and/or samples to enhance lesson.
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* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to
students while students mark text, students read the text and participate in directed
note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading,
model fluent reading, provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the
text, and think critically about information in the text.
Visual Hook: “New and Improved Water Cycle” By Joan Rose, Huffing Post November
16 2012
Hook Question: How do humans influence the movement of
water?
Individual responses in journals
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
What are some positive and negative consequences when humans
influence the movement of water?
Vocabulary Instruction
Paragraph
#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or Context
1
Intrusion: Sounds like intrude.
Something not supposed to be
where it is.
Tributary: Contribute. Creeks
contribute to rivers their water.
Laced: Its in it somewhere
Infrastructure: involving the
“structure” of city sewage and
irrigation.
Scarcer: To become less
Word
Part
4
6
5
1



Paragrap
h#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or Context
Word
Part
Context
Word
Part &
Context
Context
Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root,
suffix) and/or context. Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing,
graphic organizers, etc.
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o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to
word wall during reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and
subsequent lessons.
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Reading #1
Text-marking
+
– this section of text shows a positive impact on society or the individual
_
– this section of text shows a negative impact on society or the individual
P
– this section of text shows a problem
S
– this section of text shows a solution

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text.
Students follow along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of
the text independently. Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking - Record notes containing the most important information relevant to
the guiding question
Visual Hook: Climate Change video segment – PBS Learning Media
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text and video clip, why is it important to consider
positive and negative impacts on society and/or individuals, when developing a solution to our
“water crisis”
ParaParagraph #
Paragraph #
graph #
+ Impact
- Impact
Problem Solution
Society or
Individual
1
2
3
VIDEO
Usable and clean water are becoming scarce
Water crisis
Flooding and hurricanes
Acid rain coming from industrial plant to fish in lakes.


Society
or
Individual
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes.
Teacher models note-taking using an example statement from the text, then
selecting the category or categories that support the statement. Students
complete note-taking collaboratively or independently.
Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to
consensus on which category is the most impactful according to the support from
the text.
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First Draft Written Response to Essential Question
According to the text, describe some of the solutions to our water
cycle and climate change concerns.


Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative
partners, written conversations
***CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of
text, relating to a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then
students re-read the text to generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the
opportunity for them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen
their comprehension.
Reading #3
Question Generation: New and Improved Water Cycle
Check relevant categories below
Questions
Paragraph
#
1
2
3
5
+ Impact
Society/
Individual
How can droughts occur from the water cycle?
How can we prevent climate change and the
intensification of the water cycle?
How can we prevent groundwater losses to the
water cycle?
How can we begin a wastewater reuse program?

- Impact
Society/
Individu
al
Proble
m
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Solutio
n
X
Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two
questions.
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

Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to
generate questions about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss
which questions they have in common, and which questions are most
relevant or significant to their learning.
 record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o extended efferent text discussion
o students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the
remainder of the chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in
collaborative inquiry.
* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question, students discuss answers, and
review/revise answers to the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their
peers to:
 identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
According to the text and extended text discussion how can society affect the
way water moves to avoid negative impact on the environment? How does
human society affect the earth’s spheres?

The Final Written Response can be used as an assessment for student learning,
aligning to FCAT Item Specifications.
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CIS: Canada is Ready for a Transformative Energy
Experience
By David Suzuki/ May 2, 2013
P1
Some people think a widespread shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources
is not practical or even possible. You've probably heard the arguments: wind doesn't
always blow, sun doesn't always shine, the technology's not advanced enough,
installations take up too much space, we need sources of base load power that can only
come from fossil fuels or nuclear power. And so we carry on, rushing to squeeze every
last drop of oil and gas from the ground using increasingly difficult and destructive
methods like fracking, deep-sea drilling and oil sands extraction, with seemingly little
concern for what we'll do after we've burned it all.
P2
A lot of research is challenging those skeptical assumptions, including some by
the David Suzuki Foundation, working with the Trottier Energy Futures Project.
"Canada has vast renewable energy resources in the form of hydropower, solar, wind
energy, and biomass, as well as geothermal, wave, and tidal resources that are many
times larger than current or projected levels of total fuel and electricity consumption,"
the recent Trottier report, "An Inventory of Low-Carbon Energy for Canada," concludes.
P3
Those findings are confirmed by research and experience elsewhere in the world.
A study by engineers at Stanford University reports, "it is technically and economically
feasible to convert New York's all-purpose energy infrastructure to one powered by
wind, water and sunlight," and doing so "shows the way to a sustainable, inexpensive
and reliable energy supply that creates local jobs and saves the state billions of dollars in
pollution-related costs."
P4
An article in the New York Times points to research by the Paris-based
International Energy Agency, showing, "Thirteen countries got more than 30 per cent of
their electricity from renewable energy in 2011."
P5
The Stanford study's lead author, engineering professor Mark Z. Jacobson, told
the New York Times, “You could power America with renewables from a technical and
economic standpoint. The biggest obstacles are social and political -- what you need is
the will to do it."
P6
It would be even less of a challenge in Canada. Thanks in part to our abundant
hydro resources, we produced more than 63 per cent of our electricity with renewable
sources in 2011. The U.S. produced 12.3 per cent.
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P7
The biggest obstacles in shifting to clean energy may be social and political, but
one of the greatest challenges is creating a "smart" electricity grid. As Trottier Project
managing director Ralph Torrie says, we'll have to replace our antiquated grid with one
that "will use information technologies to balance a wider range of supply sources,
energy storage, interprovincial transfers of electricity and a wide variety of energy
management and efficiency tools." Because the current system is due for an overhaul,
now is an ideal time to invest in reconfiguring it.
P8
Other challenges include the costs and the impacts of renewable energy
installations on ecosystems and wildlife. And with biofuels, the sustainability of source
materials and effects on land and food supplies must also be considered. But these are
far from insurmountable. Fossil fuel and nuclear power sources are also extremely costly
and have far greater environmental impacts. And many studies show that moving to
renewables creates jobs and contributes to economic health.
P9
The recent Trottier study looked at Canada's potential in the context of reducing
energy-related greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 -- a necessary target if
we are to do our part to combat climate change. Reaching that target will also require
becoming more efficient in the ways we produce and consume fuels and electricity. This
means looking at our individual behaviours as well as considering our habits and
practices for everything from public transportation to building design to manufacturing.
P10 Sure, it will be a challenge. But the alternative -- to carry on polluting air, water
and soil and putting our future at risk with global warming -- isn't pretty. We've faced
and overcome many challenges before. When people have mobilized resources in the
past, we've been able to accomplish a lot in relatively little time -- from defeating the
fascist threat in the Second World War to putting people on the moon. Finding smarter
ways to power our societies is something we can and must do.
Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Communications
Manager Ian Hanington.
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CIS: Energy Transformations
Title of Text/Article:
Canada Is Ready For a Transformative Energy Experience
NGSSS for Science
Comprehensive Science 2 (200207001)
Benchmarks:
Content Integration
CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies, Science,
and Technical
Subjects
Mathematical
Practices
Big Idea 11: Energy Transfer and Transformations
SC.7.P.11.2 Investigate and describe the transformation of energy from one form to another. AA
SC.7.P.11.3 Cite evidence to explain that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only changed
from one form to another. Assessed as SC.7.P.11.2
Comprehensive Science 2 (200207001)
The student will be able to
 Analyze the transformation of energy from one form to another
 Differentiate between potential and kinetic energy
 Describe situations where energy is transformed between kinetic energy and potential energy and vice
versa
 Describe various forms of energy, i.e., thermal, radiant, electrical, mechanical, chemical
 Describe sources of energy, i.e., tidal, hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, solar
 Analyze different transformations of energy within systems, ie., in a flashlight, in renewable and
nonrenewable sources to electricity which powers everyday appliances,
 Cite evidence that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed from one form to another
 Demonstrate an understanding that during energy transfers, heat is released
 Identify and describe examples of the Law of Conservation of Energy
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and
technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.
MAFS.K12.MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MAFS.K12.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MAFS.K12.MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MAFS.K12.MP.7: Look for and make use of structure.
MAFS.K12.MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Teacher Notes:

Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question Generation,
etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question
Generation).
o Any audio visuals, specimens, and/or samples to enhance lesson.
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* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to students while
students mark text, students read the text and participate in directed note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading, model
fluent reading, provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the text, and
think critically about information in the text.
Hook Question: How can green energy impact our lives, health, and
future?
Individual responses
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
What are some challenges and benefits of shifting from burning fossil fuels to
cleaner energy sources?
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Vocabulary Instruction
Paragraph #
1
Academic or Discipline Specific Vocabulary
Installations- The act of
establishing an indicated place,
condition, or status



Word Part
or Context
Paragraph #
context
7
Academic or Discipline Specific Vocabulary
Word Part or
Context
Antiquated- outmoded or discredited Context
by reason of age
Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root, suffix)
and/or context. Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing, graphic
organizers, etc.
o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to word
wall during reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and subsequent
lessons.
Reading #1
Text-marking
+
– this section of text shows a positive impact on society or the individual
_
– this section of text shows a negative impact on society or the individual
P
– this section of text shows a problem
S
– this section of text shows a solution

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text. Students
follow along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of the text
independently. Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking - Record notes containing the most important information relevant to the
guiding question
Audio Hook: Fernando Pages on How Affordable and Green Go Together in Home Building:
http://wlrn.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/eded669e-0139-4dbc-81f0-2e128b9ec1a0/eded669e-01394dbc-81f0-2e128b9ec1a0/
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Directed Note-Taking
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text and video clip, why is it important to consider benefits and
challenges of shifting from burning fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources?
ParaNote
Category
graph #
+ Impact
- Impact
Problem Solution
Society or
Individual
1
We extract oil and gas from the ground using
increasingly difficult and destructive methods like
fracking, deep-sea drilling and oil sands
extraction,


Society or
Individual
X
Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes. Teacher
models note-taking using an example statement from the text, then selecting the
category or categories that support the statement. Students complete note-taking
collaboratively or independently.
Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to consensus
on which category is the most impactful according to the support from the text.
First Draft Written Response to Essential Question
Using evidence from the text, why is it important to consider challenges and benefits of shifting
from burning fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources?
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

Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative partners,
written conversations
*** CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of text,
relating to a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then students reread the text to generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the
opportunity for them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen their
comprehension.
Reading #3
Question Generation
Question Generation:
Paragraph #
Questions
Check relevant categories below
+ Impact
Society/
Individual
1
Do fracking, deep-sea drilling and oil sands
negatively affect our environment?
2
Which energy sources are appropriate to
replace fossil fuels?

- Impact
Society/
Individual
Problem
X
X
Solution
X
Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
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

Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate
questions about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which
questions they have in common, and which questions are most relevant or
significant to their learning.
 record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o extended efferent text discussion
o students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of
the chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question, students discuss answers, and
review/revise answers to the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their peers
to:
 identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
Using evidence from the text, why is it important to consider challenges and benefits of shifting
from burning fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources?
The Final Written Response will be used as an assessment for student learning.

The Final Written Response can be used as an assessment for student learning, aligning
to FCAT Item Specifications.
Division of Academics – Department of Science
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CIS: Gamma-Ray Bending Opens New Door for Optics
Bending the rules. Gamma ray lenses, which theory had suggested were impossible, could be
made from heavy elements such as gold.
1
2
3
4
5
Lenses are a part of everyday life—they help us focus words on a page, the light
from stars, and the tiniest details of microorganisms. But making a lens for highly
energetic light known as gamma rays had been thought impossible. Now,
physicists have created such a lens, and they believe it will open up a new field
of gamma-ray optics for medical imaging, detecting illicit nuclear material, and
getting rid of nuclear waste.
Glass is the material of choice for conventional lenses, and like other materials,
it contains atoms which are orbited by electrons. In an opaque material, these
electrons would absorb or reflect light. But in glass, the electrons respond to
incoming light by shaking about, pushing away the light in a different direction.
Physicists describe the amount of bending as the glass's "refractive index": A
refractive index equal to one results in no bending, while anything more or less
results in bending one way or the other.
Refraction works well with visible light, a small part of the electromagnetic
spectrum, because the light waves have a frequency that chimes well with the
oscillations of orbiting electrons. But for higher energy electromagnetic
radiation—ultraviolet and beyond—the frequencies are too high for the electrons
to respond, and lenses become less and less effective. It was only toward the
end of last century that physicists found they could create lenses for x-rays, the
part of the electromagnetic spectrum just beyond the ultraviolet, by stacking
together numerous layers of patterned material. Such lenses opened up the field
of x-ray optics which, with x-rays' short wavelengths, allowed imaging at a
nanoscale resolution.
There the story should have ended. Theory says that gamma rays, being even
more energetic than x-rays, ought to bypass orbiting electrons altogether;
materials should not bend them at all and the refractive index for gamma rays
should be almost equal to one. Yet this is not what a team of physicists led by
Dietrich Habs at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany and
Michael Jentschel at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France, has
discovered.
ILL is a research reactor that produces intense beams of neutrons. Habs,
Jentschel, and colleagues used one of its beams to bombard samples of
radioactive chlorine and gadolinium to produce gamma rays. They directed
these down a 20-meter-long tube to a device known as a crystal spectrometer,
Division of Academics – Department of Science
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which funneled the gamma rays into a specific direction. They then passed half
of the gamma rays through a silicon prism and into another spectrometer to
measure their final direction, while they directed the other half straight to the
spectrometer unimpeded. To the researchers' surprise, as they report in a paper
due to be published this month in Physical Review Letters, gamma rays with an
energy above 700 kiloelectronvolts are slightly bent by the silicon prism.
6
7
8
9
10
"Everything was wrongly predicted," explains Habs. "But we said, [the refraction]
looks so marvelous for x-rays, why don't we have a look whether there is
something? And suddenly we found there is a totally unexpected effect."
So what drives this new bending effect? Although he can't be sure, Habs
believes it resides in the nuclei at the heart of the silicon atoms. Although
electrons don't normally reside in nuclei because of the very strong electric fields
there, quantum mechanics allows pairs of "virtual" electrons and antielectrons, or
positrons, to blink briefly into existence and then recombine and disappear again.
Habs thinks the sheer number of these virtual electron-positron pairs amplifies
the gamma-ray scattering, which is normally negligible, to a detectable amount.
The bending in his group's experiment isn't much—about a millionth of a degree,
which corresponds to a refractive index of about 1.000000001. However, it could
be boosted using lenses made of materials with larger nuclei such as gold,
which should contain more virtual electron-positron pairs. With some refinement,
gamma-ray lenses could be made to focus beams of a specific energy.
Such focused beams could detect radioactive bomb-making material, or
radioactive tracers used in medical imaging. That's because the beams would
only scatter off certain radioisotopes, and stream past others unimpeded. The
beams could even make new isotopes altogether, by "evaporating" off protons or
neutrons from existing samples. That process could turn harmful nuclear waste
into a harmless, nonradioactive byproduct.
"It is great to see that the advances x-ray optics have made … over the past
20 years might now even be moving into the [gamma ray] range," says
Gerhard Materlik, chief executive of the Diamond Light Source, an x-ray
facility in Didcot, U.K. "I hope that the predictions made by the authors about
possible gamma ray optics can be realized to turn them into real optical
components."
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CIS: Gamma-Ray Bending Opens New Door for Optics
Benchmarks: Carefully select text that aligns with State Standards/Benchmarks
Title of
Text/Article:
Gamma-Ray Bending Opens New Door for Optics
NGSSS for Science
Benchmarks:
Comprehensive Science 2 (200207001)
Content
Integration
CCSS ELA &
Literacy
Mathematical
Practices
Big Idea 10: Forms of Energy
SC.7.P.10.1 Illustrate that the sun’s energy arrives as radiation with a wide range of
wavelengths, including infrared, visible, and ultraviolet, and that white light is made up of a
spectrum of many different colors. AA
SC.7.P.10.2 Observe and explain that light can be reflected, refracted, and/or absorbed.
(Assessed as SC.7.P.10.3)
SC.7.P.10.3 Recognize that light waves, sound waves, and other waves move at different
speeds in different materials. AA
Comprehensive Science 2 (200207001)
The student will be able to
 Describe various forms of energy, i.e., thermal, radiant, electrical, mechanical, chemical
 Analyze how light waves travel at different speeds in different media
 Compare the characteristics of waves using the electromagnetic spectrum
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and
technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.
MAFS.K12.MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MAFS.K12.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MAFS.K12.MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MAFS.K12.MP.7: Look for and make use of structure.
MAFS.K12.MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Teacher Notes:


Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses,
etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question
Generation, etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and
Question Generation).
Preparations:
o Number paragraphs of selected text/article for ease of locating text evidence during
discussions.
o Develop and display Final/Complex Text-Based Question at the beginning of the
lesson to communicate upfront for students the lesson’s final question and learning
outcome.
o Text-marking: Develop and display a code system appropriate for the CIS text to
use in text-marking. Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding coding
example(s) to model the text-marking process for students.
o Directed Note-taking: Develop a graphic organizer with headings appropriate for the
CIS text. Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding note(s) to model
the note-taking process.
o Question Generation: Select a small text segment and preplan a corresponding
question(s) to model the Question Generation process for students.
o Any audio visuals, specimens, and/or samples to enhance lesson.
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* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to
students while students mark text, students read the text and participate in directed
note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading,
model fluent reading, provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the
text, and think critically about information in the text.
Visual Hook: Demonstration “Disappearing beaker”
The “Disappearing beaker” demo is performed by placing a small Pyrex beaker inside a larger
Pyrex beaker, then filling the smaller beaker with vegetable oil, allowing the oil to spill out of the
small beaker and into the large beaker. Continue pouring the oil until the small beaker is
covered. The result will be the illusion that the smaller beaker has disappeared.
Hook Question: What happens to the “disappearing
beaker”?
Individual responses in journals
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
Should gamma-rays be used in everyday applications?
Vocabulary Instruction
Paragraph
#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or
Context
3
Nanoscale
noun



Paragraph
#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or Context
Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root,
suffix) and/or context. Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing,
graphic organizers, etc.
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o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to
word wall during reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and
subsequent lessons.
Reading #1
Text-marking
F
– this section of text shows a fact relevant to gamma-ray applications in optics
O
– this section of text shows an opinion relevant to gamma-ray applications in
optics
H
– this section of text shows a hypothesis
E
– this section of text shows a piece of evidence
C
– this section of texts shows a claim based on evidence

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text.
Students follow along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of
the text independently. Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking - Record notes containing the most important information relevant to
the guiding question
Visual Hook: NBC Learn: Irradiated food: Is a Mango Exposed to Gamma Rays
Safe to Eat?
Directed Note-Taking: Gamma-Ray Bending Opens New Door for Optics
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text and video clip, should gamma-rays be used in
everyday applications?
ParaNote
Category
graph
Fact Opinio Hypoth Evid
Clai
#
n
esis
ence
m


Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes.
Teacher models note-taking using an example statement from the text, then
selecting the category or categories that support the statement. Students
complete note-taking collaboratively or independently.
Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to
consensus on which category is the most impactful according to the support from
the text.
First Draft Written Response to Essential Question
Using evidence, support a decision to the following question: should
gamma-rays be used in everyday applications?
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

Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative
partners, written conversations
* * * CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of
text, relating to a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then
students re-read the text to generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the
opportunity for them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen
their comprehension.
Reading #3
Questions Generation Gamma-Ray Bending Opens New Door for Optics
ParaQuestion
Category
graph
Fact Opinion Hypoth Evi
#
esis
den
Claim
ce



Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate
questions about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which
questions they have in common, and which questions are most relevant or
significant to their learning.
 record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o extended efferent text discussion
o students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of
the chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
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* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question, students discuss answers, and
review/revise answers to the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their
peers to:
 identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
According to the text and extended text discussion, should gamma-rays be used
in everyday applications?

The Final Written Response can be used as an assessment for student learning,
aligning to FCAT Item Specifications.
Division of Academics – Department of Science
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CIS: An Oil Filter for Water
From Society for Science
A new screen can separate oil and water after they’ve mingled
P1
P2
P3
There’s an old saying that oil and water don’t mix. But sometimes they do — especially
when a chemical called a surfactant brings the two together. Once blended, oil and
water become tough to pull apart. Unless, that is, you have a new type of sieve.
Researchers led by Anish Tuteja at the University of Michigan have created a new type
of filter that lets water pass through but leaves oil behind. The device could be used to
help clean water at treatment plants or mop up oil spills. It’s too soon, however, to know
if it will be useful for large disasters, notes Tuteja.
In August, Tuteja’s team reported that a test version of the new filter performed almost
perfectly in laboratory tests: It removed 99.9 percent of the oil from an oil-water mix.
P4
P5
P6
P7
P8
Materials scientists like Tuteja specialize in trying to build new materials with useful
properties. In the past, other scientists have built filters using a material that lets the oil
through but stops the water. Tuteja says those filters need lots of energy to work well.
They also quickly gum up with oil and must be cleaned.
Tuteja’s filter does the opposite: It allows water through but blocks the oil. And it doesn’t
rely on extra energy to move the mixture through the system. Only gravity, a force that
pulls objects toward the center of the Earth, tugs the liquids downward.
The scientists created the new device by dipping a base material — like a mesh or a net
— into two chemicals. One of those chemicals loves water; the other repels oil. When a
water-oil mixture now hits the filter, water — the heavier of the two liquids — gets pulled
through, but oil does not.
The scientists tested their device on mixtures containing water and different types of oil.
Each time, the water went through and the oil slid off the side into a different container.
“This is nice work,” Di Gao told Science News. He’s a chemical engineer at the
University of Pittsburgh who did not work on the new material. As he explains: “It’s not
too hard to make a surface that repels water but likes oil — but to do it the other way is
hard.”
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Title of Text/Article:
An Oil Filter for Water
NGSSS for Science
Comprehensive Science 3 (2002100)
Benchmarks:
Content Integration
SC.8.P.8.4 Classify and compare substances on the basis of characteristic physical
properties that can be demonstrated or measured; for example, density, thermal or
electrical conductivity, solubility, magnetic properties, melting and boiling points, and
know that these properties are independent of the amount of the sample. (Also assesses
SC.8.P.8.3.) AA
Also Assesses
SC.8.P.8.3 Explore and describe the densities of various materials through measurement
of their masses and volumes.
Comprehensive Science 3 (2002100)
The student will be able to
 Describe and/or explain the physical properties of a substance.
 Students will identify and/or explain the physical characteristics of a substance are
independent of the amount of the sample.
 Students will compare and/or contrast density, thermal or electrical conductivity,
solubility, magnetic properties, melting and boiling points.
CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies, Science,
and Technical
Subjects
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and
technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.
Mathematical
Practices
MAFS.K12.MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MAFS.K12.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MAFS.K12.MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MAFS.K12.MP.7: Look for and make use of structure.
MAFS.K12.MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Teacher Notes:

Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question Generation, etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question Generation).
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Matter’s Properties (Pearson Interactive Science)
P1
Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. A property is something about matter that
you can observe with one or more of your senses. Some examples of properties are shape, color,
weight, size, smell, and taste.
P2
There is a difference between an object’s properties and a material’s properties. For example, one
of the properties of a gold bar might be a rectangular shape. The bar has a certain size and mass. If
you cut the bar, some of its physical properties as an object will change.
P3
P4
P5
P6
P7
The properties of a material do not change. The gold bar can be bent, cut, or crushed, but the
properties of gold stay the same. The shape of the gold does not change its density. If you cut it into
little pieces, the pieces will still not be attracted to a magnet. Its color, hardness, and texture will not
change either. These are properties of the material gold, not those of the gold bar.
You can identify an element by its chemical and physical properties. Chemical properties tell how
one material changes into another material. Physical properties can be measured without changing
the material. Physical properties include the color, smell, texture, or hardness of an object, as well
as mass and volume. Each element has its own set of properties. When you measure an object’s
physical properties, you do not change the object. When you observe an object’s color, you have
done nothing to change it. You can use rulers, microscopes, and thermometers to observe, describe,
and measure physical properties. Scales and balances can also be used. More than 3/4 of elements
are metals. The physical properties of metals include the following. Metals are shiny and smooth.
They can be bent. Metals also conduct heat and electricity well.
Parts of Matter: An element is a basic building block of matter. There are more than one hundred
different elements. Elements join together to make up all other kinds of matter, and they cannot be
broken down into smaller pieces. Only a few elements are found in nature in their pure form. One
element found in its pure form is gold. Most of the matter around us is made up of combined
elements. For example, rust forms when iron combines with oxygen. Most living and nonliving things
are made up of just a few elements, and these elements are combined in many different ways.
All matter is made up of atoms. An atom is the smallest particle of matter that has the properties of
an element. Atoms are very small, and you cannot see them with your eyes or a regular
microscope. Scientists form images of them using special microscopes.
If you look at a photo in a magazine, the colors appear to be solid.
Now, look at the same picture under a microscope. All the many colors are made out of patterns of
tiny dots of only a few colors. The dots combine to make the colors in the picture. Different kinds of
matter are made up of combinations of atoms in the same way. Some types of matter have a set
ratio of elements. For example, a molecule of water (H2O) is always made up of 2 hydrogen atoms
and 1 oxygen atom.
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P8
Ideas About Matter: People have always wondered about their world. In ancient times, people
observed fire turn wood to ash. They watched gas and smoke rose from the fire. Gas in the air
turned to water and rain. Therefore, they concluded that earth, air, fire, and water were the four
elements that made up all matter. Today, scientists know there are more than 100 elements. Matter
can be made up of one element, two elements, or many kinds of elements. Living things are mostly
made up of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen.
P9
P 10
The periodic table is a chart that scientists use to organize all the elements. Each element has a
name and a symbol. Some people who have discovered elements have been allowed to suggest
names for them. Berkelium was named after the city of Berkeley, California. What do you think
californium is named after? Einsteinium is named after Albert Einstein. Seaborgium is named after
another scientist, Glenn Seaborg. What would you call an element named after you?
What Forms Does Matter Take? Water has three forms: solid, liquid, or gas. These three
forms are called phases, or states, of matter. The phase of any material is due to the motions and
arrangements of its particles. The phase that a material is in at room temperature is a physical
property.
P 11
P 12
P 13
The particles in a solid are very close together. They vibrate, or shake, in place because the forces
between the particles keep them from moving around. Solids have a shape and volume that does
not change.
As a solid warms up, it can melt and become a liquid. The particles can now move and slide past
each other. That is why liquids take the shape of any container they are placed in. Like solids,
liquids have a volume that does not change. The particles might move but they remain close
together.
Particles in a gas are farther apart than particles in solids or liquids. The particles don’t affect one
another unless they bump together. A gas does not have a definite shape or volume, so when a gas
is put in a container, its particles spread out evenly throughout the container.
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* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to students while students mark
text, students read the text and participate in directed note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading, model fluent reading,
provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the text, and think critically about information
in the text.
Visual Hook: An Oil Filter for Water By Stephen Ornes /September 13, 2012
(https://student.societyforscience.org/article/oil-filter-water) and Matter’s Properties by Pearson Interactive
Science, Florida
Hook Question: How can the physical properties of a substance help scientists
solve a real world problem?
Individual responses
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
What are some positive and negative consequences of using physical properties to solve a
real world problem?
Vocabulary Instruction
Paragraph #
Academic or Discipline Specific Vocabulary
Word Part
or Context
Division of Academics – Department of Science
Paragraph #
Academic or Discipline Specific Vocabulary
Word Part or
Context
32



Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root, suffix) and/or
context. Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing, graphic organizers, etc.
o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to word wall during
reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and subsequent lessons.
Reading #1
Text-marking
+
– this section of text shows a positive impact on society or the individual
_
– this section of text shows a negative impact on society or the individual
P
– this section of text shows a problem
S
– this section of text shows a solution

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text. Students follow along
and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of the text independently. Students share text
markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking - Record notes containing the most important information relevant to the guiding question
Visual Hook: Gloss Girls – PBS Kids DragonFlyTV
Directed Note-Taking
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text and video clip, What are some positive and negative
consequences of using physical properties of this filter to solve real world problems?
ParaNote
graph #
+ Impact
- Impact
Problem Solution
Society or
Individual
Division of Academics – Department of Science
Society or
Individual
33


Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes. Teacher models note-taking
using an example statement from the text, then selecting the category or categories that support the
statement. Students complete note-taking collaboratively or independently.
Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to consensus on which
category is the most impactful according to the support from the text.
First Draft Written Response to Essential Question
Using evidence from the text, why is it important to consider the positive and negative impacts on
society/individuals, when using physical properties to solve a real world problem?


Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative partners, written
conversations
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* * *CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of text, relating to a broad
perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then students re-read the text to generate their own
questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the opportunity for them to
interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen their comprehension.
Reading #3
Question Generation
Paragraph #



Question Generation: How using chemicals to solve a real world problem
Check relevant categories below
Questions
+ Impact
Society/
Individual
- Impact
Society/
Individual
Problem
Solution
Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate questions about
information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which questions they
have in common, and which questions are most relevant or significant to their learning.
 record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o extended efferent text discussion
o students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of the
chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question, students discuss answers, and review/revise answers to
the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
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Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their peers to:
 identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
According to the text and extended text discussion, which factor is most likely the primary concern for scientists
when using physical properties to solve real-world problems?
The Final Written Response will be used as an assessment for student learning.

The Final Written Response can be used as an assessment for student learning, aligning to FCAT Item
Specifications.
Division of Academics – Department of Science
36
CIS: Strontium: Breakthrough Against Osteoporosis
by Ward Dean, MD http://www.worldhealth.net/news/strontium_breakthrough_against_osteoporo/
1
2
3
Mention strontium to most people, and they will almost always think of strontium-90, a highly dangerous, radioactive
component of nuclear fallout produced during atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the 1950s. As a result of aboveground nuclear testing, radioactive strontium spread throughout the environment and contaminated dairy products and
other foods, and subsequently accumulated in the bones of both children and adults.
The media made us well aware that strontium-90 could cause our bones to become radioactive, causing cancer or some
other horrible disease as a result. So, in the minds of many, strontium is a poison to be avoided, just like other toxic
metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium and aluminum.
However, stable strontium - meaning nonradioactive - is nontoxic, even when administered in large doses for prolonged
periods. It also appears to be one of the most effective substances yet found for the prevention and treatment of
osteoporosis and other bone-related conditions. Furthermore, repeatedly administering stable strontium can even
gradually eliminate radioactive strontium from the body. The stable form slowly replaces the radioactive form in bone, and
radioactive strontium is excreted in the urine.
4
Strontium is element number 38 of the periodic table of elements. It was discovered in 1808 and was named after
Strontium, a town in Scotland. Strontium is one of the most abundant elements on earth, comprising about 0.04 percent
of the earth's crust. At a concentration of 400 parts per million, there is more strontium in the earth's crust than carbon.
Strontium is also the most abundant trace element in seawater, at a concentration of 8.1 parts per million. The human
body contains about 320 mg of strontium, nearly all of which is in bone and connective tissue.
5
Strontium is in row IIa of the periodic table, just below calcium. Like calcium, strontium has two positive charges in its ionic
form. Because of its chemical similarity to calcium, strontium can replace calcium to some extent in various biochemical
processes in the body, including replacing a small proportion of the calcium in calcified tissues such as bones and teeth.
Strontium in these tissues provides additional strength to these tissues. Strontium also appears to draw extra calcium into
bones. When rats or guinea pigs are fed increased amounts of strontium, their bones and teeth became thicker and
stronger.
6
Strontium has been safely used as a medicinal substance for more than a hundred years. It was first listed in the British
journal Pharma-copoiea in 1884. Subsequently, strontium was used therapeutically in the United States and Europe. For
decades in the first half of the twentieth century, strontium salts were administered in dosages of 200 to 400 mg/day
without toxic effects.
Strontium and Osteoporosis
7
Strontium tends to accumulate in bone - especially where active remodeling is taking place. In 1959, researchers at the
Mayo Clinic investigated the effect of strontium in 32 individuals suffering from osteoporosis. Each patient received 1.7
grams of strontium per day as strontium lactate. Eighty-four percent of the patients reported marked relief of bone pain,
and the remaining 16 percent experienced moderate improvement. No significant side effects were seen, even with
prolonged (up to three years) administration of strontium. X-rays taken at the beginning and end of the study showed
“probable” increased bone mass in 78 percent of the cases. This is not surprising, considering the symptomatic
improvement reported by the patients. Unfortunately, measurement of bone mass in 1959 was pretty crude, leading the
researchers to qualify their interpretation of the X-rays. Sophisticated tests such as CT scanning as used today were not
available at the time this study was conducted.
Division of Academics – Department of Science
37
8
Nevertheless, because of the “strontium scare” of the 1950s, little follow-up was conducted until nearly 30 years later. In
1986, scientists administered 0.27 percent strontium to mice in their drinking water. This resulted in an increased rate of
bone formation and decreased rate of bone resorption. In another study, rats given extra strontium showed increased
bone formation and greater bone density than rats fed a control diet. These reports suggested that the amount of
strontium we ingest may reduce our risk of developing osteoporosis, and that strontium may play a role in the prevention
of osteoporosis.
9
In 1985, Dr. Stanley C. Skoryna of McGill University in Montreal conducted a small-scale study that pointed to a potential
role for strontium in the treatment of humans. Three men and three women with osteoporosis were each given 600 to 700
mg/day of strontium in the form of strontium carbonate. Bone biopsies were taken in each patient from the hip bone,
before and after six months of treatment with strontium. Biopsy samples showed a 172 percent increase in the rate of
bone formation after strontium therapy, with no change in bone resorption. The patients receiving strontium remarked that
the pains in their bones had diminished and their ability to move around had improved.
10
Recently, interest in strontium has been rekindled by a number of studies using the strontium salt of ranelic acid
(strontium ranelate). A large multi-center trial known as the strontium ranelate (SR) for treatment of osteoporosis
(STRATOS) trial was designed to investigate the efficacy and safety of different doses of strontium in the treatment of
postmenopausal osteoporosis.
11
Another study included 353 osteoporotic women with at least one previous vertebral fracture and low bone density.
Patients received placebo or strontium in doses of 170, 340 or 680 mg/day for two years. The scientists evaluated
vertebral and hip bone mineral density (BMD) using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Vertebral BMD increased
in a dose-dependent manner.
12
Also, there was a significant reduction in the number of patients with new vertebral fractures in the second year of the
group receiving the 680 mg/day dose. In the 680 mg/day group, there was also a significant positive change in markers
of bone metabolism. The authors concluded that the 680 mg/day dose offered the best combination of efficacy and
safety, and stated without equivocation that strontium ranelate therapy increased vertebral BMD and reduced the
incidence of vertebral fractures.
13
A much larger trial by the same research team included 1,649 osteoporotic postmenopausal women. These subjects
received 2 g/day of strontium ranelate (providing 680 mg strontium) or placebo for three years. Calcium and vitamin D
supplements were also given to both groups before and during the study. In addition to suffering fewer fractures,
patients in the strontium group noted a risk reduction of 49 percent in the first year of treatment and 41 percent during
the three-year study period. Patients in the strontium group increased lumbar bone mineral density by an average of
14.4 percent and femoral neck BMD an average of 8.3 percent. The authors concluded that “treatment of postmenopausal
osteoporosis with strontium ranelate leads to early and sustained reductions in the risk of vertebral fractures.”
Strontium and Cavities
14
Strontium also has been shown to reduce the incidence of cavities. In a 10-year study, the United States Navy Dental
Service examined the teeth of about 270,000 naval recruits. Of those, only 360 were found to be completely free of
cavities. Curiously, 10 percent of those 360 individuals came from a small area around Rossburg, Ohio, where the
water contains unusually high concentrations of strontium. Epidemiologic studies have shown that strontium
concentrations of 6 to 10 mg/liter in the water supply are associated with a reduced incidence of cavities. Administering
these levels of strontium also reduced the incidence of cavities in animal studies.
Division of Academics – Department of Science
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Conclusion
15
16
Strontium in doses up to 1.7 g/day appears to offer a safe, effective and inexpensive approach to preventing and
reversing osteoporosis and may be of benefit in patients with osteoarthritis as well as possibly helping to prevent dental
cavities. Doses of 680 mg/day appear to be the optimum dose, although lower doses are clinically effective.
Dr. J.Y. Reginster (2002), one of the principal strontium researchers, cautions that co-administration of strontium with
calcium appears to impair strontium absorption, “so I recommend that strontium be taken on an empty stomach, and
that it especially not be taken with other multi-minerals that usually include calcium.” Although the more recent studies
used strontium ranelate, earlier studies used other salts of strontium, including strontium carbonate, strontium lactate,
and strontium gluconate. It appears that the active ingredient is strontium, and whatever salt of strontium used is less
important than the amount of strontium consumed.
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39
CIS: Elements and the Periodic Table
Benchmarks: Carefully select text that aligns with State Standards/Benchmarks
Title of Text/Article:
Strontium: Breakthrough Against Osteoporosis
NGSSS for
Science
Benchmarks:
Content
Integration
CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies, Science,
and Technical
Subjects
Mathematical
Practices
Comprehensive Science 3 (2002100)
SC.8.P.8.5 Recognize that there are a finite number of elements and that their atoms combine
in a multitude of ways to produce compounds that make up all of the living and nonliving things
that we encounter. AA
Also Assesses
SC.8.P.8.6 Recognize that elements are grouped in the periodic table according to similarities
of their properties.
Comprehensive Science 3 (2002100)
The student will be able to
 Describe how the periodic table is arranged as groups (columns) and periods (rows).
 Describe how atoms combine in a multitude of way to produce compounds that
make up all living and non-living things
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical
texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection,
and research.
MAFS.K12.MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MAFS.K12.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MAFS.K12.MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MAFS.K12.MP.7: Look for and make use of structure.
MAFS.K12.MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Teacher Notes:



Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question Generation, etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question Generation).
Preparations:
o Number paragraphs of selected text/article for ease of locating text evidence during discussions.
o Develop and display Final/Complex Text-Based Question at the beginning of the lesson to
communicate upfront for students the lesson’s final question and learning outcome.
o Text-marking: Develop and display a code system appropriate for the CIS text to use in text-marking.
Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding coding example(s) to model the text-marking
process for students.
o Directed Note-taking: Develop a graphic organizer with headings appropriate for the CIS text. Select a
small text segment and preplan corresponding note(s) to model the note-taking process.
o Question Generation: Select a small text segment and preplan a corresponding question(s) to model
the Question Generation process for students.
o Any audio visuals, specimens, and/or samples to enhance lesson.
Guidelines:
o Add additional efferent discussion sessions, as needed.
o The C.I.S. Model can last 3 days or longer. (Short texts can take less time; long texts, more time)
o Schedule a C.I.S .lesson periodically (approximately every 3-4 weeks).
Division of Academics – Department of Science
40
* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to students while
students mark text, students read the text and participate in directed note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading, model fluent
reading, provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the text, and think critically
about information in the text.
Hook Question: How can chemistry keep you healthy?
Individual responses in journals
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
How can an understanding of the periodic table help cure diseases?
Vocabulary Instruction
Paragraph
#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or
Context
2
Toxic
adj
3
cancer
noun



Paragraph
#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or Context
Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root, suffix) and/or
context. Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing, graphic
organizers, etc.
o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to word wall
during reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and subsequent lessons.
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Reading #1
Text-marking
C
– this section of text shows a characteristic of strontium
A
– this section of text shows an application of strontium
D
– this section of text shows a danger associated with strontium
B
– this section of text shows a benefit of using strontium

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text. Students follow
along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of the text independently.
Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking - Record notes containing the most important information relevant to the
guiding question
Visual Hook: Four days after the Chernobyl Accident, Experts Try to Assess Cause – NBC Learn
Directed Note Taking: Strontium: Breakthrough Against Osteoporosis
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text and video clip, What are some positive and
negative consequences of strontium to solve real world problems?
ParaNotes
Check relevant categories below
graph #
Characteristic
Application
Danger
Benefit


Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes. Teacher models
note-taking using an example statement from the text, then selecting the category or
categories that support the statement. Students complete note-taking collaboratively or
independently.
Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to consensus on
which category is the most impactful according to the support from the text.
First Draft Written Response to Essential Question: Using evidence from the text,
how can an understanding of the periodic table help cure diseases?


Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative partners, written
conversations
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* * * CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of text, relating to
a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then students re-read the text to
generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the opportunity for
them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen their comprehension.
Reading #3
Paragraph
#



Question Generation: Strontium: Breakthrough Against Osteoporosis
Check relevant categories below
Questions
Characteristic
Application
Danger
Benefit
Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate questions
about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which questions
they have in common, and which questions are most relevant or significant to their
learning.
 record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o extended efferent text discussion
o students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of the
chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
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* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
According to the text and extended text discussion, how can an understanding of the periodic
table help cure diseases?

The Final Written Response can be used as an assessment for student learning, aligning to
FCAT Item Specifications.
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44
CIS: Baseball: From Pitch to Hits
BY STEPHEN ORNES, AUGUST 21, 2013 From Society for Science
1
On June 12, the Kansas City Royals played at home against the Detroit Tigers. When Royals centerfielder Lorenzo Cain
stepped up to the plate at the bottom of the ninth, things looked grim. The Royals hadn’t scored a single run. The Tigers
had two. If Cain struck out, the game would be over. No player wants to lose — especially at home.
2
Cain got off to a rocky start with two strikes. On the mound, Tigers pitcher Jose Valverde wound up. He let fly a special
fastball: The pitch whizzed toward Cain at more than 90 miles (145 kilometers) per hour. Cain watched, swung and
CRACK! The ball flew up, up, up and away. In the stands at Kauffman Stadium, 24,564 fans watched anxiously, their
hopes rising with the ball as it climbed through the air.
3
4
5
The cheering fans weren’t the only ones watching. Radar or cameras track the path of virtually every baseball in major
league stadiums. Computer programs can use those tools to generate data about the ball’s position and speed. Scientists
also keep a close eye on the ball and study it with all those data. Some do it because they love baseball. Other
researchers may be more fascinated by the science behind the game. They study how all of its fast-moving parts fit
together. Physics is the science of studying energy and objects in motion. And with plenty of fast-swinging bats and flying
balls, baseball is a constant display of physics in action.
Scientists feed game-related data into specialized computer programs — like the one called PITCH f/x, which analyzes
pitches — to determine the speed, spin and path taken by the ball during each pitch. They can compare Valverde’s
special pitch to those thrown by other pitchers — or even by Valverde himself, in previous games. The experts also can
analyze Cain’s swing to see what he did to make the ball sail so high and far.
“When the ball leaves the bat with a certain speed and at a certain angle, what determines how far it will travel?” asks
Alan Nathan. “We’re trying to make sense of the data,” explains this physicist at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign.
6
7
8
9
10
When Cain swung his bat that night, he connected with Valverde’s pitch. He successfully transferred energy from his
body to his bat and from the bat to the ball. Fans may have understood those connections. More importantly, they saw
that Cain had given the Royals a chance to win the game.
Physicists study the science of a moving baseball using natural laws that have been known for hundreds of years. These
laws aren’t regulations enforced by the science police. Instead, natural laws are descriptions of the way nature behaves,
both invariably and predictably. In the 17th century, physics pioneer Isaac Newton first put into writing a famous law
that describes an object in motion.
Newton’s First Law states that a moving object will keep moving in the same direction unless some outside force acts
upon it. It also says that an object at rest won’t move without the prodding of some outside force. That means a baseball
will stay put, unless a force — like a pitch — propels it. And once a baseball is moving, it will keep moving at the same
speed until a force — such as friction, gravity or the swat of a bat — affects it.
Newton’s First Law gets complicated quickly when you’re talking about baseball. The force of gravity constantly pulls
down on the ball. (Gravity also causes the arc traced by a ball on its way out of a ballpark.) And as soon as the pitcher
releases the ball, it starts to slow due to a force called drag. This is friction caused by air pushing against the baseball in
motion. Drag shows up any time an object — whether a baseball or a ship — moves through a fluid, such as air or
water.
“A ball that arrives at home plate at 85 miles per hour may have left the pitcher’s hand 10 miles per hour higher,” says
Nathan. Drag slows a pitched ball. That drag depends on the shape of the ball itself. The 108 red stitches roughen a
baseball’s surface. This roughness may change how much a ball will be slowed by drag.
Division of Academics – Department of Science
45
11
12
In the Royals game against the Tigers, Detroit pitcher Valverde threw a splitter, the nickname for a split-finger fastball,
against Cain. The pitcher throws this by placing the index and middle fingers on different sides of the ball. This special
kind of fastball sends the ball zipping quickly toward the batter, but then causes the ball to appear to drop as it nears
home plate. Valverde is known for using this pitch to close down a game. This time, the baseball didn’t drop enough to
fool Cain.
“It didn’t split too good and the kid hit it out of the park,” observed Jim Leyland, the Tigers manager, during a press
conference after the game. The ball soared over the players on its way out of the field. Cain had hit a home run. He
scored, and so did another Royals player already on base. With the score tied, 2-2, the game headed into extra innings.
The smash
13
Success or failure, for a batter, comes down to something that happens in a split-second: The collision between a bat
and the ball.
14
“A batter is trying to get the head of the bat in the right place at the right time, and with as high a bat speed as
possible,” explains Nathan. “What happens to the ball is mainly determined by how fast the bat is moving at the time
of collision.” At that moment, energy becomes the name of the game.
15
In physics, something has energy if it can do work. Both the moving ball and the swinging bat contribute energy to the
collision. These two pieces are moving in different directions when they collide. As the bat smacks into it, the ball first
has to come to a complete stop and then start moving again in the opposite direction, back toward the pitcher. Nathan
has researched where all that energy goes. Some gets transferred from the bat to the ball, he says, to send it back where
it came from. But even more energy goes into bringing the ball to a dead stop.
16
“The ball ends up kind of squishing,” he says. Some of the energy that squeezes the ball becomes heat. “If your body is
sensitive enough to feel it, you could actually feel the ball heat up after you hit it.”
17
Physicists know that the energy before the collision is the same as the energy afterward. Energy cannot be created or
destroyed. Some will go into the ball. Some will slow the bat. Some will be lost to the air, as heat.
18
Scientists study another quantity in these collisions. Called momentum, it describes a moving object in terms of its
speed, mass (the amount of stuff in it) and direction. A moving ball has momentum. So does a swinging bat. And
according to another natural law, the sum of the momentum of both has to be the same before and after the collision.
So a slow pitch and a slow swing combine to produce a ball that doesn’t go far.
19
For a batter, there’s another way to understand the conservation of momentum: The faster the pitch and the faster the
swing, the farther the ball will fly. A faster pitch is harder to hit than a slower one, but a batter who can do it may score
a home run.
Baseball tech
20
21
23
Baseball science is all about performance. And it starts before the players step onto the diamond. Many scientists study
the physics of baseball to build, test and improve equipment. Washington State University, in Pullman, has a Sports
Science Laboratory. Its researchers use a cannon to fire baseballs at bats in a box outfitted with devices that then
measure the speed and direction of each ball. The devices also measure the motion of the bats.
The cannon “projects perfect knuckleballs against the bat,” says mechanical engineer Jeff Kensrud. He manages the
laboratory. “We’re looking for perfect collisions, with the ball going straight in and going straight back.” Those perfect
collisions allow researchers to compare how different bats react to the pitched balls.
Kensrud says they’re also looking for ways to make baseball a safer sport. The pitcher, in particular, occupies a dangerous
place on the field. A batted ball can rocket right back toward the pitcher’s mound, traveling just as fast or faster than
Division of Academics – Department of Science
46
the pitch. Kensrud says his research team looks for ways to help the pitcher, by analyzing how long it takes for a pitcher to
react to an incoming ball. The team is also studying new chest or face protectors that might lessen the blow of an
incoming ball.
Beyond physics
24
25
The 10th inning of the Tigers-Royals game went unlike the previous nine. The Tigers didn’t score again, but the
Royals did. They won the game 3-2. As the happy Royals fans headed home, the stadium went dark. Though the game
might have ended, information from it will continue to be analyzed by scientists — and not just physicists.
Some researchers study the hundreds of numbers, such as the tallies of hits, outs, runs or wins that every game
generates. These data, called statistics, can show patterns that otherwise would be hard to see. Baseball is full of
statistics, such as data on which players are hitting better than they used to, and which aren’t. In a December 2012
paper published in the research journal PLOS ONE, researchers found that players perform better when they’re on a
team with a slugger who is on a hitting streak. Other researchers may compare statistics from different years to look for
longer-term patterns, such as whether baseball players overall are getting better or worse at hitting.
26
As for Cain, the Royals centerfielder, by halfway through the season he had hit only one more home run since that June
12 game against the Tigers. Still, statistics show Cain had by then improved his overall batting average to .259, after a
slump earlier in the season.
27
That is just one way the scientific study of baseball continues to improve the game, for both its players and its fans.
Batter up!
Division of Academics – Department of Science
47
CIS: Force and Motion
Benchmarks: Carefully select text that aligns with State Standards/Benchmarks
Title
Text/Article:
NGSSS for
Science
Benchmarks:
of
Content
Integration
CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies, Science,
and Technical
Subjects
Baseball: From Pitch to Hits
Comprehensive Science 1 (200207001)
SC.6.P.13.1: Investigate and describe types of forces including contact forces and
forces acting at a distance, such) as electrical, magnetic, and gravitational
(AA)
SC.6.P.13.3 Investigate and describe that an unbalanced force acting on an object
changes its speed, or direction of motion, or both.
Comprehensive Science 1 (200207001)
The student will be able to:
 Identify and describe steps of the rock cycle and relate them to surface and sub-surface
events.
 Classify the movement of plates by identifying the events/feature that are caused by
them
 Describe the scientific theory of plate tectonics and how the movement of Earth’s crustal
plates and flow of heat and material cause various geologic events to occur
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and
technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.
Teacher Notes:
 Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question
Generation, etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question
Generation).
 Preparations:
o Number paragraphs of selected text/article for ease of locating text evidence during
discussions.
o Develop and display Final/Complex Text-Based Question at the beginning of the lesson to
communicate upfront for students the lesson’s final question and learning outcome.
o Text-marking: Develop and display a code system appropriate for the CIS text to use in textmarking. Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding coding example(s) to model
the text-marking process for students.
o Any audio visuals, specimens, and/or samples to enhance lesson.
 Guidelines:
o Add additional efferent discussion sessions, as needed.
o The C.I.S. Model can last 3 days or longer. (Short texts can take less time; long texts, more
time)
o Schedule a C.I.S .lesson periodically (approximately every 3-4 weeks).
Division of Academics – Department of Science
48
* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to students while
students mark text, students read the text and participate in directed note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading, model fluent
reading, provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the text, and think critically
about information in the text.
Hook Question: How do forces affect a baseball? (See image)
Individual responses in journal
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
How are physics and sports related?
Vocabulary Instruction
Para
grap
h#
3
4



Academic or Discipline
Specific Vocabulary
Pitch
Energy
Word Par
Part or
aConte gra
xt
ph #
noun
noun
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word
Part or
Conte
xt
Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root, suffix) and/or
context. Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing, graphic
organizers, etc.
o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to word wall
during reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and subsequent lessons.
Division of Academics – Department of Science
49
Reading #1
Text-marking
F
– this section of text shows a fact based on evidence
O
– this section of text shows an opinion based on someone’s thoughts
C
– this section of text shows a force that causes a change in motion
E
– this section of text shows a change in motion caused by a force

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text. Students follow
along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of the text independently.
Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking Record notes containing the most important information relevant to the
guiding question
Visual Hook: Discovery, “Physics of Baseball”
Directed Note Taking: Baseball: From Pitch to Hits
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text and video clip, how do forces play a role in
the game of baseball?
Paragraph #
+ Fact
- Opinion
Force
Change
based on
evidence


based on
thoughts
in
Motion
Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes. Teacher models
note-taking using an example statement from the text, then selecting the category or
categories that support the statement. Students complete note-taking collaboratively or
independently.
Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to consensus on
which category is the most impactful according to the support from the text.
First Draft Written Response to Essential Question: Using evidence from the text, video
clip, and class discussion, what forces are important for a baseball player to consider?


Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative partners, written
conversations
Division of Academics – Department of Science
50
* * * CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of text, relating to
a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then students re-read the text to
generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the opportunity for
them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen their comprehension.
Reading #3
Paragraph #



Question Generation: Baseball: From Pitch to Hits
Check relevant categories below
Questions
+ Fact
based on
evidence
- Opinion
based on
thoughts
Force
Change
in
Motion
Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate questions
about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which questions
they have in common, and which questions are most relevant or significant to their
learning.
 record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o extended efferent text discussion
o students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of the
chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
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* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question, students discuss answers, and review/revise
answers to the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their peers to:
 identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question: According to the text and
extended text discussion, which force is most important for a baseball player to
consider?
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CIS: Do Earthquakes Deposit Gold? New Study Shows That Fault Lines May Be
Linked To the Precious Metal
The tyrannosaur of the minerals, this gold nugget in quartz weighs more than 70 ounces (2 kilograms).
From Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer:
Earthquakes have the Midas touch, a new study claims.
P1
Water in faults vaporizes during an earthquake, depositing gold, according to a model published in the
March 17 issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. The model provides a quantitative mechanism for the link
between gold and quartz seen in many of the world's gold deposits, said Dion Weatherley, a geophysicist at the
University of Queensland in Australia and lead author of the study.
P2
When an earthquake strikes, it moves along a rupture in the ground — a fracture called a fault. Big
faults can have many small fractures along their length, connected by jogs that appear as rectangular voids.
Water often lubricates faults, filling in fractures and jogs.
P3
About 6 miles (10 kilometers) below the surface, under incredible temperatures and pressures, the water
carries high concentrations of carbon dioxide, silica and economically attractive elements like gold.
Shake, rattle and gold
P4
During an earthquake, the fault jog suddenly opens wider. It's like pulling the lid off a pressure cooker:
The water inside the void instantly vaporizes, flashing to steam and forcing silica, which forms the mineral
quartz, and gold out of the fluids and onto nearby surfaces, suggest Weatherley and co-author Richard Henley,
of the Australian National University in Canberra.
P5
While scientists have long suspected that sudden pressure drops could account for the link between giant
gold deposits and ancient faults, the study takes this idea to the extreme, said Jamie Wilkinson, a geochemist at
Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the study.
P6
"To me, it seems pretty plausible. It's something that people would probably want to model either
experimentally or numerically in a bit more detail to see if it would actually work," Wilkinson told
OurAmazingPlanet.
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P7
Previously, scientists suspected fluids would effervesce, bubbling like an opened soda bottle, during
earthquakes or other pressure changes. This would line underground pockets with gold -. Others suggested
minerals would simply accumulate slowly over time.
P8
Weatherley said the amount of gold left behind after an earthquake is tiny, because underground fluids
carry at most only one part per million of the precious element. But an earthquake zone like New Zealand's
Alpine Fault, one of the world's fastest, could build a mineable deposit in 100,000 years, he said.
P9
Surprisingly, the quartz doesn't even have time to crystallize, the study indicates +. Instead, the mineral
comes out of the fluid in the form of nanoparticles, perhaps even making a gel-like substance on the fracture
walls. The quartz nanoparticles then crystallize over time.
P10
Even earthquakes smaller than magnitude 4.0, which may rattle nerves but rarely cause damage, can
trigger flash vaporization, the study finds.
P11 "Given that small-magnitude earthquakes are exceptionally frequent in fault systems, this process may
be the primary driver for the formation of economic gold deposits O," Weatherley told OurAmazingPlanet.
The hills have gold
P12 Quartz-linked gold has sourced some famous deposits, such as the placer gold that sparked the 19thcentury California and Klondike gold rushes. Both deposits had eroded from quartz veins upstream. Placer
gold consists of particles, flakes and nuggets mixed in with sand and gravel in stream and river beds.
Prospectors traced the gravels back to their sources, where hard-rock mining continues today.
P13 But earthquakes aren't the only cataclysmic source of gold. Volcanoes and their underground plumbing
are just as prolific, if not more so, at producing the precious metal. While Weatherley and Henley suggest that a
similar process could take place under volcanoes, Wilkinson, who studies volcano-linked gold, said that's not
the case.
P14 "Beneath volcanoes, most of the gold is not precipitated in faults that are active during earthquakes,"
Wilkinson said. "It's a very different mechanism."
P15 Understanding how gold forms helps companies prospect for new mines. "This new knowledge on golddeposit formation mechanisms may assist future gold exploration efforts," Weatherley said.
P16 In their quest for gold, humans have pulled more than 188,000 tons (171,000 metric tons) of the metal
from the ground, exhausting easily accessed sources, according to the World Gold Council, an industry group.
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CIS: Rock Cycle and Earth Processes
Benchmarks: Carefully select text that aligns with State Standards/Benchmarks
Title
Text/Article:
NGSSS for
Science
Benchmarks:
of
Content
Integration
CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies, Science,
and Technical
Subjects
Do Earthquakes Deposit Gold? New Study Shows That Fault Lines May Be
Linked To the Precious Metal
Comprehensive Science 2 (200207001)
SC.7.E.6.2 Identify the patterns within the rock cycle and relate them to surface events
(weathering and erosion) and sub-surface events (plate tectonics and mountain
building). (AA)
SC.7.P.11.4 Observe that heat flows in predictable ways, moving from warmer objects
to cooler ones until they reach the same temperature. (AA)
Comprehensive Science 2 (200207001)
The student will be able to:
 Identify and describe steps of the rock cycle and relate them to surface and sub-surface
events.
 Classify the movement of plates by identifying the events/feature that are caused by
them
 Describe the scientific theory of plate tectonics and how the movement of Earth’s crustal
plates and flow of heat and material cause various geologic events to occur
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and
technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.
Teacher Notes:
 Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question
Generation, etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question
Generation).
 Preparations:
o Number paragraphs of selected text/article for ease of locating text evidence during
discussions.
o Develop and display Final/Complex Text-Based Question at the beginning of the lesson to
communicate upfront for students the lesson’s final question and learning outcome.
o Text-marking: Develop and display a code system appropriate for the CIS text to use in textmarking. Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding coding example(s) to model
the text-marking process for students.
o Any audio visuals, specimens, and/or samples to enhance lesson.
 Guidelines:
o Add additional efferent discussion sessions, as needed.
o The C.I.S. Model can last 3 days or longer. (Short texts can take less time; long texts, more
time)
o Schedule a C.I.S .lesson periodically (approximately every 3-4 weeks).
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* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to students while
students mark text, students read the text and participate in directed note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading, model fluent
reading, provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the text, and think critically
about information in the text.
Hook Question: How can earthquakes affect our economy?
Individual responses in your journal
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question: What is important to consider
about the processes and outcomes of earthquakes?
Vocabulary Instruction
Academic or Discipline
Specific Vocabulary
1
vaporizes- To convert into a
gas
quantitative-of, relating to
measurement
1
2
Fracture- a crack or a fault in a
rock



Word Par
Part or
aAcademic or Discipline Specific
Conte gra
Vocabulary
xt
ph #
context
Word
Part or
Contex
t
context
context
Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root, suffix) and/or
context. Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing, graphic
organizers, etc.
o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to word wall
during reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and subsequent lessons.
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Reading #1
Text-marking
+
– this section of text shows a fact based on evidence
– this section of text shows an opinion based on someone’s thoughts
P
– this section of text shows a process of the earthquake
O
– this section of text shows an outcome of the earthquake processes

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text. Students
follow along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of the text
independently. Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note Taking: Do Earthquakes Deposit Gold? New Study Shows That
Fault Lines May Be Linked To the Precious Metal
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text and video clip, what is important to consider
about the processes and outcomes of earthquakes?
ParaNOTES
Check relevant categories below
graph
+ Fact
-Opinion
Proces Outco
#
based on based on s
me
evidence
1
Water in faults vaporizes during an earthquake,
depositing gold.
3
Water carries high concentrations of carbon dioxide,
4
silica and economically attractive elements, like gold.
The steam from the earthquake forces gold out onto
the surface.
thoughts
X
X
X
X
X
X
x
X

Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes. Teacher models
note-taking using an example statement from the text, then selecting the category or
categories that support the statement. Students complete note-taking collaboratively or
independently.
 Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to consensus on
which category is the most impactful according to the support from the text.
First Draft Written Response to Essential Question: Using evidence from the text, what is
important to consider about the processes and outcomes of earthquakes?


Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative partners, written
conversations
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* * * CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of text, relating to
a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then students re-read the text to
generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the opportunity for
them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen their comprehension.
Reading #3
Question Generation: How do earthquakes impact gold exploration?
Paragraph
#
11
Questions
+ Fact
based
on
evidence
Can more gold be retrieved from earthquakes with
higher magnitudes?
How should gold explorers pursue gold more safely?
Can gold be found as a result of other geologic
processes?
11
13



Check relevant categories below
X
X
-Opinion
based on
thoughts
Pro
ces
s
X
X
Outco
me
X
X
Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate questions
about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which questions
they have in common, and which questions are most relevant or significant to their
learning.
 record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o extended efferent text discussion
o students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of the
chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
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* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question; students discuss answers, and review/revise
answers to the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their peers to:
 identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
According to the text and extended text discussion, which factor, most likely, is the primary
issue when considering the impact of earthquakes on our economy?
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CIS: Life beneath the ‘berg
P1
Society for Science
Scientists find Antarctic icebergs play a new and bigger role in the climate cycle
Icebergs are famous for keeping secrets: The bulk of these giant, icy islands floats beneath the surface of the
sea. A 700-foot-tall iceberg, for example, may extend only 100 feet above water. But as new research shows,
ice isn’t the only thing icebergs hide. Scientists recently found that free-floating icebergs around Antarctica
deposit iron in the water. This iron acts like a vitamin, boosting the growth of tiny plants and algae nearby.
P2
P3
Those growing plants and algae are at the bottom of the food chain, which means they’re gobbled up by
slightly bigger critters, like krill and zooplankton. And those organisms, in turn, get consumed by bigger
organisms, such as fish and birds. The iron deposits are fueling whole communities of life around the
icebergs.
There’s another change happening around those icebergs. Those plants and algae consume carbon in the water
that had been absorbed from the atmosphere. So by eating carbon in the sea, these organisms can help remove
some carbon from the air. And that could be a good thing, reducing the rate of global warming and climate
change.
P4
Until the new studies, “we didn’t know the nature of the biological communities associated with icebergs, and
we certainly didn’t know their direct relationship to carbon exports,” Timothy Shaw told Science News.
Shaw, who worked on the new research, is a chemist at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
P5
“The amount of carbon being [removed] near icebergs is twice as high as in areas away from them,”
Ken Smith told Science News.
P6
Smith is a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, Calif. In 2008
and 2009, he and other scientists collected data on the Antarctic icebergs, the life around them and the
removal of carbon.
P7
As people burn fossil fuels like coal and oil to produce electricity and keep cars running, the process adds
carbon dioxide to the air. This form of carbon is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the Earth’s atmosphere.
We need this heat to stay alive. But the atmosphere has been warming, and too much of an increase alters
climate. To understand what’s fueling global warming, scientists study how carbon moves from land to sea to
air. Smith now says icebergs are part of that process.
P8
“Icebergs should be considered by climate modelers, because the more icebergs that develop [from the
breakup of glaciers], the more carbon dioxide you’ll draw out of the atmosphere,” Smith said. And that
drawdown could help limit the risk of excessive global warming.
Division of Academics – Department of Science
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P9
P 10
Icebergs are usually seen as warning signs of our warming planet. As the temperature increases, more
icebergs break off Antarctic ice shelves and float free. As a result, the ice shelves are getting smaller, ocean
temperatures are increasing, and sea level is expected to rise. This could be bad news for life in the ocean,
which makes it bad news for everyone.
But just as there’s more beneath the surface of an iceberg, it turns out these giant ice cubes play a new and
bigger role in climate than scientists originally thought.
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CIS: Cycles of Matter
Benchmarks: Carefully select text that aligns with State Standards/Benchmarks
Title of
Text/Article:
NGSSS for
Science
Benchmarks:
Content
Integration
CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies,
Science, and
Technical
Subjects
Mathematical
Practices
Life Beneath the ‘berg
Comprehensive Science 3 (2002100)
SC.8.L.18.3 Construct a scientific model of the carbon cycle to show how matter and energy are
continuously transferred within and between organisms and their physical environment. Assessed as
SC.8.L.18.4
SC.8.L.18.4 Cite evidence that living systems follow the Laws of Conservation of Mass and Energy.
AA
SC.6.E.7.5 Explain how energy provided by the sun influences global patterns of atmospheric
movement and the temperature differences between air, water, and land. AA
Comprehensive Science 3 (2002100)
The student will be able to
 Describe and/or explain how matter and energy are continuously transferred within and between
organisms and their physical environment.
 Students will identify and/or explain how living systems follow the Laws of Conservation of Mass
and Energy.
 Students will identify and/or explain how energy provided by the sun influences global patterns
of atmospheric movement and the temperature differences between air, water, and land.
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts,
attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and
research.
MAFS.K12.MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MAFS.K12.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MAFS.K12.MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MAFS.K12.MP.7: Look for and make use of structure.
MAFS.K12.MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Teacher Notes:
 Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question Generation, etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question Generation).
 Preparations:
o Number paragraphs of selected text/article for ease of locating text evidence during discussions.
o Develop and display Final/Complex Text-Based Question at the beginning of the lesson to
communicate upfront for students the lesson’s final question and learning outcome.
o Text-marking: Develop and display a code system appropriate for the CIS text to use in text-marking.
Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding coding example(s) to model the text-marking
process for students.
o Directed Note-taking: Develop a graphic organizer with headings appropriate for the CIS text. Select a
small text segment and preplan corresponding note(s) to model the note-taking process.
o Question Generation: Select a small text segment and preplan a corresponding question(s) to model
the Question Generation process for students.
o Any audio visuals, specimens, and/or samples to enhance lesson.
 Guidelines:
o The C.I.S. Model can last 3 days or longer. (Short texts can take less time; long texts, more time)
o Schedule a C.I.S .lesson periodically (approximately once a grading period).
Division of Academics – Department of Science
62
* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to students while
students mark text, students read the text and participate in directed note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading, model fluent
reading, provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the text, and think critically
about information in the text.
Visual Hook: Life Beneath the ‘berg By Stephen Ornes /June 1, 2011
Hook Question: How can icebergs help with global warming?
Individual responses in journals or discussion
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question: What are some
ways that living organisms affect their environment? Provide examples.
Vocabulary Instruction
Paragraph
#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or
Context
3
Food chain
context
4
Cycle
context



Paragraph
#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or Context
Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root, suffix) and/or
context. Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing, graphic
organizers, etc.
o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to word wall
during reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and subsequent lessons.
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Reading #1
Text-marking
C
– this section of text shows a cause
E
– this section of text shows an effect

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text. Students follow
along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of the text independently.
Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking - Record notes containing the most important information relevant to the
guiding question
Visual Hook: Global Warming: Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect – PBS Learning
Directed Note Taking: Life Beneath the ‘berg
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text and video clip, why is it important to
consider the cause and effects on society/individuals, when evaluating the roles of the
environment and organisms in the climate cycle?
Paragraph #


Note
Cause
Effect
Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes. Teacher models
note-taking using an example statement from the text, then selecting the category or
categories that support the statement. Students complete note-taking collaboratively or
independently.
Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to consensus on
which category is the most impactful according to the support from the text.
First Draft Written Response to Essential Question: Using evidence from the text and
video clip, why is it important to consider the cause and effects on society/individuals, when
evaluating the roles of the environment and organisms in the “climate cycle”?


Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative partners, written
conversations
Division of Academics – Department of Science
64
* * *CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of text, relating to
a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then students re-read the text to
generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the opportunity for
them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen their comprehension.
Reading #3
Question Generation: How can icebergs can further help with climate change
Paragraph
#



Questions
Check relevant categories below
Cause
Effect
Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate questions
about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which questions
they have in common, and which questions are most relevant or significant to their
learning.
 record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o extended efferent text discussion
o students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of the
chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
Division of Academics – Department of Science
65
* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question; students discuss answers, and review/revise
answers to the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their peers to:
 identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question: According to the text and extended
text discussion, which factor is most likely the primary concern for scientists when
considering climate change?

The Final Written Response can be used as an assessment for student learning, aligning to FCAT
Item Specifications.
Division of Academics – Department of Science
66
CIS: Zombie Cells
By David Freeman/ February 21, 2013 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com)
P1
P2
P3
P4
P5
P6
P7
Think the only zombies out there are the ones you see in science fiction movies? Think
again.
Researchers in New Mexico say they've created zombie cells -- near-perfect replicas of
mammalian cells that can perform many of the same functions despite the fact that they're
not actually alive. But instead of pursuing and eating people as sci-fi zombies often do,
these experimental cells may someday do our bidding -- finding use in commercial
applications ranging from sensors to catalysts to fuel cells.
Not quite sure you understand? Think of the cells as a possible next step in
nanotechnology, in which scientists create machines not from big hunks of metal but from
individual atoms and molecules.
"It's very challenging for researchers to build structures at the nanometer scale," lead
researcher Dr. Bryan Kaehr, a materials scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in
Albuquerque, said in a written statement. "We can make particles and wires, but 3-D
arbitrary structures haven't been achieved yet. With this technique, we don't need to build
those structures -- nature does it for us."
The technique involves first depositing silica -- the stuff sand is made of -- onto the tiny
structures inside living cells. Then the cells are heated to burn away the proteins they're
made of, leaving behind the nonliving but structurally similar zombies.
And like the lumbering zombies dreamed up by Hollywood screenwriters, these cellular
zombies are very hard to get rid of.
Dr. Jeffrey Brinker, a University of New Mexico professor and another member of the
research team, said in the statement that the zombie cells exist in a "robust, threedimensionally stable form that resists shrinkage even upon heating to over 500 degrees
Centigrade [932 degrees Fahrenheit]. The refractoriness of these delicate structures is
amazing."
P8
Let's just hope these zombies don't swell up, sprout legs, and start following us around.
Division of Academics – Department of Science
67
CIS: Structure and Function of Cells
Benchmarks: Carefully select text that aligns with State Standards/Benchmarks
Title
Text/Article:
of
NGSSS for
Science
Benchmarks:
“Zombie” Cells Created in New Mexico Lab Said to Outperform Living Ones in
Some Ways.
Comprehensive Science 1
SC.6.L.14.4 Compare and contrast the structure and function of major organelles of
plant and animal cells, including cell wall, cell membrane, nucleus, cytoplasm,
chloroplasts, mitochondria, and vacuoles. AA (Cognitive Complexity: Moderate)
Content
Integration
Comprehensive Science 1
The student will be able to
 Analyze and identify the role of the cell membrane and nucleus.
 Explain the importance of cellular respiration.
 Recognize the basic structures that most cells have.
CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies, Science,
and Technical
Subjects
Mathematical
Practices
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical
texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection,
and research.
MAFS.K12.MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MAFS.K12.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MAFS.K12.MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MAFS.K12.MP.7: Look for and make use of structure.
MAFS.K12.MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Teacher Notes:



Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question Generation, etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question Generation).
Preparations:
o Number paragraphs of selected text/article for ease of locating text evidence during discussions.
o Develop and display Final/Complex Text-Based Question at the beginning of the lesson to communicate
upfront for students the lesson’s final question and learning outcome.
o Text-marking: Develop and display a code system appropriate for the CIS text to use in text-marking.
Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding coding example(s) to model the text-marking
process for students.
o Directed Note-taking: Develop a graphic organizer with headings appropriate for the CIS text. Select a
small text segment and preplan corresponding note(s) to model the note-taking process.
o Question Generation: Select a small text segment and preplan a corresponding question(s) to model the
Question Generation process for students.
o Any audio visuals, specimens, and/or samples to enhance lesson.
Guidelines:
o Add additional efferent discussion sessions, as needed.
o The C.I.S. Model can last 3 days or longer. (Short texts can take less time; long texts, more time)
o Schedule a C.I.S .lesson periodically (approximately every 3-4 weeks).
Division of Academics – Department of Science
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* * * CIS
Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to students
while students mark text, students read the text and participate in directed note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading, model
fluent reading, provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the text, and think
critically about information in the text.
Visual Hook: Show image of Zombie cell, not video, at “Zombie” Cells Created in new Mexico
Lab Said to Outperform Living Ones in some ways By David Freeman/ February 21, 2013
Hook Question: How can “Zombie” cells affect society?
Individual responses in journal and for discussion
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question: What are some positive
and negative consequences of using “Zombie” cell technology?
Vocabulary Instruction
Paragraph
#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or Context
2
Replicas: Copies. To replicate
is to copy.
2
Bidding: Work.
Word
Part
Context
3
Nanotechnology: Using
technology to make things on a
small scale
Word
part &
Context



Paragrap
h#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or Context
Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root, suffix)
and/or context. Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing, graphic
organizers, etc.
o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to word wall
during reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and subsequent lessons.
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Reading #1
Text-marking
+
– This section of text shows a positive impact of Nano technology on society or the
individual
_
– This section of text shows a negative impact of Nano technology on society or the
individual
P
– This section of text shows a problem
S
– this section of text shows a solution

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text. Students
follow along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of the text
independently. Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking - Record notes containing the most important information relevant to the
guiding question
Visual Hook: Show video for “Zombie” Cells Created in New Mexico Lab Said to Outperform
Living Ones in Some Ways. – Huffington Post Video
Directed Note-Taking: “Zombie” Cells Created in New Mexico Lab Said to Outperform Living
Ones in Some Ways
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text and video clip, why is it important to
consider positive and negative impacts on society and/or individuals, when using Nano
technology on cells?
ParaPara-graph #
Paragraph
graph #
+ Impact
- Impact
Proble Solutio
#
Society or
Individual
2
4
6
Video


“…these experimental cells may someday do our
bidding.”
It's very challenging for researchers to build
structures at the nanometer scale.
“…these cellular zombies are very hard to get rid
of.”
Nano cells may take the shape of a red blood cell
to assist in the medical field.
Society
or
Individual
m
n
X
X
X
X
X
X
Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes. Teacher
models note-taking using an example statement from the text, then selecting the category
or categories that support the statement. Students complete note-taking collaboratively
or independently.
Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to consensus
on which category is the most impactful according to the support from the text.
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First Draft Written Response to Essential Question
Using evidence from the text and video, why is it important to consider
positive and negative impacts on society and/or individuals, when using
Nano cell technology?


Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative partners,
written conversations
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* * * CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of text,
relating to a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then students reread the text to generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the opportunity
for them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen their comprehension.
Reading #3
Question Generation: “Zombie” Cells Created in New Mexico Lab Said to Outperform Living
Ones in Some Ways
Check relevant categories below
ParaQuestions
+ Impact
Society/
graph
#
Individual
2
What other possibilities can these cells offer
society?
Video
Can these cells replicate out of control?



- Impact
Society/
Individu
al
Proble
m
X
Solutio
n
X
X
X
Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate
questions about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 Share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which
questions they have in common, and which questions are most relevant or
significant to their learning.
 Record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o Extended efferent text discussion
o Students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of
the chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
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* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question; students discuss answers, and
review/revise answers to the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their peers to:
 Identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 Facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
According to the text, video and extended text discussion, which factor is most likely the
primary concern for scientists when conducting Nano Cell Technology such as the
creation of zombie cells?

The Final Written Response can be used as an assessment for student learning, aligning
to FCAT Item Specifications.
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Sunday, Sep. 24, 2006
CIS: What's Killing the Sea Otters
By Dan Cray
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Los Angeles They're cute, furry, and when they're not chasing each other around kelp forests,
they're floating on their backs like miniature teddy bears. Hunted nearly to extinction for their
luxuriant fur--the thickest of any mammal's--the sea otters of California were making a comeback
until they started mysteriously dying off. State wildlife officials recovered a record 281 dead otters
last year, and this year looks to be even worse. Five or six wash up on California's beaches and rocks
each week. In August alone, 28 dead otters were cast ashore, including an alarming number of fullgrown females. "When we start losing breeding females," says veterinarian Mike Murray at the
Monterey Bay Aquarium, "that's not a healthy population."
What's killing the sea otters? Sometimes the cause is clear: a shark bite, a bullet, an outboard
motor. But about one-quarter of last year's fatalities have been traced to a pair of protozoan
parasites, Toxoplasma gondii and Sarcocystis neurona, that are known to breed in cats and
opossums. Could sea otters be dying because California cat owners are flushing used litter down the
toilet?
State legislators were sufficiently convinced of the threat to pass a bill--signed into law last week
by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger--that raises the maximum fine for harming a sea otter to
$25,000 and requires that all cat litter sold in California carry a warning label advising cat owners
not to dump their pet's droppings into toilets or storm drains.
But cat litter is only a small part of the problem. Thorny-headed worms dropped into the ocean by
seabirds are known to be killing otters, as are toxic algae blooms triggered by urea, a key
ingredient in fertilizer. And sea otters, because they feed on shellfish that tend to accumulate
whatever floats their way, are particularly susceptible to PCBS and other man-made pollutants.
Sea otters are not the only species harmed by ocean pollution, of course, but they are easier than
most to study. They sit at the top of a food chain that may extend less than half a mile from shore.
"The sea otter is the canary in the coal mine for the coastal ecosystem," says Monterey's Murray.
Right now, Murray contends, that mine is looking pretty dark. While the state's otter population is
holding steady at nearly 2,700, projections show that number should already have reached at least
13,000. The next step, say scientists, is to pinpoint--then shut down--the sources of runoff that are
pouring toxins into the otters' playgrounds.
In this effort, the charismatic sea otter may be its own best friend. Marine mammal experts aren't
always as sentimental about the sharp-toothed creatures as the public is--one expert referred to
otters eating shellfish on their tummies as "buzz saws in a fur coat"--but no one doubts the value
of the "aww" factor. "When you've been bitten by one, you don't think they're so cute," says
Michelle Staedler, the Monterey Aquarium's sea otter research coordinator, "but then you look,
and they're a big ball of fluff." [This article contains a complex diagram. Please see hardcopy or pdf.]
Hunted Nearly To Extinction Russia's Peter the Great declared a monopoly on sable in 1697 and
sent hunters to find sea routes to America. When Vitus Bering's expedition was shipwrecked in 1741,
his crew killed sea otters instead. They returned with 900 luxuriant pelts, setting off the Great Hunt.
When the otters were depleted, Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. SEA OTTER FUR Built for warmth 1
million hairs per sq. in. Guard Hair Underfur Trapped Air HUMAN SCALP 150,000 hairs total
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Before 1741, there were as many as 300,000 sea otters on the Pacific Coast. By 1900 only a few
colonies remained
Historic range
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Remnant colonies Now New Threats Emerge Industrial chemicals, algae blooms and other toxins
linked to coastal pollution are among the sea otter s new enemies. The threat from feline-borne
toxoplasmosis, a common danger to pregnant women, helped trigger California's new law
1 Cat eats rodent or bird infected with Toxoplasma gondii parasite
2 Parasite develops in cat's gut and its eggs are released in scat
3 Eggs travel through runoff or are flushed into sewers
4 Eggs end up in the ocean and are ingested by mussels, clams and oysters
5 Otter eats shellfish; eggs infect the otter's brain and organs and kill it
Sources: Sea Otter Alliance; David Jessup, California Department of Fish and Game
Find this article at: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1538645,00.html
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CIS: What’s Killing the Sea Otters
What’s Killing the Sea Otters
Title of
Text/Article:
NGSSS for Science
Benchmarks:
Content
Integration
Comprehensive Science 2
SC.7.L.17.1 Explain and illustrate the roles of and relationships among producers, consumers,
and decomposers in the process of energy transfer in a food web.
SC.7.L.17.2 Compare and contrast the relationships among organisms, such as mutualism,
predation, parasitism, competition, and commensalism.
SC.7.L.17.3 Describe and investigate various limiting factors in the local ecosystem and their
impact on native populations, including food, shelter, water, space, disease, parasitism,
predation, and nesting sites.
Comprehensive Science 2
The student will be able to


CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies, Science,
and Technical
Subjects
Mathematical
Practices
Analyze food webs to determine the roles, relationships, and transfer of energy among organisms
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical
texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection,
and research.
MAFS.K12.MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MAFS.K12.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MAFS.K12.MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MAFS.K12.MP.7: Look for and make use of structure.
MAFS.K12.MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Teacher Notes:


Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question Generation,
etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question
Generation).
Preparations:
o Text-marking: Develop and display a code system appropriate for the CIS text to use in textmarking. Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding coding example(s) to model
the text-marking process for students.
.
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* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Hook Question: Have humans caused disruptions in the food chain or food
webs in the environment?
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
Do all human activities cause damage to the environment? Describes your reasons for
your answer and examples?
Vocabulary Instruction
Paragraph #
2
2
4

Academic or Discipline Specific Vocabulary
protozoan
parasites
Algal blooms
Word Part
or Context
Paragraph #
Academic or Discipline Specific Vocabulary
Word Part
or Context
context
context
context
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Reading #1
Text-marking
Students will mark the text using a teacher created coding system to categorize important parts
of the article.
 Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text. Students
follow along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of the text
independently. Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking - Record notes containing the most important information relevant to the
guiding question
Visual Hook: http://www.marinemammal.org/newsletters/sept-2014-field/ Display of
sample pathways for pathogens such as the one infecting the sea otters to be
transmitted.
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text, why is it important to consider different possible causes of
impacts on the environment before agreeing on a solution? Refer to the discussion on legislation as well as
the possible acts of humans that caused the problems in the first place.
ParaParaParagraph #
graph #
graph #
+ Impact
Society or
Individual
- Impact
Society or
Individual
Ethical
issues
New
discovery
First Draft Written Response to Essential Question
Using evidence from the text, why is it important to consider different possible causes of impacts on
the environment before agreeing on a solution? Refer to the discussion on legislation as well as the
possible acts of humans that caused the problems in the first place.
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* * * CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of text,
relating to a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then students reread the text to generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the opportunity
for them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen their comprehension.
Reading #3
Question Generation
Question Generation: What’s Killing the Sea Otters?
ParaQuestions
graph #



Check relevant categories below
+ Impact
Society
- Impact
Society
Ethical
issues
New
discovery
Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate
questions about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 Share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which
questions they have in common, and which questions are most relevant or
significant to their learning.
 Record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o Extended text discussion
o seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of the
chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
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* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question; students discuss answers, and
review/revise answers to the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their peers to:
 Identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 Facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
According to the text and extended text discussion, which factor is most likely the primary concern
when conducting scientific research to find solutions to different environmental issues?
The Final Written Response will be used as an assessment for student learning.
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CIS: Scientific American - Blindsight: Animals That See without Eyes
By Ferris Jabr
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Light bathes our planet, splashing off the mountaintops, flooding the deserts, tundra, savanna and forests, and
seeping as deep as 1,000 meters into the ocean. Bacteria, plants, animals and all kinds of living things have
evolved different ways to detect and respond to light. Despite their familiarity and prevalence, eyes are not
essential.
Biologists have known for several decades that some eyeless animals perceive light. Likewise, some animals with
eyes—even rather sophisticated eyes—rely on other body parts to see. Exactly how organisms sense light without
eyes has, in many cases, remained mysterious. In recent years, with the help of new tools like genome
sequencing, scientists have discovered light-sensitive cells and proteins in unexpected places, and have
established that creatures once thought to be blind can in fact see. Light-reactive proteins cover the ends of a sea
urchin's feet, for example, possibly turning the spiky animal's whole body into a compound eye. Similarly, tiny
jellyfish-like hydras can sense light with their stinging tentacles. And although nematodes live in darkness
underground, some of their neurons respond to light, helping them wriggle away from danger.
These new insights are changing how biologists understand the evolution and function of vision. Two important
questions are when light-sensitive proteins first evolved and in what ways animals originally used these proteins.
Another question is whether complex eyes evolved many times in different groups of animals or if later
generations inherited and tinkered with a single primitive eye archetype. Although biologists do not yet have
definitive answers to these inquiries, it's already clear that vision and light-detection are older, more diverse and
more widespread than researchers previously realized. Here are six striking examples of animals that have
surprised researchers with eyeless sight.
SEA URCHINS: Sea urchins respond to light in various ways: they might change color, twitch their spines or move
toward or away from light. Scientists have known as much for a long time, but they were never certain how
urchins detect light, because no known species has eyes of any kind. Their best guess was that the net of nerves
enveloping an urchin's body included some diffuse light-sensitive tissue. The remarkable truth is that sea urchins
have a much more organized visual system than anyone expected.
When researchers sequenced the genome of the purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus), they were
surprised to discover a number of genes important for the development of the vertebrate retina—the thin sheet
of light-sensitive tissue that lines the back of our eyes. Maria Arnone of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in
Italy and her colleagues revealed that the ends of an urchin's tubular feet are pockmarked with opsins, the same
light-sensitive proteins our own eyes depend on. When certain wavelengths of light hit an opsin protein, it
changes shape, triggering a chemical cascade that opens tiny gates in cell walls called ion channels. Depending on
the animal, this sequence of molecular events results in a reflexive behavior—like moving toward or away from
light—or informs the nervous system about some aspect of vision. A sea urchin's hundreds of feet may act as one
giant compound eye, allowing them to see just as well as a horseshoe crab or nautilus, both of which have
genuine, if primitive, eyes.
HYDRAS: Hydras, tiny relatives of jellyfish, look like dandelion seeds: they have thin tubular bodies crowned with
slender tentacles. They usually cling to weeds, stinging and eating even tinier aquatic invertebrates that swim by,
such as water fleas (daphnia). Like sea urchins, hydras also respond to light even though they lack eyes. When
scientists sequenced the genome of Hydra magnipapillata, they found plenty of opsin genes.
Recently, scientists confirmed that hydras have opsins in their tentacles, specifically in their stinging cells, known
as cnidocytes. David Plachetzki of the University of California, Davis, and his colleagues showed that hydras
respond not only to touch and chemicals, but also to changes in the light in their immediate environment. Hydras
sting with greater force in dim light than in bright light, perhaps because they have evolved to recognize shadows
as signs of prey or predators—the more they fire in the presence of a shadow, the likelier they are to hit their
targets.
Hydras belong to one of the oldest groups of animals on the planet, the Cnidarians. Although hydras do not have
Division of Academics – Department of Science
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eyes, other members of their family have simple eyes called ocelli. Box jellyfish have remarkably sophisticated
eyes with lenses and retinas. The fact that hydras, which evolved much earlier than most Cnidarians, can detect
light with their tentacles suggests that the origins of vision stretch further back in time than anyone realized.
Later, jellyfish and other animals may have modified these existing, primitive visual systems to form more
complex eyes.
SQUIDS, CUTTLEFISHES AND OCTOPUSES: Octopuses have large eyes and humongous occipital lobes—the parts
of the brain that process vision. These wily, squishy marine masters of disguise can match the texture, color and
patterns of almost anything in their environment. But they cannot see color—at least not with their eyes. The
P9 octopus eye is technically color-blind. So is the eye of the cuttlefish, a related mollusk.
P10
Roger Hanlon of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and his colleagues recently discovered
that cuttlefishes actively express opsin genes throughout their skin, particularly in their fins and underbellies. And
Desmond Ramirez of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has detected opsin genes in octopus skin.
Octopus, squid and cuttlefish skin is also peppered with chromatophores—elastic sacks of pigment that expand
and retract, allowing the mollusk to change its color. Other cells called iridophores and leucophores make the
skin more or less reflective. Hanlon and his colleagues propose that opsins work with chromatophores,
iridophores and leucophores in an unknown way to detect and mimic the color of nearby objects.
C. ELEGANS: Caenorhabditis elegans—tiny worm-like nematodes—live in complete darkness in the soil, so
scientists assumed they could not perceive or respond to light. When X. Z. Shawn Xu of the University of Michigan
and his colleagues shined beams of bright light at the nematodes' heads, however, they stopped inching forward
P11
and reversed direction. When the researchers flashed light at the tail or body of a nematode moving in reverse,
the creature began wriggling forward instead. By annihilating various neurons in the nematodes' heads with a
laser, Xu and his colleagues identified four cells without which C. elegans cannot perceive light. The researchers
propose that avoiding light is an adaptation that helps nematodes stay in the soil, out of which they will not
survive long (unless scientists keep them alive in the lab).
In later work, Xu and his team showed that the light-sensitive neurons in nematodes do not depend on opsins.
Rather, they use LITE-1, a protein that functions as a taste receptor in invertebrates. A separate team of scientists
discovered that neurons in fruit fly larvae detect light with a protein highly related to LITE-1. Like nematodes, it's
P12 advantageous for fly larvae to remain in the shadows, unexposed to harsh light and predators.
P13
SCORPIONS: Scorpions instinctively avoid light. During the day, the eight-legged arachnids seek shelter beneath
rocks, in underground crevices or in people's boots. At night they emerge to hunt small insects. Scorpions detect
light, and may even perceive images, with two main eyes atop their heads as well as up to five pairs of nearby
smaller eyes. Recently, scientists investigated whether scorpions can detect light with their skin as well. The
answer is a preliminary yes.
Most scorpion species have a dark, waxy exoskeleton that looks like black or amber armor in daylight. If certain
wavelengths of ultraviolet light strike a scorpion, however, it glows an eerie neon turquoise because of
fluorescent molecules in its cuticle. Biologists have speculated that this fluorescence might help scorpions lure
prey or warn predators to stay away; alternatively, the sheen might be an inevitable physical property of scorpion
P14
skin that offers no adaptive benefit.
Douglas Gaffin of the University of Oklahoma exposed 40 scorpions from Texas to both green light and UV light.
Half the time the animals wore tiny aluminum foil eye patches; the other half their eyes were unobstructed. The
scorpions were much less active under green light when their eyes were covered compared with when they were
P15 unmasked, but they were similarly active under UV light regardless of whether their eyes were exposed. One
interpretation of this pattern is that scorpions change their behavior in response to UV light even when they
cannot see with their eyes because their skin detects UV on its own. Another possibility is that scorpions
somehow perceive the green light from their armor's turquoise fluorescence. Using its entire body to sense light,
rather than its eyes alone, might improve a scorpion's chances of finding shelter during the day.
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CIS: Evolution and Adaptation
Benchmarks: Carefully select text that aligns with State Standards/Benchmarks
Title of
Text/Article:
NGSSS for Science
Benchmarks:
Blindsight: Animals That See without Eyes, By Ferris Jabr
CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies, Science,
and Technical
Subjects
Mathematical
Practices
LAFS.68.RST.4.10 By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend science/technical texts in
the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
SC.7.L.15.1 Recognize that fossil evidence is consistent with the scientific theory of
evolution that living things evolved from earlier species. Assessed as SC.7.L.15.2
(Cognitive Complexity: Level 2: Basic Application of Skills & Concepts)
SC.7.L.15.2 Explore the scientific theory of evolution by recognizing and explaining
ways in which genetic variation and environmental factors contribute to evolution by
natural selection and diversity of organisms. AA (Cognitive Complexity: Level 3:
Strategic Thinking & Complex Reasoning)
SC.7.L.15.3 Explore the scientific theory of evolution by relating how the inability of
a species to adapt within a changing environment may contribute to the extinction
of that species. Assessed as SC.7.L.15.2 (Cognitive Complexity: Level 3: Strategic
Thinking & Complex Reasoning)
MAFS.K12.MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MAFS.K12.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MAFS.K12.MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MAFS.K12.MP.4: Model with mathematics.
MAFS.K12.MP.5: Use appropriate tools strategically.
MAFS.K12.MP.6: Attend to precision.
MAFS.K12.MP.7: Look for and make use of structure.
MAFS.K12.MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Teacher Notes:



Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question Generation, etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question Generation).
Preparations:
o Number paragraphs of selected text/article for ease of locating text evidence during discussions.
o Develop and display Final/Complex Text-Based Question at the beginning of the lesson to
communicate upfront for students the lesson’s final question and learning outcome.
o Text-marking: Develop and display a code system appropriate for the CIS text to use in text-marking.
Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding coding example(s) to model the text-marking
process for students.
o Directed Note-taking: Develop a graphic organizer with headings appropriate for the CIS text. Select a
small text segment and preplan corresponding note(s) to model the note-taking process.
o Question Generation: Select a small text segment and preplan a corresponding question(s) to model
the Question Generation process for students.
o Any audio visuals, specimens, and/or samples to enhance lesson.
Guidelines:
o Add additional efferent discussion sessions, as needed.
o The C.I.S. Model can last 3 days or longer. (Short texts can take less time; long texts, more time)
o Schedule a C.I.S .lesson periodically (approximately every 3-4 weeks).
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* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to students while
students mark text, students read the text and participate in directed note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading, model fluent
reading, provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the text, and think critically
about information in the text.
Visual Hook: Jabr, Ferris. (August 2012). Blindsight: Animals That See without Eyes. Retrieved from
Scientific American
Hook Question: What are adaptations and why are they important to
an organism?
Allow for individual responses in journal and discussion
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question: Predict the adaptations that
scorpions, jellyfish, urchins, and octopuses possess that allow them to sense light and/or see.
Vocabulary Instruction
Para
Academic or Discipline
grap
Specific Vocabulary
h#
2
Nemat/ode
Nemat = Thread
Ode = Like
2
Compound Eye – “…turning the
spiky animal's whole body into
a compound eye.”
3
Arche/type
Arche = prior, original, first
Type = Type



Word Par
Part or
aAcademic or Discipline Specific
Conte gra
Vocabulary
xt
ph #
Word
10
Chromato/phore, Iridi/phores,
Part
Leuco/phores
Chromato = Color
Irid = iris = of the eye
Contex
Leuco = leuk = white
t
Phore = bearer of
Word
12
Advantageous – “…it's
Part
advantageous for fly larvae to
remain in the shadows…”
Word
Part or
Conte
xt
Word
part
Contex
t
Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root, suffix) and/or
context. Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing, graphic
organizers, etc.
o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to word wall
during reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and subsequent lessons.
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Reading #1
Text-marking
B – this section of text shows the benefit of an adaptation
H – this section of text shows an adaptation that is harmful
N – this section of text shows an adaptation that is neutral (no harm or benefit)

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text. Students follow
along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of the text independently.
Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking - Record notes containing the most important information relevant to the
guiding question
Directed Note Taking: Blindsight: Animals That See without Eyes
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the article, write down information about the
adaptations and how they have allowed certain animals to survive.
ParaNOTES
Check relevant categories below
graph
Benefit
Harmful
Neutral
#


Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes. Teacher models
note-taking using an example statement from the text, then selecting the category or
categories that support the statement. Students complete note-taking collaboratively or
independently.
Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to consensus on
which category is the most impactful according to the support from the text.
First Draft Written Response to Essential Question: According to the text, describe some of
the adaptations that may have led to the evolution of compound eyes and sight.


Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative partners, written
conversations
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* * * CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of text, relating to
a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then students re-read the text to
generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the opportunity for
them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen their comprehension.
Reading #3
Paragraph
#



Question Generation: Blindsight: Animals That See without Eyes
Check relevant categories below
Questions
Benefit
Harmful
Neutral
Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate questions
about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which questions
they have in common, and which questions are most relevant or significant to their
learning.
 record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o extended efferent text discussion
o students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of the
chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
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* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question, students discuss answers, and review/revise
answers to the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their peers to:
 identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
According to the text and extended text discussion, which factor is most likely the primary
cause for sight adaptations?

The Final Written Response can be used as an assessment for student learning, aligning to
FCAT Item Specifications.
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CIS: Wrong-way planets do gymnastics
By Stephen Ornes / April 28, 2010
P1
Cartwheels aren't just f or gymnasts anymore — a gang of distant, unusual planets, a team of astronomers say,
may have done giant, deep-space cartwheels to get into place. And those cartwheels are making scientists think
again about what they know about planet formation.
P2
These planets are unusual because they orbit, or move around their stars, backward. In the solar system, all eight
major planets (sorry, Pluto!) move around the sun in the same direction: counter-clockwise when looking down on
the sun's north pole. The sun, too, is spinning in that direction.
P3
Scientists believe that all the planets in the solar system were formed from the same giant disk of debris —
mainly gas and dust — that was slowly moving around the sun billions of years ago. Since the debris was
moving, the planets, including Earth that formed also moved in the same direction as the debris.
This image is from a video that illustrates a planet in retrograde orbit: The star is spinning to the right and the
planet is rotating to the left. See the European Southern Observatory's video.
P4
In addition, the paths of all the planets should be in the same plane. Imagine a giant, flat piece of paper that
cuts through the middle of the sun and extends to the end of the solar system. If all the planets orbit in the
same plane, then all their orbits will be on that piece of paper.
P5
That's the way it works in the solar system, so astronomers have wondered whether planetary systems around
other stars work in the same way.
P6
Last summer, astronomers found six planets moving around their host stars in the opposite direction. This finding
suggests that scientists may have to think again about how planets form. All six of these planets are "hot Jupiters."
Hot Jupiters are giant — as big as or bigger than Jupiter — and orbit so close to their host stars that they're blazing
hot.
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P7
P8
P9
P 10
P 11
P 12
P 13
P 14
Illustrated here are a few planets that orbit their stars in the wrong direction. The lower right image shows a planet
orbiting in the same direction its parent star rotates.
These six aren't the only problematic planets. Some other recently discovered planets orbit in the forward
direction around their host stars, but their orbital planes tilt at various angles.
At a recent meeting of astronomers in Glasgow, Scotland, Andrew Collier Cameron proposed an explanation f
or these wrong-way and tilted planets.
Cameron, an astronomer at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, suggested that a much larger object —
another star, or a giant planet, perhaps — may have come along. Gravity is a force that comes with mass, so
planets or stars with more mass have more gravity, and thus a stronger pull on other objects. Large objects
have strong gravitational forces, and these strong forces may have affected the way the planets move around
their stars. Astronomers believe these forces can be so strong that they cause the planet's orbit to f lip like a
jump rope over the star.
This effect, called the Kozai mechanism, may explain how a hot Jupiter ends up orbiting backward around its
star. It may also explain how the other planets ended up with tilted orbits.
Cameron says the wrong-way planets match up with the change his team would have expected from the Kozai
mechanism. "That looks very much like what we're now observing," Cameron says. "It looks almost too good to be
true."
Other scientists say it's too early to say f or certain whether the Kozai mechanism is responsible f or the
planets' behavior. "Their data isn't that definitive to eliminate any other possibilities," Adam Burrows told
Science News. Burrows is a scientist at Princeton University.
Astronomers have identified more than 400 exoplanets, and most of them are gas giants, like the hot Jupiters.
(Exoplanet is short f or "extra-solar planet," which is a planet outside the solar system.) Astronomers would like to
find a small, rocky planet not too far from or too close to its star — one that looks a lot like Earth. These types of
planets are most likely to host life as we know it, so if we find an Earthlike planet, we may find life somewhere
else in the universe.
Then again, we may not. If Cameron is right, then hot Jupiters on strange orbits may f ling rocky debris — debris
that would have made a small planet — out of the system. So in a way, more hot Jupiters may mean fewer
Earthlike planets. More studies are needed to know for sure why some planets run backward around their host
stars.
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Benchmarks: Carefully select text that aligns with State Standards/Benchmarks
Title of
Text/Article:
NGSSS for Science
Benchmarks:
Content
Integration
CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies, Science,
and Technical
Subjects
Mathematical
Practices
Wrong-way Planets Do Gymnastics
Comprehensive Science 3 (2002100)
SC.8.E.5.7 Compare and contrast the properties of objects in the Solar System
including the Sun, planets, and moons to those of Earth, such as gravitational force,
distance from the Sun, speed, movement, temperature, and atmospheric conditions.
AA (Cognitive Complexity: Moderate)
Comprehensive Science 3 (2002100)
The student will be able to
 Compare and/or contrast how the Sun, planets, and moons to those of Earth are
alike and different
 Compare and/or contrast gravitational force, distance from the Sun, speed,
movement, temperature, and atmospheric conditions.
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and
technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.
MAFS.K12.MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MAFS.K12.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MAFS.K12.MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MAFS.K12.MP.7: Look for and make use of structure.
MAFS.K12.MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Teacher Notes:



Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question Generation, etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question Generation).
Preparations:
o Number paragraphs of selected text/article for ease of locating text evidence during discussions.
o Develop and display Final/Complex Text-Based Question at the beginning of the lesson to
communicate upfront for students the lesson’s final question and learning outcome.
o Text-marking: Develop and display a code system appropriate for the CIS text to use in text-marking.
Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding coding example(s) to model the text-marking
process for students.
o Directed Note-taking: Develop a graphic organizer with headings appropriate for the CIS text. Select a
small text segment and preplan corresponding note(s) to model the note-taking process.
o Question Generation: Select a small text segment and preplan a corresponding question(s) to model
the Question Generation process for students.
o Any audio visuals, specimens, and/or samples to enhance lesson.
Guidelines:
o Add additional efferent discussion sessions, as needed.
o The C.I.S. Model can last 3 days or longer. (Short texts can take less time; long texts, more time)
o Schedule a C.I.S .lesson periodically (approximately every 3-4 weeks).
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* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to students while
students mark text, students read the text and participate in directed note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading, model fluent
reading, provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the text, and think critically
about information in the text.
Visual Hook: Wrong-way Planets Do Gymnastics By Stephen Ornes /April 28, 2010
(http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/?s=wrong-way+planets+do+gymnastics) and The Earth, Moon,
and Gravity by Pearson Interactive Science, Florida
Hook Question: How do scientists discover new planets outside of
our solar system (exoplanets)?
Individual responses
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
How are these exoplanets similar and different to the planets in our solar system?
Vocabulary Instruction
Paragraph
#



Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or
Context
Paragraph
#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or Context
Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root, suffix) and/or context.
Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing, graphic organizers, etc.
o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to word wall during
reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and subsequent lessons.
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Reading #1
Text-marking
S
– this section of text shows a similarity
D
– this section of text shows a difference

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text. Students follow
along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of the text independently.
Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking - Record notes containing the most important information relevant to the guiding
question
Visual Hook: Exoplanets – PBS Learning
Directed Note-Taking
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text and video clip, how are these newly
discovered exoplanets similar and different to the planets in our Solar system?
ParaNote
graph
Similarity
Difference
#


Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes. Teacher models
note-taking using an example statement from the text, then selecting the category or
categories that support the statement. Students complete note-taking collaboratively or
independently.
Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to consensus on
which category is the most impactful according to the support from the text.
First Draft Written Response to Essential Question
Using evidence from the text and video, how are these newly discovered exoplanets similar
and different to the planets in our Solar system?


Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative partners, written
conversations
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* * * CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of text, relating to
a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then students re-read the text to
generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the opportunity for
them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen their comprehension.
Reading #3
Question Generation: How will new technology help with future discoveries
Check relevant categories below
ParaQuestions
graph
Similarity
Difference
#



Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate questions
about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which questions
they have in common, and which questions are most relevant or significant to their
learning.
 record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o extended efferent text discussion
o students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of the
chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
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* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question, students discuss answers, and review/revise
answers to the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their peers to:
 identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
According to the text and extended text discussion, which factors affect the type of planets in
the different solar systems and how they behave?
The Final Written Response will be used as an assessment for student learning.

The Final Written Response can be used as an assessment for student learning, aligning to
FCAT Item Specifications.
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CIS: Animal CSI or from Science Lab to Crime Lab
Scientists are finding new ways to help stop poachers from hunting
endangered animals.
By Emily Sohn [1], March 26, 2008
Robbery, vandalism, murder: Crimes happen every day. But people aren't the only victims of illegal activity.
Bad guys can also target animals. And since animals can't tell police officers what they've seen, these are some
of the toughest cases to solve.
P1
Particularly challenging are the crimes that involve poaching—taking animals from the wild that are protected P2
by law. Poachers can make a lot of money selling meat, tusks, fur, fins, and other parts of protected animals.
Poaching can devastate even large wildlife populations if too many animals are taken in any year or from any
area. The problem becomes even more serious when a species is endangered. Then, losing even a few animals
can make it harder for the species to survive.
What's really bad is that poaching creates an unfortunate cycle: As the animals become more rare, their parts
P3
become more valuable. So, poachers earn even greater rewards for their collection of protected species. Now,
scientists are helping fight back. Using the genetic material DNA, they are finding ways to clinch hard-to-solve
cases involving a wide range of creatures, from elephants to seahorses.
P4
If you've ever read a legal thriller or watched shows on TV such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, you know
that DNA plays a big part in solving human crimes. The molecule appears in every cell. Like fingerprints, DNA
is unique to every person. So, by analyzing DNA in blood, saliva, or hair left behind at the scene of a crime,
detectives can identify criminals and victims.
P5
When authorities find poached animal parts, they aren't usually interested in identifying individual creatures.
Instead, they want to know what species the parts belong to. That may not be obvious if all you have is a bit of
meat, bone, or perhaps a fish fin. DNA can also prove helpful in figuring out where an animal came from.
That's because members of one local group of animals tend to share more DNA in common with each other than
they do with more distant groups of their species. Based on concepts such as these, scientists are developing
new tests to untangle complicated webs of animal-related crime.
Tusk trackers
Elephants have been particularly devastated by poachers in recent decades. Between 1979 and 1987, poachers
killed hundreds of thousands of wild elephants in Africa and Asia. This poaching reduced the animals' numbers
by more than half, says Samuel Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of
Washington, Seattle.
P6
P7
The motivation? Ivory. Elephant tusks are made of the hard, white material, which has long been used in
jewelry and art, among other applications. Poaching slowed down after an international ban on the ivory trade
was passed in 1989. For a variety of reasons, however, the practice started creeping up again a few years later.
By 2005, Wasser says, "the illegal ivory trade had come back with a vengeance."
Even though it's against the law to buy newly harvested ivory, people prize it so much that some are willing to P8
buy it illegally. Such sales are said to be on the "black market." In the past few years, the black-market price of
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95
ivory has quadrupled to about $850 per kilogram (2.2 pounds). A tusk can weigh 11 kg (24 pounds) or more.
Tens of thousands of elephants are dying each year as a result. There are fewer than 500,000 elephants living in
the wild today. Elephant poaching is hard to squelch because hunters often work in remote areas. Middlemen
gather tusks from a variety of places. And well-hidden shipments follow complicated routes to destinations far
from where they started. A single shipment can contain hundreds of tusks, thousands of pounds, and many
millions of dollars’ worth of ivory. Authorities intercept just 10 percent of these shipments, Wasser estimates.
But even when officials retrieve the ivory, they usually don't know where it came from.
To answer this question, Wasser has been looking for clues in elephant DNA. First, he collected elephant dung
from 28 regions in 16 countries throughout Africa. He analyzed DNA in the dung samples. Then, he used the
results to start mapping connections between an elephant's DNA and its home range. Finally, he used statistics
to fill in the blanks.
P9
"I've been working for 8 years on building this map," Wasser says. "It has taken a while, but we've done it."
P10
But poachers trade tusks, not poop. And getting the genetic material out of ivory is more difficult. That's
because the outside of a tusk is made of dead cells, while the DNA is in living cells on the inside of the tusk.
But smashing or drilling into the tusk destroys the DNA. To overcome this problem, Wasser developed a way to
extract DNA from ivory under supercold conditions. With liquid nitrogen, he was able to freeze the material.
Then, he used a magnet and alternating magnetic fields to grind up the sample without destroying the DNA.
Using the technique, Wasser helped trace the origins of one of the largest ivory seizures ever made. The
P11
shipment, which contained 13,000 pounds (5,900 kilograms) of ivory, was seized in Singapore in 2002.
Wasser's analysis showed that nearly all the seized ivory had come from a small region in Zambia. It was an
important discovery because wildlife officials originally thought the shipment's contents had come from many
different places. Findings like these are helping authorities narrow the hunt for elephant hunters.
"DNA can really help us stop the [ivory] trade at its source," Wasser says. "For the first time, we don't just have
information about shipping and receiving, but about where the ivory comes from. This has completely changed
the way law enforcement thinks about how to deal with these cases."
P12
Something's fishy
P13
Authorities are also getting better at nabbing shark poachers, thanks to Mahmood Shivji, a conservation
geneticist at a shark conservation consortium at Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center in Dania
Beach, Fla. Trained as both an oceanographer and geneticist, Shivji is now a DNA detective of the sea.
There are more than 400 species of sharks in the world's oceans, Shivji says. Fishermen kill about 50 of those
fish species for their fins, which people eat. The fins of some species are especially valuable. Sometimes sharks
are also killed for their meat. As a result of hunting pressures, shark numbers have dropped 70 percent in the
past 2 decades. Many populations are now threatened and a few are even endangered.
P14
It is legal to fish for most sharks, especially if the fish will be sold for meat. However, most sharks are killed for P15
their fins—not meat. Fishers haul in the animals, slice off their fins and then throw the rest of the still living
shark back in the water to slowly die.
It's gruesome. It's also a tremendous waste of majestic animals that help keep ocean ecosystems healthy. That's
Division of Academics – Department of Science
96P16
why it is now illegal to kill a shark in the United States—unless the entire animal is kept for sale. Any ship
containing fins without the rest of the animal is automatically guilty of shark "finning", an illegal activity
(poaching).
P17
To protect sharks from poachers, Shivji says, authorities must first figure out which species are being hit
hardest. But that's hard to do when the only evidence is fins—which pretty much look alike, regardless of which
shark species they came from. "Markets are supplied from all over the world," he says. "No one is keeping track
of whether populations in certain parts of the world are being overfished relative to other populations."
With those two goals in mind, Shivji started by studying DNA from 70 shark species, including all the varieties
that end up in the fin trade. He found a small region of DNA that differs between species. Then, he created a
simple test that identifies species on the basis of DNA taken from a meat or fin sample.
P18
Next, Shivji found a different region of DNA that varies between members of the same species. He developed
another test that identifies whether a sand tiger shark, for example, came from the northwest Atlantic, the
P19
southwest Atlantic, Australia, or South Africa. Finally, he combined the two tests. The biggest advantage of
Shivji's technique is that it spits out results quickly. In just 2 days, he says, he and his team can identify the
sources, by geography and species, for 50 fins.
Right now, the rapid tests can reliably identify 30 shark species. And they can distinguish between geographic
P20
populations of two of those species—sand tiger sharks and porbeagle sharks. Shivji is working on incorporating
more groups into the tests. And he wants to make the process even faster by eventually replacing much of the
work that humans do with robotic technologies.
The technique has already helped solve a number of suspicious cases for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. NOAA's Office for Law Enforcement is responsible for inspecting fishing boats that enter U.S. P21
ports. Shivji is also working on cases in foreign waters and helping train foreign colleagues. As the tests get
better and faster, word is spreading that it might not be so easy to get away with shark poaching anymore.
"Now, fishermen can't say, 'They're never going to be able to tell the difference'" between legal and illegal
catches, Shivji says. This "is having a positive impact on reducing the amount of illegal activity."
P22
It usually takes a long time for basic research to make an impact in the real world, Shivji adds. But animal-DNA
detective work has quickly made the transition from science lab to crime lab. Scientists are now doing similar P23
work to protect seahorses, seals, and other animals.
If the world's poaching victims could talk, they would probably thank these scientists for their detective work.
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CIS: DNA, Chromosomes, and Heredity
Benchmarks: Carefully select text that aligns with State Standards/Benchmarks
Title of
Animal CSI or From Science Lab to Crime Lab
Text/Article:
NGSSS for Science
Benchmarks:
Content
Integration
CCSS ELA &
Literacy in
History/Social
Studies, Science,
and Technical
Subjects
Mathematical
Practices
Comprehensive Science 2 (200207001)
SC.7.L.16.1 Understand and explain that every organism requires a set of instructions that
specifies its traits, that this hereditary information (DNA) contains genes located in the
chromosomes of each cell, and that heredity is the passage of these instructions from one
generation to another. (Also assesses SC.7.L.16.2 and SC.7.L.16.3.)
SC.7.N.1.5 Describe the methods used in the pursuit of a scientific explanation as seen in
different fields of science such as biology, geology, and physics. (Also assesses SC.7.N.3.2,
SC.8.N.1.5, and SC.8.E.5.10.)
Comprehensive Science 2 (200207001)
The student will be able to
 Describe and/or explain that every organism requires a set of instructions that specifies its
traits
 Students will identify and/or explain that hereditary information (DNA) contains genes
located in the chromosomes of each cell and/or that heredity is the passage of these
instructions from one generation to another.
 Students will compare and/or contrast general processes of sexual and asexual
reproduction that result in the passage of hereditary information from one generation to
another.
 Describe and/or analyze common methods used in different fields of study.
LAFS.68.RST.1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical
texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
LAFS.68.WHST.3.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection,
and research.
MAFS.K12.MP.1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MAFS.K12.MP.2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MAFS.K12.MP.3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MAFS.K12.MP.8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Teacher Notes:



Materials:
o Text or article (of sufficient complexity to promote high-level thinking)
o Sticky notes (for opening “hook question, question generation, written responses, etc.)
o Markers, rubrics (for Text-Based Discussion, Student Written Responses, Question Generation, etc.)
o Student copies of worksheets (for Written Responses, Direct Note-Taking, and Question Generation).
Preparations:
o Number paragraphs of selected text/article for ease of locating text evidence during discussions.
o Develop and display Final/Complex Text-Based Question at the beginning of the lesson to
communicate upfront for students the lesson’s final question and learning outcome.
o Text-marking: Develop and display a code system appropriate for the CIS text to use in text-marking.
Select a small text segment and preplan corresponding coding example(s) to model the text-marking
process for students.
o Directed Note-taking: Develop a graphic organizer with headings appropriate for the CIS text. Select a
small text segment and preplan corresponding note(s) to model the note-taking process.
o Question Generation: Select a small text segment and preplan a corresponding question(s) to model
the Question Generation process for students.
o Any audio visuals, specimens, and/or samples to enhance lesson.
Guidelines:
o Add additional efferent discussion sessions, as needed.
o The C.I.S. Model can last 3 days or longer. (Short texts can take less time; long texts, more time)
o Schedule a C.I.S .lesson periodically (approximately every 3-4 weeks).
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* * * CIS Step 1 * * *
Tasks: Teacher asks hook question to launch opening discussion, reads aloud to students while
students mark text, students read the text and participate in directed note-taking.
Purpose: To bring world relevance to text reading, establish a purpose for reading, model fluent
reading, provide opportunities for students to become interactive with the text, and think critically
about information in the text.
Visual Hook: “Animal CSI or from Science Lab to Crime Lab” Science news for kids, By Emily
Sohn/ March 26, 2008
Hook Question: How can the science of DNA analysis affect society?
Individual responses in journals and for discussions
Predictive Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question: What are some positive and
negative consequences of using the science of DNA analysis to solve crimes?
Vocabulary Instruction
Paragrap
h#
Academic or Discipline Specific
Vocabulary
Word Part
or
Context
Paragrap
h#
2
Poaching “taking animals from the wild
that are protected by law”
context
1
4
Unfortunate
Un – not fortunate
DNA – “unique to every person…found
in blood, saliva, hair - - can identify
criminals and victims”
Squelch “poaching is hard to squelch”
–stop
Word
part
6
14



Academic or Discipline Specific Vocabulary
Word Part
or
Context
Context
1&
2
DNA – “chemical that stores the
information for making an organism;
molecule found in chromosomes
Chromosome - -made up of genes and
DNA; each species has a certain number
Word
part
4
Trait – “the way a species looks or acts”
Context
Context
6&
8
Sexual reproduction – when sex cells (egg
and sperm) from 2 parents from opposite
sex come together to make offspring
Context
Context
Direct students to locate words introduced in the text by paragraph number.
Model for students how to derive word meaning(s) from word parts (prefix, root, suffix) and/or
context. Record meanings of word parts and words on chart paper.
Variations for Vocabulary Instruction:
o record meanings of word parts and words in word study guide, journal writing, graphic
organizers, etc.
o post word parts, words, and their meanings on a vocabulary word wall; refer to word wall
during reading, discussions, and writing throughout CIS lesson and subsequent lessons.
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Reading #1
Text-marking
+
– this section of text shows a positive impact of the science of DNA analysis on society or the
individual
_
– this section of text shows a negative impact of the science of DNA analysis on society or the
individual
P
– this section of text shows a problem
S
– this section of text shows a solution

Model for students by reading the text aloud and coding a portion of the text. Students follow
along and mark their copy. Students proceed to code the rest of the text independently.
Students share text markings with table group or partner.
Reading #2
Directed Note-Taking - Record notes containing the most important information relevant to the guiding
question
Visual Hook: DNA Evidence video segment – Discovery Education
Directed Note Taking: Animal CSI or From Science Lab to Crime Lab
Guiding Question: Using evidence from the text and video clip, why is it important to
consider positive and negative impacts on society and/or individuals, when using DNA as
evidence of a crime?
Paragraph
#
Notes
3
Poaching can devastate even large wildlife populations
Scientists can fight back and help prevent poaching
film indicated that DNA evidence can clear someone of a crime if
blood samples at the scene do not match the DNA of the accused
film indicated that DNA analysis is also tied to human error an
people can make mistakes when analyzing the DNA and incorrectly
free criminals or keep innocent people in jail
video
video
Check relevant categories below
+ Impact
Society or
Individual
- Impact
Society or
Individual
X
Problem
Solution
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

Present a guiding question to direct students thinking while taking notes. Teacher models
note-taking using an example statement from the text, then selecting the category or
categories that support the statement. Students complete note-taking collaboratively or
independently.
 Conduct small- and whole-group efferent discussion. Ask groups to come to consensus on
which category is the most impactful according to the support from the text.
First Draft Written Response to Essential Question: Using evidence from the text, why is it
important to consider positive and negative impacts on society and/or individuals, when
using DNA as evidence of a crime?


Ask students to complete the second Written Response.
Variations for this Written Response: Sticky notes quick writes, collaborative partners, written
conversations
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* * *CIS Step 2 * * *
Tasks: Teacher models the generation of a complex question based on a section of text, relating to
a broad perspective or issue. Students record the questions, and then students re-read the text to
generate their own questions.
Purpose: To provide students with a demonstration of question generation and the opportunity for
them to interact with the text by generating questions to further deepen their comprehension.
Reading #3
Paragraph
#
5
video
Question Generation: Animal CSI or From Science Lab to Crime Lab
Check relevant categories below
Questions
+ Impact
Society/
Individual
Is DNA analysis being used only for protected species?
Have scientists ever found that an error was made in
DNA analysis in a crime?
- Impact
Society/
Individu
al
Proble
m
X
X
X
X
Solutio
n
Question Generation



Teacher models re-reading a portion of the text and generates one or two questions.
Students continue to review/scan the text and use their recorded notes to generate questions
about information in the text collaboratively or independently.
To conclude question generation, the teacher has students:
 share their questions with the related category whole class and discuss which questions
they have in common, and which questions are most relevant or significant to their
learning.
 record/post common and relevant/significant questions to encourage:
o extended efferent text discussion
o students to seek/locate answers in text-reading throughout the remainder of the
chapter/unit focusing on unanswered questions in collaborative inquiry.
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* * * CIS Step 3 * * *
Task: Teacher posts a Complex Text-Based question; students discuss answers, and review/revise
answers to the final/Complex Text-Based question based on discussion.
Purpose: To provide opportunities for students to interact with the text and with their peers to:
 identify text information most significant to the final/essential question.
 facilitate complex thinking and deep comprehension of text.
Final Written Response to Complex Text-Based Question
According to the text and extended text discussion, which factor, most likely, is the primary
issue when using scientific evidence, such as DNA, to solve a problem?
The Final Written Response will be used as an assessment for student learning.

The Final Written Response can be used as an assessment for student learning, aligning to
FCAT Item Specifications.
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Anti-Discrimination Policy
Federal and State Laws
The School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida adheres to a policy of nondiscrimination in employment and
educational programs/activities and strives affirmatively to provide equal opportunity for all as required by:
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or
national origin.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended - prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of
race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 - prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender.
Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) as amended - prohibits discrimination on the basis of
age with respect to individuals who are at least 40.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 as amended - prohibits gender discrimination in payment of wages to women and
men performing substantially equal work in the same establishment.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 - prohibits discrimination against the disabled.
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) - prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities
in employment, public service, public accommodations and telecommunications.
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) - requires covered employers to provide up to 12 weeks of
unpaid, job-protected leave to "eligible" employees for certain family and medical reasons.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 - prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of
pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
Florida Educational Equity Act (FEEA) - prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, gender, national origin,
marital status, or handicap against a student or employee.
Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992 - secures for all individuals within the state freedom from discrimination
because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap, or marital status.
Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) - prohibits discrimination against
employees or applicants because of genetic information.
Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act of 2002 – no public school shall deny equal access to, or a fair
opportunity for groups to meet on school premises or in school facilities before or after school hours, or
discriminate against any group officially affiliated with Boy Scouts of America or any other youth or
community group listed in Title 36 (as a patriotic society).
Veterans are provided re-employment rights in accordance with P.L. 93-508 (Federal Law) and Section 295.07
(Florida Statutes), which stipulate categorical preferences for employment.
In Addition:
School Board Policies 1362, 3362, 4362, and 5517 - Prohibit harassment and/or discrimination against
students, employees, or applicants on the basis of sex, race, color, ethnic or national origin, religion, marital
status, disability, genetic information, age, political beliefs, sexual orientation, gender, gender identification,
social and family background, linguistic preference, pregnancy, and any other legally prohibited basis.
Retaliation for engaging in a protected activity is also prohibited.
Revised: (07.14)