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GRADE
3
Author: H. Blondin Lesson #: 5
Unit Title: Earth System Science Time Frames: Two 50Minute Periods 1
From Seed to Soil
ABSTRACT Students observe decaying plant matter in a closed system. Students classify and sequence specimens of seeds, sprouts, young plants, flowering and/or fruiting plants, and decomposing plants to understand how organic matter contributes to the formation of soil. Students make connections between the way organic matter becomes humus with the way a drop of water moves through the water cycle on our planet. Students learn the important components of Earth’s spheres that interact to make this natural process function: plant life and decomposers from the biosphere, water from the hydrosphere, air in the atmosphere, rock particles from the geosphere, and, of course, the driving energy source, our Sun.
PLANNING INSTRUCTION ASSESSMENT STANDARDS REFERENCES
BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS Gaining an understanding of the soil cycle offers students a rich opportunity to see the complexity of interactions needed among Earth’s spheres to make a cycle move and function in a healthy way. Soil is the skin of our earth. Not only is soil a water storage and filter system, it is also an important home to countless organisms, including microbes used to combat human diseases. It is also the foundation to our food system and essential to the life of animals and natural resources we use everyday. Forests, farms, and pasture lands all depend on soil to grow and thrive. This lesson will also help students draw direct connections between human actions and the health of the planet. As students learn the importance of soil to the health of life on Earth, they will be inspired to think about the trash they produce and how they can compost organic waste to produce healthy soil for their own backyard. In this lesson, students will gain a fundamental understanding of the soil cycle. Although there are many chemical and geological processes that contribute to the production of soil, including the weathering and erosion of rocks and minerals, we will focus on the formation of humus as a vital piece of the process. This means students will track organic matter’s journey to become humus. Humus is made up of decayed organic materials and is an important component of fertile soil. Humus provides nutrients for plants and houses microorganisms that make it easier for plants’ roots to absorb nutrients from the soil. This journey can be described in six stages:
1 To accommodate for the time it takes materials to decompose, it will be necessary to complete the first portion of the lesson and then wait about ONE MONTH before completing the rest of the lesson. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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● A plant’s seed ● A plant’s sprout ● A young plant ● A flowering/fruiting plant ● A decomposing plant ● Finished humus that contributes to the fertility of soil for new seeds
Many avid gardeners, farmers and soil scientists draw a distinction between soil and dirt. Soil is considered rich with microorganisms, nutrients and organic matter. It is ideal for planting and growing new life. Dirt however, is “ inert.” Nutrients are absent, it has a very low percentage of organic matter content, and is made of mostly assorted rock particles. During this lesson, be aware of the distinction between these two terms and help students to understand the differences as well. FBI stands for fungi, bacteria and invertebrates (including assorted insects, worms etc.) This familiar acronym will help students to easily remember the three main types of decomposers that play a key role in breaking down organic matter to create humus.
PLANNING Essential Questions
● Can we ever throw anything away? ● Can we save everything? ● Why is soil important to our planet?
Instructional Objectives
Students will: ● Identify the conditions needed in order for organic matter to decompose. ● Explain how plant nutrients become part of the soil based upon observations of the
decomposition of organic materials. ● Question how trash impacts Earth’s systems by learning the difference between
biodegradable and imperishable waste. ● Compare the water cycle and the soil cycle by creating a Venn Diagram. ● Make connections between the water cycle and the soil cycle to extend understandings of
cycles as systems that follow predictable patterns of interaction. Key Vocabulary
● Decompose ● Humus ● Biodegradable ● Imperishable ● FBI
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INSTRUCTION Materials
For the overall lesson: ● Trash samples that are biodegradable such as a banana peel and a piece of paper
and impermeable such as a plastic wrapper, an aluminum can, and a plastic cup ● Magnifying glasses ● Each project team needs one tub or box and a set of six clear containers or plates ● Trash bags or tarps ● Discarded magazines and catalogs from which students can cut out pictures. ● Scissors, glue sticks ● Science notebooks ● Class sets of “Tricky Trash”, “Bag it Up”, “Observation of Changes”, and “Mind Map”
worksheets ● Postit notes ● Plastic gloves ● Optional: tweezers/chopsticks
Decomposition activity: ● Soil samples: each student brings a small plastic bag of about 500 ml of soil from home
Humus activity: (To be completed in the second session one month after the first activities) ● Ingredients encourage students to be part of the materials gathering process. They will love
hunting for worms and pill bugs in the schoolyard. They can also save fruit and veggie scraps at lunch!
● Seeds ● Sprouts ● Living plants and/or living plant parts ● Fresh fruits, veggies or flowers ● Rotting vegetable scraps ● Finished compost made from vegetable scraps ● Rocks, pebbles, gravel and/or sand ● Mulch or wood chips ● Lint or hair balls ● Worms, maggots, or pill bugs to act as examples of FBI 2● Plastic scraps ● Laminated pictures of the Sun and bacteria
Preparation
● Prior to preparing this lesson, invite the students to bring in a soil sample from home in a plastic bag. About two cups (500 ml) of soil is an adequate amount. As the soil samples arrive, label bags with name, date and location of the sample.
● Make four soil sample bags from different locations around the school yard. ● Compile a set of humus ingredients into a tub or box for each team of students to dissect and
classify. ● Prepare investigation stations for each team equipped with magnifying glasses, gloves, tweezers
and six containers or plates labeled with the six stages of plants contributing to the soil cycle. ● Students will need a place to sift through the “dirty” materials. Tape down trash bags on tables, or
tape off investigation areas on a flat paved surface outside near the grass or on the floor that can be cleaned easily.
2 Do not have students bring a sample of fungi into the classroom. Fungi, especially unknown types of fungi, are potential pathogens. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Resources
NASA: ● Our World: What is Soil?:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/nasaeclips/search.html?terms=&category=1000 ● A handson decomposition activity on NASA’s Wavelength website called “Soil the Great
Decomposer”: http://was.cdlib.org/wayback/was/20140812002335/http://www.globe.gov/documents/352961/353899/decomp.pdf
Other: ● The song “FBI (Fungus, Bacteria, Invertebrates)” by the Banana Slug String Band:
http://bishopmuseumeducation.org/bishop/default/view/113
ENGAGE
1. Engage students in a ThinkPairShare discussion to introduce the topic:
● What happens to the fish poop in the aquarium? (It falls to the bottom of the tank and settles into the gravel. It is also broken down by the sun and consumed by snails).
● What would happen if the tank was never cleaned and kept in the dark? (The waste would pile up and the aquarium would not be healthy and not be able to function).
● What happens to plants and other living things when they die in the forest?
2. After discussion, distribute the lyrics (below) to the song “FBI (Fungus, Bacteria, Invertebrates)” by the Banana Slug String Band and play the song. Encourage the students to sing along and notice science concepts in the lyrics.
3. After the song, use the lyrics as a resource and have students talk with a new partner in a
ThinkPairShare format:
● What is decomposition? (Ask students to add this new word and group definition to science notebooks).
● What helps living things to break down, or decompose, after they die? (FBI) ● Does all waste decompose? (No. Plastic, metal and other manmade products do not
decay).
4. Help students distinguish materials that decompose from those materials that do not. Hold up samples of trash such as a banana peel, a plastic wrapper, a piece of paper, an aluminum can, and a plastic cup. Ask students to hold up one finger if they think it can decompose and two if they think it cannot. Once all the materials are sorted, label the piles as biodegradable and imperishable. Collaborate with the students to define these words and add them to the science notebooks. Next, students draw, write words and cutout photos from magazines and create collages to represent the words biodegradable and imperishable. Students use the “Tricky Trash” worksheet provided for this activity.
EXPLORE
1. Invite students to observe the process of decomposition using the soil samples they collected from home. Students will save vegetable or fruit scraps from lunch and collect some living plant parts from the schoolyard to add to the bags. They will also add some shredded newspaper and water
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and leave them sitting on a windowsill or other sun exposed surface in the classroom for observation during a month.
2. For comparison, setup the four soil samples from around the schoolyard in the following ways:
● Do not add anything to one of the bags ● Put one bag in the freezer ● Do not add water to one of the bags ● Put plastic scraps in one of the bags
3. Invite students to make predictions about what will happen to the contents of their bag and keep
track of the changes they observe with the chart provided at the end of this lesson.
4. One month later: ● Distribute students’ soil bags and, using the investigation station tools, invite students to
investigate the contents of the bags and record final observations of how the scraps have changed over time. Here are some questions to guide the observation process:
What happened to the soil? What happened to the items? What happened to the water?
● As a class, observe, compare and discuss the contents of the soil sample bags from around
the schoolyard: the control bag, the bag kept in the freezer, the dry bag and the bag with the plastic scraps.
● Discuss together:
How were the contents of these bags different than others? Why?
5. Students work with teams to investigate the humus contents placed inside a box or tub. They identify one specimen to represent each stage of the plant’s journey to become humus. They place the specimens in the appropriately labeled container and arrange the six specimens in a circle to show the pattern of how organic matter moves through a cycle. Students tour the classified and sequenced specimens of each team to discuss similarities or differences in the specimens and/or arrangement of the containers. Ask students:
● Can people have more than one way of showing this process? Why or why not? ● What pattern is found across all group specimens? ● What is more important, the order or the progression?
6. After the class has agreed upon a progression of the stages, lead a class a discussion about the
classification process:
● What other materials were in the box that are important to the formation of humus, but did not represent a contribution? (FBI, the sun).
● What do these materials do? (FBI helps to decompose the organic matter, the sun helps the organic matter to grow, the heat helps organic matter to decompose).
● What conditions are needed for organic matter to turn into humus? (moisture and heat energy from the sun).
● What contents of your container do not have a place in this cycle (ie: plastic)?
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EXPLAIN
1. Pose the question: What else have we explored that journeys through time in a pattern or a cycle?
(Water)
2. Ask students to pull out the Mind Map of the water cycle completed in Lesson “Drip, Drip, Drop” and compare it with the stages of plants contributing to the soil which they identified in this lesson.
3. Create a large Venn diagram on the board. Label one circle “Water Cycle” and the second circle,
“Soil Cycle.” Distribute Postits and invite the students to write a word or a phrase to stick onto the venn diagram. Here are some example words or phrases that might be included:
■ cycle ■ produces no waste ■ driven by the Sun ■ evaporation ■ soil ■ water ■ humus ■ imperishable ■ biodegradeable ■ solids ■ liquids ■ gases ■ alive ■ FBI
4. Share questions that could stimulate students’ thinking:
● How does a plant change states of matter like a drop of water? ● What energy source drives the water cycle? ● What drives the creation of humus in soil? ● Does the water cycle need the FBI?
5. Review and discuss the statements the students add to the Venn diagram.
EXTEND
1. Pose the question:
● What spheres of the earth are involved in creating humus? (plantsbiosphere, waterhydrosphere, airatmosphere)
EVALUATE
1. Students use the specimens they sorted to complete a sixstage mind map to describe plants’
contributions to the soil cycle. The Mind Map also includes a place for them to identify the driver of the system, the Sun. Students present their sixstage Mind Map to a partner.
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ASSESSMENT OPTIONS Formative Assessment
● Students identify specimens for each stage of creating humus in soil and arrange the specimens in a circle to demonstrate the progression of the energy in the journey. Students contribute ideas to the class Venn diagram about the difference between the journey of water on our planet and the journey of plants to humus.
Summative Assessment
● Students complete and reflect upon their resulting Mind Maps to summarize their learning in this lesson.
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CULTURE CONNECTION
Image courtesy of J. Troller.
Were imperishable items part of the early Hawaiian’s way of life?
A koʻi (adze) was a common tool used in early Hawaiian life for cutting and shaping wood. Discuss the following with your students:
● What types of materials are used to make an koʻi? (Precontact adze blades were usually made of stone, although few were made of wood or coconut. The handle was commonly made from the wood of Hau tree. The lashing was done with a natural fiber cordage called olona.) (Summers 1999)
● What part or parts of the koʻi might decompose?
DIFFERENTIATION
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Emerging Learners
● Students may have incomplete knowledge about the life stages of a plant. Review the life stages of a plant before students begin sorting the stages involved in contributing to humus. They will need to know that plants grow from seeds, sprout, flower and fruit with seeds and die with new seeds sprouting. Help them to make connections between specific seeds and plants and the fruits and vegetables we eat.
Advanced Learners
● Challenge students to examine the role of air and the atmosphere in the humus. Invite the students to design an exploration to discover how more air or less air in a compost pile affects the rate of decay.
English Language Learners
● Encourage students to use pictures when completing their Mind Map. They may not have the vocabulary to name and describe each stage with words
EXTENSIONS
● Begin a compost system to collect waste from your school lunches. Use the finished compost to amend soil in your school garden beds. For educators in Hawaiʻi who need funding or onsite support to begin a compost system check out the waste reduction tips from Kokua Hawai‘i’s ‘Āina in the Schools Programs.
STANDARDS Next Generation Science Standards
Crosscutting Concepts: ● Patterns In grades 35, students identify similarities and differences in order to sort and
classify natural objects and designed products. They identify patterns related to time, including simple rates of change and cycles, and to use these patterns to make predictions.
● Energy and Matter In grades 35, students learn matter is made of particles and energy can be transferred in various ways and between objects. Students observe the conservation of matter by tracking matter flows and cycles before and after processes and recognizing the total weight of substances does not change.
Science and Engineering Practices: ● Ask questions ● Plan and carry out investigations ● Construct explanations ● Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information
Disciplinary Core Idea: ● ESS2.A Earth Materials and Systems Earth’s major systems are the geosphere (solid and
molten rock, soil, and sediments), the hydrosphere (water and ice), the atmosphere (air), and the biosphere (living things, including humans). These systems interact in multiple ways to affect Earth’s surface materials and processes.
Common Core
● SL.3.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
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Hawaii Content & Performance Standards III
● SC.3.1.1 Pose a question and develop a hypothesis based on observations ● SC.3.1.2 Safely collect and analyze data to answer a question ● SC.3.8.1 Describe different earth materials (e.g., rocks, minerals, sand, soil) and explain their
formation and composition General Learner Outcomes
● SelfDirected Learner ● Community Contributor ● Effective Communicator
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
● A guide to starting a compost system from Green Mountain Farm to School: http://www.greenmountainfarmtoschool.org/wp/wpcontent/uploads/GuidetoStaringaSchoolCompostProgram.pdf
● Waste reduction tips from Kōkua Hawai‘i Foundation:
http://kokuahawaiifoundation.org/aina/components_detail/waste_reduction
● Dirt! The movie:
http://www.dirtthemovie.org/
● Ward, D., & Meisel, P. (2012). What happens to our trash? New York: Collins.
REFERENCES Atmospheric Imaging Assembly of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (Photographer). (2010). The
Sun[Photograph]. Retrieved February 20, 2015, from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/The_Sun_by_the_Atmospheric_Imaging_Assembly_of_NASA's_Solar_Dynamics_Observatory__20100819.jpg
Banana Slug String Band Environmental Educators & Performers CA. (2002, January 1). Retrieved March
20, 2015, from http://www.BananaSlugStringBand.com Kutsunai, Bev. (Photographer). (2013). Hawaiian Mushrooms [Photograph] Soil for 3rd or 4th graders. (Teach). (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from:
http://www.slideshare.net/MMoiraWhitehouse/soilfor3rdor4thgraders Summers, C. (1999). Material Culture: The J.S. Emmerson Collection of Hawaiian Artifacts. Honolulu:
Bishop Museum Press. The Scoop on Moon Dirt. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/explore/LRO/activities/moon_dirt/ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Name: _____________________________ Date: _____________________
Tricky Trash
Draw pictures, write words and/or cutout pictures to make a collage for each of the categories provided. Then, answer the questions below.
Biodegradable Imperishable
Why are biodegradable materials important to soil on Earth?
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Name: ________________________________ Date:_____________________
Bag It Up! Soil Sample Collection
List all the things inside your bag that
you can see.
I see...
List anything that may be in your bag that you cannot see.
I cannot see...
What do you think will happen to the plant scraps in your
bag? Why?
I think….
Because….
What do you think will happen to the bag we put in the freezer? Why?
I think....
Because…
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What do you think will happen to the bag without water?
Why?
I think…
Because…
What do you think will happen to the plastic scraps that
were placed in one of the bags? Why?
I think....
Because....
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Name: ________________________________ Date:_____________________
Observation of Changes
Use the following chart to record the changes you observe in your soil sample bag. Do not open the bag to observe changes, it will interrupt with the decomposition process.
Date Describe changes in color, size, or texture of the plant scraps or soil. Also describe the temperature of the bag and any signs of water.
I SEE....
I THINK...
I SEE...
I THINK...
I SEE...
I THINK...
I SEE…
I THINK...
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Teacher Resource: Humus Cycle Labels
Cut out the following labels and attach them to plastic containers or plates that will be used to classify the six stages of the humus cycle.
Seed Sprout Plant
Flower or Fruit Rotting Scrap
Humus
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Teacher Resource: Images
Cut out these photos, laminate and place one of each in students’ sorting boxes to represent the sun and the FBI.
Hawaiian Mushrooms
Image courtesy of B. Kutsunai.
The Sun
Image courtesy of NASA/SDO (AIA).
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Name: ________________________________ Date:_____________________
Explain how plants contribute to the formation of humus. Use words and pictures.
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FBI (Fungus, Bacteria, and Invertebrates)
by Banana Slug String Band
Chorus: The FBI…whenever something dies Oh, the FBI…is there on the scene The FBI…is working overtime
Oh, the FBI, to pick those bones clean Fungus…fungus, bacteria…bacteria Invertebrates…invertebrates, the F B I
There’s fungus all among us and it’s
breaking things down, Returning nutrients into the fertile ground
Millions of mycelium underground that’s why
When you hold a handful of the earth you hold the FBI.
Repeat Chorus
There are billions of bacteria
in that soil over there Microscopic life is in all water, land and air
You should know that they are there though they are too small for your eye These are secret agents of the FBI
Repeat Chorus
Insects, bugs, slugs and worms are
working night and day The invertebrate crew are special agents of decay
To remove whatever’s rotten they will hop, crawl, hide or fly
Enforcing nature’s laws they are the FBI.
Repeat Chorus
Lay down very still in the duff and learn their ways Lift up a rotten log and
you will surely be amazed Go creeping through the forest,
learn to see and be a spy In search of evidence of the FBI
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