Description
Students begin with the phenomenon of a fish kill that occurred in Lake Erie in late summer. Students strive to make sense of this phenomenon by gathering evidence through investigations, readings, and digital resources. As students move through the lesson, they conduct investigations where they use system models to collect evidence about the roles of producers and consumers in an ecosystem; they learn how abiotic factors, such as nutrient levels and temperature, can cause changes in the ecosystem; and they explore the relationships between ecosystem components. Throughout the investigations, students develop and revise their claim surrounding the causes of the fish kill. At the conclusion of the lesson students will use the evidence gathered to construct a final explanation for how changes in the lake ecosystem caused changes in matter cycling and energy transfer that, in turn, lead to the fish kill.
Kit materials equip 10 groups of students and include digital resources. Note: Kit includes perishable materials for immediate use.
Time Requirement
Launching the Phenomenon: 50 minutes
Investigation 1: 150 minutes (requires the experiment to sit overnight)
Investigation 2: 50 minutes
Investigation 3: 150 minutes (requires the experiment to sit overnight)
Final Performance Task: 50 minutes
Reflection: 20 minutes
Digital Resources
Includes 1-year access to digital resources that support 3-dimensional instruction for NGSS*. Digital resources may include teacher’s manual and student guide, pre-lab activities and setup videos, phenomenon videos, simulations, and post-lab analysis and assessments.
Crosscutting Concepts
Systems and System Models
Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems
Science and Engineering Practices
Asking Questions
Developing and Using Models
Learning Performance Expectations
- Ask questions to investigate the causes of changes in balance in a lake ecosystem that led to a fish kill.
- Develop a model that illustrates the interrelationships among biotic and abiotic components of a lake ecosystem, including boundaries, initial conditions, and inputs and outputs of matter and energy, as they move through the system.
- Develop, revise, and use a model, based on evidence, to illustrate how matter and energy flow through trophic levels in a lake ecosystem and how changes in abiotic and biotic components caused the system to become unbalanced and led to a fish kill.
- Plan and carry out an investigation to gather evidence for the causes of the changes in matter cycling and energy transfer in the lake ecosystem that led to a fish kill.
- Construct an explanation, based on evidence, for how changes in abiotic and biotic components of a lake ecosystem caused changes in matter cycling and energy transfer and led to a fish kill.
- Construct an explanation, based on evidence, for the role of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in the cycling of matter and transfer of energy in the biosphere.
Crosscutting Concepts
Systems and System Models
Disciplinary Core Ideas
MS.LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms
MS.PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes in Everyday Life
MS.LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems
Science and Engineering Practices
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
*Next Generation Science Standards®Residents of AK must apply for a permit from your state game and fish department to receive pond snails. (NGSS) is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.