SC.7.8.4.b: Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical…
Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as matter moves through an organism.
The Nebraska College and Career Ready Standards for Science (2024) outcome SC.7.8.4.b (Life Sciences) for Grade 7 says: “Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as matter moves through an organism.” This Fieldbook unit teaches it hands-on, with everyday materials and a printable teacher guide and student sheet for every lesson. Official wording: Nebraska College and Career Ready Standards for Science (2024).
How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration Grades 6–8
Where does a tree's mass come from, what happens to the sugar a plant makes, and how does the Sun's energy run a whole ecosystem? Three no-materials lessons with a 400-year-old willow experiment, printed atom cards and a carbon-atom role-play.
- What happens to the food a plant makes? 50–60 min
Teams rearrange 36 printed atom cards from carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen, then back again, and prove that no atom is made or lost. At four case stations they read data on plants in the dark, sprouting seeds, weight loss and apple stores, and explain that plants and animals both respire.
Printable practice for SC.7.8.4.b
- How Plants Make Food: Photosynthesis and Respiration workbook included with the unit
1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 reading, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.
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Compared with NGSS: MS-LS1-7.
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