Proving an Ecosystem’s Health Through Succession
Students engage in viewing day three of ecosystem changes in lab groups to determine if the ecosystem is healthy or unhealthy based on scientific data and factors.
Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells
Students will categorize cells as prokaryotic or eukaryotic by identifying the presence or lack of a nucleus.
Teacher Summing Up Lesson
Lights, Camera, Action!
Students compare and contrast potential and kinetic energy by creating a real-world model through a movie.
Does it have Potential?
Students will work with partners to investigate how mass, potential energy, and kinetic energy act on objects dropped from varying heights.
Video of the lesson being taught
Mendelian Genetics Using Monohybrids
Students will work collaboratively through a fictitious, real-world scenario to determine the probability of each breeding pair of dogs producing offspring with the desired trait for a fictitious client.
Got Force?
Students use various surfaces and a weighted car to see how far the car will travel using balanced and unbalanced forces.
Producing Plump Produce
In collaborative groups, the students investigate the transport of water within potato cells placed in various tonicity solutions.
Teacher explains the task to the students
Energy Transfer in an Ecosystem
All matter contains energy. Energy can be transferred from one object to another. Energy transformation can occur through the conversion of energy from one form to another. Energy is never created nor destroyed; it is always transferred and/or transformed. Students will demonstrate how energy is transformed and transferred in an ecosystem. To do this, students will create energy pyramids by stacking cups that represent organisms and available amounts of energy. Students will graph and analyze the data.
Students working on the task
Biotic and Abiotic Factors of an Ecosystem
Students will explore abiotic and biotic factors in various ecosystems by working through stations. Students will be able to identify and describe abiotic and biotic factors within an ecosystem.
Motion Pictures
In this lesson, students will be introduced to the concept of motion representation using distance vs. time graphs. Students will recognize labeling of axes, steepness related to speed, horizontal lines as non-motion, and downward slope as return to origin.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Related to the Unit
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Earth: A Tilted Affair
After a brief review of direct and indirect sunlight, students will arrange heat maps and globes around a drawing of the Sun based on the tilt of Earth and how it affects Earth’s temperature.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Related to the Unit
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to this unit.
DNA Sequencing
In this lesson, students will investigate how gene expression is a regulated process controlled by DNA and the interpretations of codons through translation.
Making Solutions
Given graphs, scenarios, illustrations, or descriptions, the student will determine how different processes affect solubility in aqueous solutions.
Precipitation Reactions
Given graphs, scenarios, illustrations, or descriptions, the student will determine how different processes affect solubility in aqueous solutions.
Electric and Magnetic Forces
Given diagrams, illustrations, or descriptions, students will identify examples of electric and magnetic forces.
Types of Motion
Students will distinguish between and/or interpret the types of motion.
Gravity
Using interactives, students will demonstrate that gravity is the force that governs the motion of our solar system.