H9a
Ms. Rivera’s 5E Outline
Adapted from NGSS Tools and Process developed by the American Museum of Natural History
with generous support from Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Engage
Teacher Does
Student Does
Part 1. Link to unit. Teacher reminds
students of overarching question for unit
and invites them to respond to the
questions in their science notebook:
Students respond to unit questions in
their science notebooks

How do living and nonliving
things in the environment
interact with one another?

What factors influence these
interactions?
Part 2. Identify the phenomena through a
scenario and photos. . Teacher
distributes scenario, photos,
instructions, and provides prompt:
Part 3. Whole group discussion. Key
questions to use include:

What is it about food that makes
it essential for life?

How do different living things get
the food they need to live, grow,
and reproduce?
Science
Concepts (DCI,
SEP,CCC)

DCI: LS2.B
Food contains
matter and energy
for living things in
an ecosystem.
Scenario Activity; Things need to eat
(food) to stay healthy, live, grow, and
reproduce

Read scenario to help identify
the phenomenon to be figured
out. The rotting log was covered
with slimy stuff and over time,
the log broke apart and would
eventually disappear.

Look at video and use them to
discuss in small group the living
and nonliving components of the
ecosystem and to discuss
interactions.
Ideal student response: Living things
need matter and energy from the food
they eat. They use the matter and
energy to live, grow, and reproduce.
The food comes from their environment
as some living things eat other living
things and plants get energy from the
sun to make their own food.
Linking question from Engage to Explore: What happens as matter and energy are transferred
through an ecosystem?
CA NGSS Roll Out #2: Tool D: CF to 5E
1
H9b
Explore
Student Does
Science Concepts (DCI,
SEP,CCC)
Food Webs Activity 1

DCI: LS2.B

SEP: models

CCC: Energy and
Matter
Teacher Does
Lesson 2a. Part 1. Food webs
Pay particular attention to
student talk about:


the components of the
system (producers,
consumers,
decomposers and nonliving parts)
matter and energy
Lesson 2b. Part 2. Distribute
cards and arrows and provide
convention for direction of
arrows.


What does the cow (or
other herbivore) do with
the matter it got from the
plant? With the energy it
got from the plant?

Make a simple food chain for
what they ate last night.

Compare food webs for
similarities and differences.

Apply ideas of decomposers to a
food web
Food web activity 2

Develop a food web (model)
using cards and arrows to show
the transfer of matter and the flow
of energy.

Discuss the cat-mouse chain
based on the teacher questions
o
Food webs are models
that show the
relationships/interactions
among decomposers,
producers, and
consumers as they
transfer matter and
energy in an ecosystem.
Talk about numbers of
organisms and what
happens to energy.
think about the total
amount of matter and
energy
Lesson 2c. terrarium and
decomposition jars
-

What do you notice
about the parts of each
system? (Observations)
Review the data sets at
each station (includes
student collected data)

DCI: LS2.B; ESS2.A
Make observations of the terraria
and decomposition jars and
review data (e.g., temperature
and mass) they collected earlier
and additional data provided by
teacher

SEP: models,
analyze and interpret
data

CCC: Energy and
Matter

Create bar graphs in their science
notebook

Begin to explain the transfer of
matter and energy in an
ecosystem using a model of an
ecosystem—
Decomposers are key to
the processes by which
the matter (atoms) that
makes up the organisms
in an ecosystem cycling
repeatedly between the
living and nonliving parts
of the ecosystem.
Ecosystem model and investigation

Linking question from Explore to Explain: How can we explain the patterns in our data about how
matter and energy are transferred through an ecosystem?
CA NGSS Roll Out #2: Tool D: CF to 5E
2
H9c
Explain
Student Does
Science Concepts
(DCI, SEP,CCC)
Discuss ideas.

DCI: LS2.B;
DCI: ESS2.A;
DCI: PS1.B

PE: MS-LS2-3

SEP construct
explanation
Teacher Does
Part 1. Lead whole group discussion
focused on draft descriptions about
how matter and energy are being
transferred in the terraria and
decomposition jars.
Possible student responses.



Part 2. Assign readings about “poop
and decomposer poop as fertilizer for
vegan food” and another about
temperature/heat out, transfer/sun in.
Key/guiding questions:
Temperature increases in
decomposition jars because it
absorbs heat from the room.
Mass stays the same.
Ideas about the components of the
systems.
Reading 1

Poop as fertilizer for vegan food
Reading 2

Heat, temperature, energy transfer
a) What happens to matter as
it cycles through the food web?
Matter is
conserved in the
ecosystem and
energy flows into
the ecosystem
from the sun and
out of the
ecosystem as
heat.
b) What happens to energy as
it flows through the food web?
c) What is the role of the sun?
Part 3. Students draw and label a
diagram of terraria and decomposition
jar to show the transfer of matter and
energy in the living and nonliving parts
of the ecosystem.
Revise explanation
Part 4. Distribute a diagram (model) ;
students use what they’ve learned from
the Explore, the readings, and creating
their diagrams to explain its strengths
and limitations in representing what is
happening in an ecosystem.
Revise explanation

Revisit the grass-cowmountain lion example from
Explore and highlight nonliving
components.
Linking question from Explain to Elaborate: What happens in an ecosystem when parts of the
ecosystem change?
CA NGSS Roll Out #2: Tool D: CF to 5E
3
H9d
Elaborate
Student Does
Science Concepts
(DCI, SEP,CCC)
Students connect back to
engage/explore

DCI: LS2.B

SEP: models,
analyze and
interpret data

Computational
thinking

CCC: Energy
and Matter
Teacher Does
Wolf Sheep Predation Simulation in
which they can vary quantity of grass,
sheep and wolves and changes in
quantity of energy units and how that
number is changing over time as the
simulation runs (each step the sheep
and wolves take uses up energy, eating
replenishes their energy, and when they
run out of energy they die).
Key questions:

What patterns are you noticing
when you compare the mass and
numbers of organisms in different
feeding relationships?,

What is happening to the energy at
each level of the food chain?

Why does an ecosystem need a
constant source of energy coming
into it?, and

Why are decomposers so important
in an ecosystem?
Use data as evidence gathered from
the simulation (model) to explain the
flow of energy (and transfer of heat
into the environment) as organisms
interact in an ecosystem.
Use what they learned to explain the
content representation/model using
examples from the simulation
Matter cycles and
energy is transferred
in an ecosystem as
organisms (living
components) interact
with one another and
with their
environment
(nonliving
components).
Reading

Reinforce heat transfer

Reinforce relationships/interactions
Linking question from Elaborate to Evaluate: What is the effect of interactions between the living and
nonliving parts of an ecosystem?
CA NGSS Roll Out #2: Tool D: CF to 5E
4
H9e
Evaluate
Student Does
Teacher Does
Provide students with final assessment
task in which they develop models of
ecosystems, and answer questions
related to their models in order to describe
the cycling of matter and the flow of
energy among the living and non-living
parts.
CA NGSS Roll Out #2: Tool D: CF to 5E
Science Concepts
(DCI, SEP,CCC)

PE: MS-LS2-3

PE: MS-PS1-5

PE: MS-ESS2-1
The amount of
matter is conserved
as it cycles through
the living and
nonliving parts of an
ecosystem, but
some energy
becomes unusable
by the living parts of
the ecosystem when
it is transferred to
the environment as
heat.
5