Grading the Explanations Tool for Decomposers Cellular
Respiration: How does a cell in a decomposer use food to
move and function?
This grading worksheet does not have an Activity number in the title because it can be used to grade all
Explanation Tools for cellular respiration in this Unit.
This worksheet has “grading” in the title because at this point, students can be held accountable for correct
answers. Level 4 (correct) responses to the questions are in blue bold italics below. There are also
comments about common Level 2 and Level 3 responses to help you with grading and making decisions about
what to emphasize in future lessons.
The Movement Question: Zooming in to trace matter
1. Draw and label arrows that show how carbon atoms move
into and through a cell in the mycelium of a shelf fungus
when the fungus uses food to move and function.
• Draw arrows to show your ideas about how molecules
with carbon atoms might be moving through the fungus
to reach a cell in the fungus’s fruiting body.
• Draw arrows to show how molecules with carbon atoms
move into and out of the cell.
• Draw arrows to show how molecules with carbon atoms
leave the fungus’s body.
• Label the arrows with the kinds of molecules the carbon
atoms are in.
Level 4: Carbon atoms should be in polymers (fats,
proteins, carbohydrates) in the tree, but are transformed
into monomers (glucose, amino acids, fatty acids)
before they enter the fungus. Arrows show these
monomers being transported through hyphae to a
particular cell. Glucose is converted to CO2, which exits
the cell.
2. What is the name of the chemical change that allows cells
to move and function?
Cellular respiration
The Carbon Question: How atoms are rearranged into new molecules
What molecules are carbon atoms in before the
What molecules are carbon atoms in after the chemical
chemical change?
change?
Level 4: Glucose
Level 4: Carbon dioxide
What other molecules are needed?
Level 4: Oxygen
Chemical
Change
What other molecules are produced?
Level 4: Water
Write the chemical equation for this change:
C6H12O6 + 6 O2 ! 6 CO2 + 6 H2O
The Energy Question: How energy is transformed
What forms of energy are needed for this chemical
What forms of energy are produced by this chemical
change?
change?
Decomposers Unit
Carbon: Transformations in Matter and Energy
Environmental Literacy Project
1
Michigan State University
Level 4: Chemical energy assosciated with
glucose
Where does the energy come from?
Level 4: The bonds in the glucose
Level 4: Motion energy and heat energy
Energy
Transformation
Where does the energy go or stay after the
change?
Level 4: ATP, in the bonds of the CO2 and H2O, into
the air
Remember: Atoms last forever (so you can arrange atoms into new molecules, but can’t add or subtract atoms).
Energy lasts forever (so you can change forms of energy, but energy units can’t appear or go away).
Use the process tool to help guide your written explanation. Answer all Three Questions in your explanation.
Question: How does a cell in a fungus’s fruiting body use food to move and function? (Answer on the back).
Level 4 responses should contain answers to all Three Questions. After digestion, small polymers like
glucose enter the cell. The C-C and C-H bonds in the glucose are broken, and the atoms from the
glucose are rearranged to form new bonds in CO2 and H2O molecules. When the carbon atoms are
oxidized (and bond to oxygen atoms to form CO2) chemical energy is released in the form of heat and
motion. This allows the cells (and therefore the fungus) to grow and function.
Level 3 responses may commit to the conservation of matter and energy, but may have trouble explaining
where the matter and energy go, or in what form they are in.
Level 2 students may explain that fungi need food to get energy to grow, without explaining how the matter or
energy are transformed or conserved in this process. Level 2 students may also suggest that the food is turned
into energy.
Decomposers Unit
Carbon: Transformations in Matter and Energy
Environmental Literacy Project
2
Michigan State University