Source: Hard-to-Teach Biology Concepts by Susan Koba with Anne Tweed, NSTA Press
ID: 208606 • Letter: S
Question
Source: Hard-to-Teach Biology Concepts by Susan Koba with Anne Tweed, NSTA Press
What is the opinion that best matches your understanding of the source of the MASS of the tree?
The best opinion that matches my understanding of the source of the MASS of the tree is opinion number one and three.
Use your prior knowledge of the relationship between photosynthesis and cellular respiration to draw a sketch on a large white piece of paper that models the exchange and storage of carbon between organisms and the environment.
Take a picture of it and place it in the space below. Be sure it is large enough to read.
Explore:
My Journey as a Carbon Atom
Have you ever read a Choose Your Own Adventure Book? If you have, you might remember that this is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions and the plot's outcome. The series was based upon a concept created by Edward Packard.
In this part of the lesson, you will read a story. In the story you assume the role of a carbon atom as it travels through the different “spheres” in the carbon cycle. Each time you travel to a new place you will learn about how carbon plays a role there. You will then have options about where Mr. Carbon should travel next. As you travel, record where you have visited (carbon pools) and then how you left (carbon fluxes) on the worksheet table below. Some of the more difficult, or new, words are in bold and italics and defined in the glossary on page 25.
Story presentation url: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1osqPYmyCG1JbiiH8NBd5KapNcBF4B-_wUaryY1aJ25I/copy?usp=sharing
As you travel through your journey, following the carbon atom, fill out the first three columns.
You will record:
the reservoir, or pool, carbon is in.
how long it might remain in the pool (use hints in the text if available or guess)
how carbon left the pool to move to the next one.
Here are a few helpful tips and pointers:
A reservoir or pool is where the carbon is contained for a period of time. Examples include: the atmosphere, the ocean, or a food web.
Part of the first line (from page 4) has been filled out as an example.
The third column has been left blank because you will need to decide how the carbon leaves the atmosphere based on the choices given to you at the bottom of page four after reading pages 1 through 4.
Note: You will not fill out the last column until the next part of this lesson. Please leave blank for now.
Part of the first line (from page 4) has been filled out as an example.
The last column has been left blank because you will need to decide which sphere you were in while you were in the reservoir/pool in the first column.
At least 5 lines of the table should be completed (not including the first line).
Reservoir/Pool
Time Within Pool (Estimate)
How did I leave the pool?
Which sphere was I in while in this reservoir/pool?
Atmosphere
100 years
Explain:
Overview of the Carbon Cycle
Carbon is an important element for life on Earth and can be found in all four major spheres of the planet: biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere/lithosphere. Carbon is found in both the living and non-living parts of the planet, as a component in organisms, atmospheric gases, water, and rocks. The carbon moves from one sphere to another in an ongoing process known as the carbon cycle. The carbon cycle influences crucial life processes such as photosynthesis and respiration, contributes to fossil fuel formation, and impacts the earth’s climate.
Besides the relatively small additions of carbon from meteorites, the total carbon on Earth is stable. But, the amount of carbon in any given sphere of the planet can increase or decrease depending on the fluctuations of the carbon cycle. The cycle can be thought of in terms of reservoirs (places where carbon is stored) and flows (the movement between reservoirs). The atmosphere (the gases surrounding the Earth), the biosphere (the parts of the land, sea, and atmosphere in which life exists), the hydrosphere (all of Earth’s water), and the geosphere/lithosphere (rocky outer layer of the Earth) are the reservoirs and the processes by which carbon moves from one reservoir to another are the flows. Although carbon is relatively common on earth, pure carbon is not. Carbon is usually bound to other elements in compounds. The carbon cycle includes many carbon-containing compounds, such as carbon dioxide, sugars, and methane.
Carbon cycles both quickly and slowly
The many processes that move carbon from one place to another happen on different time scales. Some of them happen on short time scales, such as photosynthesis, which moves carbon from the atmosphere into the biosphere as plants extract carbon from the atmosphere. Some carbon cycle processes happen over much longer time scales. For example, when marine organisms with calcium carbonate skeletons and shells die, some of their remains sink towards the ocean floor. There, the carbon that was stored in their bodies becomes part of the carbon-rich sediment and is eventually carried along, via plate tectonic movement, to subduction zones where it is converted into metamorphic rock. These two examples show the extreme variety of processes that take place in the carbon cycle.
In general, the short-term carbon cycle encompasses photosynthesis, respiration, and predator-prey transfer of carbon. On land, there is a flow of carbon from the atmosphere to plants with photosynthesis and then a flow back to the atmosphere with plant and animal respiration and decomposition. For aquatic plants, photosynthesis involves taking carbon from carbon dioxide dissolved in the water around them. Carbon dioxide is also constantly moving between the atmosphere and water via diffusion. The long-term carbon cycle involves more of the lithospheric processes. It includes the weathering and erosion of carbon-containing rocks, the accumulation of carbon-rich plant and animal material in sediments, and the slow movement of those sediments through the rock cycle.
Humans affect the carbon cycle
There are natural fluctuations in the carbon cycle, but humans have been changing the carbon flows on Earth at an unnatural rate. The major human-induced changes result in increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The largest source of this change is burning fossil fuels, but other actions such as deforestation and cement manufacturing also contribute to this change in the carbon cycle. Because carbon dioxide and methane are greenhouse gases that help to control the temperature of the planet, the human-induced increase in atmospheric carbon levels is resulting in a host of climatic changes on our planet. As discussed above, the natural carbon cycle is important to learn because it is crucial to many of Earth’s processes, but an understanding of the carbon cycle is especially important at this time in human history because of the dramatic and consequential alterations we are making to the cycle.
Source: http://www.calacademy.org/educators/lesson-plans/carbon-cycle-role-play
Purposeful reading: As you read the articles on carbon sinks and carbon sources below:
Try to identify the role of carbon sinks and carbon sources in the exchange and storage of carbon between organisms and the environment.
For each example listed, try to identify the source and sink as part of the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, or geosphere/lithosphere.
GO BACK TO THE TABLE ABOVE AND COMPLETE THE FOURTH COLUMN BASED ON WHAT YOU LEARNED.
http://www.nature.com/news/earth-s-carbon-sink-downsized-1.11503
http://whatsyourimpact.org/greenhouse-gases/carbon-dioxide-emissions
Your Task:
What is the role of carbon sinks and sources in the exchange and storage of carbon between organisms and the environment?
Your explanation should include evidence derived from your journey as a carbon atom and the readings and videos in the Explain portion of this lesson.
Your response should be 2 paragraphs in length.
Elaborate:
Fill in the table below indicating sources of carbon and carbon sinks. Minimum of 5 are needed.
Carbon Sources
Carbon Sinks
Reflect and Revise:
Revise the picture you made at the beginning of this assignment. Be sure your revisions will be easily identified (make them a different color, highlight them, etc.)
Take a picture of your revised diagram and insert it in the space below. Be sure it is large enough to read.
Go back to the ENGAGE question you answered at the beginning of this assignment.
Look back at your answer to the first question and answer the following:
Has your choice of opinions change?
If so, which opinion are you choosing now?
Why or why not?
On what are you basing your decision?
What is the opinion that best matches your understanding of the source of the MASS of the tree?
The best opinion that matches my understanding of the source of the MASS of the tree is opinion number one and three.
Use your prior knowledge of the relationship between photosynthesis and cellular respiration to draw a sketch on a large white piece of paper that models the exchange and storage of carbon between organisms and the environment.
Take a picture of it and place it in the space below. Be sure it is large enough to read.
Question: This large tree started as a little seed. What provided most of the mass that made the tree grow so large? I think most of itthink most of it think most of it think most of it came from nutrients in the Sun's energy. molecules in the water taken up soil that are taken up by the plant's roots. came from the came from came from the air that came in directly by the through holes plant's roots. in the plant's leaves.Explanation / Answer
In our opinion plants growth effected by all four factors. Mostly, light intensity affected the plants growth directly. For instance all nutrient and water available in soil but there is no sunlight or light (right wavelength that required to plants). So photosynthesis can't be occured. However these all factors are dependent to each other.
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