NGSS Lesson Planning Template

Grade/ Grade Band: 3-5th grade

Topic: Is it living

Lesson # __6__ in a series of

_7___ lessons

Brief Lesson Description: Mission crew will need to sustain themselves when they land on Mars. This lesson
helps students think about how to support life and deal with misconceptions about what is living and what is not
living.
Performance Expectation(s):
4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that
function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
4-LS1-2 Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their
senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.

Specific Learning Outcomes: Students will engage in a field research study to determine the
conditions for supporting life on Mars. Based on observations, categorizations, and evaluations
about Earth conditions, students will begin a narrative about how to support the Mars mission crew
once they get established on the surface.
Lesson Level Narrative
Now that we are on the surface of Mars, it is time to transform the surface so that is can support life. Your tasks is
to figure out what on Mars needs to be transformed, what about Mars makes it inhospitable to life currently and
how can we change it? You will construct the criteria for supporting life based on observations that you have
made about planet Earth.
Science & Engineering
Practices:
Developing and Using Models to test
interactions concerning the support
of life on Mars.
Engaging in Argumentation from
Evidence
Students will construct an
argument based on their
observations about what is
living and what is not
living. They will come up
with the best criteria for
supporting life on Mars.

Disciplinary Core Ideas:

LS1.A Structure and Function
Plants and animals have
both internal and external
structures that serve
various functions in
growth, survival, behavior,
and reproduction.

Crosscutting Concepts:
Systems and System models
A system can be described
in terms of its components
and their interactions

Possible Preconceptions/Misconceptions:
Students will need to know that the atmosphere on Mars is thin and cannot currently support life on the surface.
In addition, it is very cold, has a carbon dioxide based atmosphere, and has a source of water, which is a BIG
BINGO. Students will need to have this discussion with you about what can happen on the surface to help
transform the surface to support Earth based life. So, the mission crew would need breathable air, use the water
to support plant life, plants make O2 as a byproduct of photosynthesis. Preconceptions of students may include
seeing food as substances (water, air, minerals, etc.) that organisms take directly in from their environment
Anderson, C., Sheldon, T., Dubay, J. (1990). The effects of instruction on college nonmajors' conceptions of
respiration and photosynthesis. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 27, 761-776. Students may also think
that food is a requirement for growth, rather than a source of matter for growth. They have little knowledge
about food being transformed and made part of organism.
LESSON PLAN 5-E Model

EXPLORE:
Lesson is short this week. Expand by making slideshow.
What is living

what is non living

Show visuals of living and non living things .

Ask students to look outside and draw one thing that living or non living
a sentence explaining why its living or non living

EXPLAIN:
Pass out the different sand to each group.
worksheet: describe what you see
draw what you see in your cup
Now we add boiling water
worksheet 2: describe what you see
draw what you see in your cup

ELABORATE: Is there life on mars? Did we see a reaction in our cups? What do we do with this information?

EVALUATE:
Connect by to the mission on mars, what do we do with this information? we want to sent it back home. So how
do we back home?

Elaborate Further / Reflect: Enrichment: