Magnet Biology- 2015-2016 1st Six Weeks Lesson Plan

DeBakey High School for Health Professions Maharaj

Unit: 1 Time Allocations

Nature of Science
Biomolecules
6 Lessons (90-minutes each)

Unit Objectives
Laboratory Safety – Students learn the basics of laboratory safety including: the location
of safety equipment in the laboratory, the importance of safety goggles, and the proper
procedures for dealing with laboratory accidents.
The nature of science – Students learn the basics of conducting scientific investigations
including: asking a question, making observations, forming a hypothesis, designing an
experiment, collecting data, analyzing results and forming conclusions
Biomolecules – Students compare and contrast the structure and function of the different
types of biomolecules: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Students also
analyze how simple organic molecules first formed and how they are organized into
complex molecules
TEKS/SEs – STAAR Assessed Items
BIOL.1A Demonstrate safe practices during laboratory and field investigations.
BIOL.1B Demonstrate an understanding of the use and conservation of resources and the
proper disposal or recycling of materials.
BIOL.2E Plan and implement descriptive, comparative, and experimental investigations,
including asking questions, formulating testable hypotheses, and selecting equipment and
technology.
BIOL.2F Collect and organize qualitative and quantitative data, and make measurements
with accuracy and precision.
BIOL.2G Analyze, evaluate, make inferences, and predict trends from data.
BIOL.2H Communicate valid conclusions supported by the data through methods such as
lab reports, labeled drawings, graphic organizers, journals, summaries, oral reports, and
technology-based reports.
BIOL.3B Communicate and apply scientific information extracted from various sources
such as current events, news reports, published journal articles and marketing materials.
BIOL.3E Evaluate models according to their limitations in representing biological objects
or events.
BIOL.3F Research and describe the history of biology and contributions of scientists.
BIOL.9A Compare the structures and functions of different types of biomolecules
including carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
BIOL.9D Analyze and evaluate the evidence regarding formation of simple organic
molecules and their organization into long complex molecules having information such
as the DNA molecule for self-replicating life.
Key Concepts
• biomolecule • structure • function
Key Skills
• demonstrating safe practices • observing • making inferences • evaluating models
• planning and implementing investigative procedures • collecting and analyzing data
Magnet Biology- 2015-2016 1st Six Weeks Lesson Plan

DeBakey High School for Health Professions Maharaj

Academic Vocabulary
• molecule • protein • compound • carbohydrate • structure • function • organic • enzyme
Content-Specific Vocabulary
• biomolecule • amino acid • nucleic acid • lipid • polymer • fatty acid • monomer
• peptide bond
Essential Understandings / Guiding Questions
• The structures of the four principle types of biomolecules that make up living things
help determine their properties and functions.
1. What are the different types of biomolecules?
2. How do simple organic molecules form into complex molecules?
3. Why is the structure of a biomolecule important to its function?
Assessment Connections
• Use formative assessments throughout the lesson cycle to evaluate students’ progress.
This can also be part of the 5E lesson cycle as the Evaluate section. See “Graphic
Organizers” in the Instructional Strategies/Activities section.
• Performance Expectation – At the end of this unit, students will identify the structure
and function of biomolecules by comparing and contrasting carbohydrates, lipids,
proteins, and nucleic acids.
• Formative Assessment – Biomolecule Comparison: Students create a graphic organizer
to compare and contrast the four biomolecules.
• STAAR Sample Item Question #3 (A) (B.9A)
Instructional Strategies / Activities
Lesson 1:
1. Diagnostic test: establish student current level of knowledge to determine needed
instruction
2. Laboratory safety activity: Students will be divided into groups and each group is
given a certain laboratory safety topics to draw two pictures: Correct lab safety technique
and incorrect lab safety technique. Students will present their work.
3. Lab safety Video
3. Laboratory safety quiz

Lesson 2:
1. LTF lab – begin group work and development of collaborative skills. Problem solving
skills in addition to the use of basic laboratory measurement techniques. Introduction to
the scientific method.
2. Activity to introduce and/or reinforce basic graphing skills. Students will examine
different graphs to determine strengths and weaknesses. Students will develop their own
graphs based on prepared data and then graph their results from the “Vitruvian Man Lab”

Lesson 3:
1. Discuss laboratory safety as review
2. Microscope activity: basic use of the Frey Microscope including setup, use and
shutdown procedures
3. Class Notes: Chapter 2.1 – Cornell Style notes with student interaction and
Magnet Biology- 2015-2016 1st Six Weeks Lesson Plan

DeBakey High School for Health Professions Maharaj

engagement using Senteo clickers and direct question / answer

Lesson 4:
1. Organic Molecules Graphic Organizer – visual representation of the four major groups
of macromolecules.
2.Activity- Hands on Macromolecules Manipulatives
3. LTF Lab to engage students in the everyday nature of macromolecules
4. Quiz on Macromolecules

Lesson 5:
1. Lab “Enzymes” showing the nature of how enzymes lower the activation energy of
reactions. Reinforcing proper lab technique and graphing skills. (TEKS B1A, 1B, 2E,
2F,2G,2H)
2.Hands on understanding how Enzymes work activity
3.Quiz on Enzymes

Lesson 6:
1. Summative Assessment
Nature of Science, Laboratory Safety, Biomolecules

Summative Assessment
Test: Biomolecules
Test: Cycle 1 Common Assessment
Resources
Adopted Instructional Materials

• Prentice Hall Biology, Miller & Levine, Texas Edition, 2004. p. 44-48 (molecular
structure of biomolecules) p. 202-203 (ATP, chemical energy) p. 972-973 (biomolecules
as nutrients)

• Laying the Foundation in Biology, Lesson 5: “McMush”

• Laying the Foundation in Biology, Lesson 24: “Protein Properties:
• Lab: Enzyme Activity
Magnet Biology- 2015-2016 1st Six Weeks Lesson Plan

DeBakey High School for Health Professions Maharaj

Unit: 2 Time Allocations

Matter and Energy Flow in Ecosystems
Variations and Adaptations in Ecosystems
7 Lessons (90-minutes each)
Ecosystem Relationships

Unit Objectives
Matter and Energy Flow in Ecosystems – Students analyze matter and energy flow
through various cycles and through different trophic levels between organisms and their
environment.
Variations and Adaptations in Ecosystems – Students compare variations and adaptations
of organisms that help them grow, reproduce, and survive in different ecosystems.
TEKS/SEs – STAAR Assessed Items
BIOL.2E Plan and implement descriptive, comparative, and experimental investigations,
including asking questions, formulating testable hypotheses, and selecting equipment and
technology.
BIOL.2F Collect and organize qualitative and quantitative data, and make measurements
with accuracy and precision.
BIOL.2G Analyze, evaluate, make inferences, and predict trends from data.
BIOL.2H Communicate valid conclusions supported by the data through methods such as
lab reports, labeled drawings, graphic organizers, journals, summaries, oral reports, and
technology-based reports.
BIOL.11D Describe how events and processes that occur during ecological succession
can change populations and species diversity.
BIOL.12A Interpret relationships including predation, parasitism, commensalism,
mutualism, and competition among organisms.
BIOL.12B Compare variations and adaptations of organisms in different ecosystems.
BIOL.12C Analyze the flow of matter and energy through trophic levels using various
models including food chains, food webs, and ecological pyramids.
BIOL.12D Recognize that long-term survival of species is dependent on changing
resource bases that are limited.
BIOL.12E Describe the flow of matter through the carbon and nitrogen cycles and
explain the consequences of disrupting these cycles.
BIOL.12F Describe how environmental change can impact ecosystem stability
Key Concepts
• energy flow • cycle • trophic level • variation • adaptation • succession • interaction
• predation • symbiosis • relationship • competition
Key Skills
• observing • making inferences • collecting and analyzing data • communicating valid
conclusions • planning and implementing
Academic Vocabulary
Magnet Biology- 2015-2016 1st Six Weeks Lesson Plan

DeBakey High School for Health Professions Maharaj

• food chain • food web • matter • cycle • legume • carbon • nitrogen • producer
• consumer • decomposer • variation • adaptation • diversity • resource • succession
• equilibrium • interaction • interdependence • competition • relationship • predator • prey
• host
Content-Specific Vocabulary
• trophic level • nitrogen fixation • carbon cycle • nitrogen cycle • ecosystem
• assimilate • law of conservation of energy • ecological pyramid • autotroph
• heterotroph • biomass • primary succession • secondary succession • climax community
• pioneer species • limiting factor • tolerance • symbiosis • parasitism • commensalism •
mutualism • niche • limiting factor • predation
Essential Understandings / Guiding Questions
• Energy and matter flow through various cycles and through different trophic levels
between organisms and their environment.

1. What are the different trophic levels and how do they relate to energy flow in an
ecosystem?
2. Through which cycles do energy and matter flow?
3. Why does the flow of energy and matter impact organisms at each trophic level?
• Variations and adaptations exist in plants and animals of different ecosystems.

1. What variations are there between species in an ecosystem?

2. How does evolutionary adaptation enhance species’ ability to survive and reproduce in
specific environments?
3. Why are organisms able to tolerate changes in their environments and how does this
affect their ability to survive?

• Interactions and interdependence of organisms such as predation, competition, and

symbiotic relationships occur in an ecosystem.

1. What are the various relationships that occur among organisms in an ecosystem?
2. Why are these relationships important to the overall health of an ecosystem?
Assessment Connections –
• Performance Expectation – Through the use of models, such as food chains, food webs,
and ecological pyramids, students will analyze the flow of matter and energy through
different trophic levels.
• Formative Assessment – Biome Travel Brochure Students use food chains and
ecological pyramids to explain interactions, energy, and matter transfer in a selected
biome and present their travel brochures to the class.
• STAAR Sample Item Question #12 (B) (B.12C)
• Performance Expectation – Students will compare variations and adaptations of
organisms that help them survive in specific environments. Students will describe events
and processes of succession and changing resources that affect populations.
• Formative Assessment – Bizarre Biome Project Students work in small groups to create
bizarre biomes, and create a plant and an animal that each has characteristics which will
allow that organism to survive in the conditions described.
Magnet Biology- 2015-2016 1st Six Weeks Lesson Plan

DeBakey High School for Health Professions Maharaj

• Formative Assessment – Students work in small groups to gather information and

design a presentation (e.g. poster, skit, or model) and write a brief paragraph to be
presented to the class as a whole. Its purpose is to review succession and broaden
students' views of succession in one ecosystem (the temperate forest) to other ecosystems
such as the coral reef or a pond.
• Performance Expectation – Students will create a visual representation that interprets
the relationships among organisms including predation, competition, and symbiosis.
• Formative Assessment –
• Students create Frayer Models for predation, commensalism, parasitism, mutualism,
and competition.
• Have students watch a clip from the movie Avatar and identify examples of predation,
commensalism, mutualism, and competition.
• Students could create an imaginary community on a distant planet and identify the
interactions found on this planet.
• STAAR Sample Item Question #11 (B) (B.12A)

Instructional Strategies / Activities / Lessons

Lesson 1:
1. Notes Chapter 3 – Cornell Style notes with student interaction and engagement using
2. Lab: Rhizobium – Nitrogen Cycle
Student designed lab, inquiry based, student centered
3.Assign Ecology Project
4. HW: Read Chapter 4

Lesson 2:
1. Lab: Rhizobium – Nitrogen Cycle continued
2. Quiz: Chapter 3
3. Food Web – build a food web using information about organisms and their
relationships provided by the instructor
4. Students explain their food chain and food web to show understanding of how to read
these diagrams.

Lesson 3:
1. Notes Chapter 4 - Cornell Style notes with student interaction and engagement using
2. Lab: Acid Rain Lab – Human Impact on the Environment
3. Ecological Pyramid – Create 3-D ecological pyramid foldable (energy, biomass,
numbers)
5. HW: Read Chapter 5

Lesson 4:
1. Quiz on Chapter 4
2. Notes Chapter 5 - Cornell Style notes with student interaction and engagement using
3. Pre Lab: Deer/Wolf – predator / prey simulation lab
4. HW: Read Chapter 6
Magnet Biology- 2015-2016 1st Six Weeks Lesson Plan

DeBakey High School for Health Professions Maharaj

Lesson 5:
1. Notes Chapter 6 - Cornell Style notes with student interaction and engagement using
2. Life in a Freezer, David Attenborough, BBC Video
3. Quiz on Chapter 5
4. Discussion of adaptations in various biomes

Lesson 6:
1. Ecology Project Presentations – Students present assigned topics with a variety of
mixed media presentations (PowerPoint, music, 3-D models, etc.)
2. Students show their understanding of ecology and are asked critical thinking
question about current event pertaining to ecology today

Lesson 7:
Cycle 1 Assessment

Summative Assessment
Cycle Assessment
Resources
• District-wide resource: Prentice Hall Biology, Miller & Levine, Texas Edition, 2004.
• Effect of Temperature on ColdBlooded Organisms Experiment 23A (Biology with
Calculators by S. Holman, Vernier Software, 2000)
• Prentice Hall Biology, Miller & Levine, Texas Edition, 2004. p. 98-104 (terrestrial
biomes) p. 106-112 (aquatic biomes) p. 90-93 (symbiotic relationships)
• Prentice Hall Biology, Miller & Levine, Texas Edition, 2004. p. 74-80 (cycles) p. 70-73
(energy flow)
• District-wide resource: Prentice Hall Biology, Miller & Levine, Texas Edition, 2004.
• Laying the Foundation in Biology, Lesson 27: “Life in the Cold: Investigating Survival
Strategies and Adaptations”
• “Comparing the Adaptations of Organisms in Different Ecosystems” from
www.adaptivecurriculum.com

Supporting Resources
• Background Knowledge for Teacher
• Introduction to Adaptations –

Teacher Notes
• Life in the Freezer, David Attenborough, BBC Video, 1993.
• Adaptations in Various Biomes – Card Sort and Concept Map
• Penguin Adaptations Activity
• Hollingsworth Science Center specimen requisition form Live
Specimen Requisition Form