Cellular Energy Teaching Box

Use the POGIL process to help students learn about the organelles of the cell.

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Resource Attribution
POGIL Activities for High School Biology

Resource Type
Classroom Activity

Equip students to use compound microscopes with this activity.

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Resource Attribution
Katie Ward, Aragon High School

Resource Type
Classroom Activity

Introduce students to cells from a variety of kingdoms by preparing and looking at them through the microscope.

Resource Link

Resource Attribution
Katie Ward, Aragon High School

Resource Type
Classroom Activity

Teaching Notes
Beginning the unit by addressing the structures of the cell and its organelles allows students to place in context the relative sizes of these structures and their relationships to each other.

This lecture offers students a basic understanding of the structure of the cell membrane and how different types of molecules pass through it.

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Resource Attribution
Julie Thompson

Resource Type
Lecture

Teaching Notes
Use this lecture either before or after the lab included in this unit.

Expose students to osmosis in action. By making predictions, observing, and collecting and analyzing data, students see the cell membrane at work.

Resource Link

Resource Attribution
Julie Thompson

Resource Type
Classroom Activity

Allow students to see and identify the inputs and outputs of photosynthesis for themselves in this lab.

Resource Link

Resource Attribution
Julie Thompson (based on an activity from Brad Williamson)

Resource Type
Classroom Activity

Teaching Notes
This laboratory activity can be used to test various factors that affect the rate of photosynthesis. For example, if the spinach-disks sample is placed in the dark, no bubbles form, suggesting photosynthesis requires light. Or, if a student performs the protocol but chooses to leave out the bicarbonate (which acts as a source of CO₂), no bubbles will form, suggesting CO₂ is necessary for photosynthesis. The end goal is for students to make claims regarding the inputs and outputs of photosynthesis based on data.

Extension ideas: Could the glucose produced by the disks during the experiment be detected somehow?

Explore the misconception that a growing plant gets most of its mass from soil and water, rather than from CO₂ produced by photosynthesis.

Resource Link

Resource Attribution
Julie Thompson

Resource Type
Classroom Activity

Teaching Notes
Before beginning this activity, students should be able to produce independently the correct equation for photosynthesis. This activity helps explore the common misconception that growing plants gain most of their dry mass from soil or water, when in fact most of their dry mass comes from CO₂ absorbed from the air during photosynthesis. Even though students know the inputs and outputs of photosynthesis (and that there is no soil in that equation) they often predict that the mass of a plant comes from the soil.

Explore the inputs required for cellular respiration using this lab.

Resource Link

Resource Attribution
Julie Thompson

Resource Type
Classroom Activity

Teaching Notes
This laboratory activity can be used to test various factors that affect the rate of cellular respiration. For example, if the yeast sample is given no sugar, little CO₂ is produced. Or, if a student chooses to double the amount of sugar, more CO₂ is formed. The end goal is for students to make claims regarding the inputs and outputs of cellular respiration based on data.

Extension ideas: Could a test be devised to test the amount of sugar or alcohol produced by the yeast?

Introduce students to the basics of photosynthesis.

Resource Link

Resource Attribution
Julie Thompson

Resource Type
Lecture

Introduce students to the basics of cellular respiration.

Resource Link

Resource Attribution
Julie Thompson

Resource Type
Lecture

Science and Engineering Practices

Developing and Using Models

• Develop a model based on evidence to illustrate the relationships between systems or components of a system. (HS-LS2-5)

Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking

• Use mathematical representations of phenomena or design solutions to support claims. (HS-LS2-4)

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

• Construct and revise an explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources (including students’ own investigations, models, theories, simulations, peer review) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future. (HS-LS1-6),(HS-LS2-3)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

• The process of photosynthesis converts light energy to stored chemical energy by converting carbon dioxide plus water into sugars plus released oxygen. (HS-LS1-5)
• The sugar molecules thus formed contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen: their hydrocarbon backbones are used to make amino acids and other carbon-based molecules that can be assembled into larger molecules (such as proteins or DNA), used for example to form new cells. (HS-LS1-6)
• As matter and energy flow through different organizational levels of living systems, chemical elements are recombined in different ways to form different products. (HS-LS1-6),(HS-LS1-7)
• As a result of these chemical reactions, energy is transferred from one system of interacting molecules to another. Cellular respiration is a chemical process in which the bonds of food molecules and oxygen molecules are broken and new compounds are formed that can transport energy to muscles. Cellular respiration also releases the energy needed to maintain body temperature despite ongoing energy transfer to the surrounding environment. (HS-LS1-7)

PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes

• The main way that solar energy is captured and stored on Earth is through the complex chemical process known as photosynthesis. (secondary to HS-LS2-5)

Crosscutting Concepts

Systems and System Models

• Models (e.g., physical, mathematical, computer models) can be used to simulate systems and interactions—including energy, matter, and information flows—within and between systems at different scales. (HS-LS2-5)

Energy and Matter

• Changes of energy and matter in a system can be described in terms of energy and matter flows into, out of, and within that system. (HS-LS1-5), (HS-LS1-6)
• Energy cannot be created or destroyed—it only moves between one place and another place, between objects and/or fields, or between systems. (HS-LS1-7),(HS-LS2-4)

This work was supported by the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health under Science Education Partnership Award Number R25OD016525. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.