Digital Unit Plan – Goals, Objectives and Assessments

Unit Title: Homeostasis Name: Ashwini Chawla, Elise Johnson,

Vaness Crook

Content Area: Biology Grade Level: 9th

Next Generation Science Standards/Performance Expectations

Performance Expectations
HS-LS1-2: Develop and use a model to illustrate​ ​the hierarchical organization​ ​of interacting
systems​ ​that provide specific functions within multicellular organisms.
HS-LS1-3: Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that​ ​feedback mechanisms
maintain homeostasis.
HS-LS1-4: Use a model​ ​to illustrate the role of​ ​cellular division (mitosis) and differentiation in
producing and maintaining complex organisms.
HS-ETS1-1: Analyze a major global challenge​ ​to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria
and constraints for solutions that account​ ​for societal needs and wants.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

LS1.A: Structure and Function
● Multicellular organisms have a hierarchical structural organization, in which any one
system is made up of numerous parts and is itself a component of the next level.
● Feedback mechanisms maintain a living system’s internal conditions within certain
limits and mediate behaviors, allowing it to remain alive and functional even as
external conditions change within some range. Feedback mechanisms can encourage
(through positive feedback) or discourage (negative feedback) what is going on inside
the living system.
LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms
● In multicellular organisms individual cells grow and then divide via a process called
mitosis, thereby allowing the organism to grow. The organism begins as a single cell
(fertilized egg) that divides successively to produce many cells, with each parent cell
passing identical genetic material (two variants of each chromosome pair) to both
daughter cells. Cellular division and differentiation produce and maintain a complex
organism, composed of systems of tissues and organs that work together to meet the
needs of the whole organism.
ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems
 ● Criteria and constraints also include satisfying any requirements set by society, such as
taking issues of risk mitigation into account, and they should be quantified to the extent
possible and stated in such a way that one can tell if a given design meets them.
● Humanity faces major global challenges today, such as the need for supplies of clean
water and food or for energy sources that minimize pollution, which can be addressed
through engineering. These global challenges also may have manifestations in local
communities.

Epistemic Practices
HS-LS1-2: Modeling (communication, collaboration, and connecting concepts)
HS-LS1-3: Investigation, modeling, argumentation, and negotiation of expository text
(communication, collaboration, constructing an argument based on evidence, and connecting
concepts)
HS-LS1-4: Modeling and argumentation (communication, collaboration, and constructing an
argument based on evidence)
HS-ETS1-1: Negotiation of expository text and argumentation (communication, collaboration,
and constructing an argument based on evidence)

Anchoring Activity

Students are investigating how much is too much water through negotiation of expository text.
Students will read the following news story:
(​https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woman-dies-after-water-drinking-contest/​). Using their prior
knowledge and experiences, students will individually think about what would happen if they
drank too much water and then write down their thoughts. Then, students will discuss their
ideas in small groups. This will allow them to access and discuss their prior knowledge. Then
the teacher will provide a second news story
(​https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3260684/The-hiker-died-drinking-water-Excess-fl
uid-lack-food-caused-brain-fatally-swell.html​).
With this additional information, students will individually draw a simple model explaining
how they think drinking too much water killed the person in the news story. Students will
share their individual models in their small groups to create a group model to explain how too
much water can affect an individual. We will then have a class discussion on why this death
occurred. This will lead into the topic of cells and the effects of hypertonic and hypotonic
solutions on cells.

Driving Question of the Unit

How does drinking too much water affect your body?

Unit Goals---Describe what you want students to be able to do. For example, I wanted my
students to be able to know when to use the epistemic practices when I gave them verbal or
visual cues. Students will need to be able to recognize science even if it is not in the verbal
form. See the article “Outside the Pipeline: Reimagining Science Education for Nonscientists.
A summary of the article is in the appendix of this unit plan template.

We want students to be able to understand homeostasis, positive and negative feedback loops,
and how systems work together to maintain homeostasis. Students will need to effectively
research a given topic and construct and articulate a solution to a problem and support
rationale with factual evidence. Students will be able to ask questions and communicate
information, engage in argumentation to support their claims with evidence, model system
interactions, design solutions for water contamination, and identify and apply criteria and
constraints. These concepts are important for students to learn because it will allow them to
understand the world around them, the effects of pollution on our bodies and ecosystems, and
why there are limited resources and their individual carbon footprint.

Lesson 1 – [Cell Theory] HS-LS1-4

Student Learning Objective: Acceptable Evidence – Formative and/or Summative

Using prior knowledge and the
principles of cell theory, students
will construct and revise a model
to explain that complex
multicellular organisms are
composed of cells.
Assessment:
Students will individually create an initial model on cell
theory and what cells look like based on their prior
knowledge. Then the teacher will lecture and show
videos on cell theory. With the new information the
students will revise their model using principles of cell
theory and add simple written explanation. Students will
be assessed on this initial model.

Show students a cells underneath the microscope.

“Where does water go in a cell”. Teacher will
demonstration what will happen when a potato is in
water. Students will think about and answer “Why did it
shrivel up?” This ties back to the topic of cells and the
effects of hypertonic and hypotonic solutions on cells
from the anchoring activity.

Lesson 2 – [Cell Differentiation] HS-LS1-4

Student Learning Objective: Acceptable Evidence – Formative and/or Summative

Assessment:
Using evidence from trustworthy
sources, students will construct
and revise a model of mitosis
and use it to write an explanation
of how mitosis allows for the
growth of an organism.
Students will also investigate the
process of cellular differentiation
through negotiation of
expository text.
Lesson 3 – [Systems, Components] HS-LS1-2
Student Learning Objective:
Students will research the
hierarchical organization of
multicellular organisms and
refine their models to show
relationships between interacting
components of a body system
and the different levels within
the system.
Lesson 4 - [Homeostasis] HS-LS1-3
Student Learning Objective:
Students will investigate how
their body changes before and
after engaging in simple exercise
through observation and data
recording of pulse
measurements.
Students will create a final model that includes genetically
identical parent and daughter cells and shows how mitosis
allows for the growth of an organism. ​Written explanation
with research and evidence from trustworthy resources will
be incorporated in this model.
Acceptable Evidence – Formative and/or Summative
Assessment:
Refined model of mitosis that shows cells differentiating
into specific cell types, shows the hierarchical organization
of a major body system from the cellular to the organismal
level, and shows relationships between interacting
components of a system and the different levels within the
system. This connects to the anchoring activity by
emphasizing the role of water in major body systems.
Acceptable Evidence – Formative and/or Summative
Assessment:
Students will make an initial claim regarding the effect of
energy expenditure in the body. Students will investigate
how their body changes before and after engaging in
simple exercise (such as jumping jacks), through
observation and data recording of pulse measurements. The
assessment will be on the written CER template including:
the claim, evidence, if the data the students collected
supports or rejects this claim, and reasoning.
Collect data to graph (time spent doing jumping jacks (or #
of jumping jacks) vs heart rate in bpm)
This connects to anchoring activity on how the body
regulates itself, i.e. positive negative feedback.
Lesson 5 - [Water Contaminants] HS-ETS1-1

Student Learning Objective: Acceptable Evidence – Formative and/or Summative

Students will collect data on
different possible water
contaminants and construct and
present a solution to purify water
Assessment:
Students will be told which chemicals were found in a
water sample near a toxic waste facility. Through table
rotations, students will collect data and information on
different chemicals that were found in the water regarding
how they affect humans and how the chemical can be
eliminated from the water.
As groups of scientists, the students will create a
presentation on the best solution to purify the water,
including how the chemicals affect humans, which
chemicals they plan to eliminate, and giving appropriate
reasoning throughout.
Presentation will include: claim, evidence, how the
chemicals in the water affect humans, and reasoning.
This connects to how the body regulates itself and how it
can be affected by external and internal factors.

Unit Summative Assessment

Students will write a CER essay on the following question:

“Your friend on the soccer team is telling your teammates to each drink a gallon of water
during their warm-up, which is 20 minutes, so they do not become dehydrated during the
game. Based on what you have learned during this unit, explain why/how this is dangerous.
You will need to provide peer-reviewed scientific evidence to support your statements and
claims.”
Students will understand and interpret the scientific principles that “speak” to the driving
questions and anchoring activities presented in the coursework, this includes cell theory,
homeostasis, and human anatomical or physiological tolerance to certain substances.

Useful Websites:
Cell Theory
Newsela: The facts about cells
How Stuff Works: How the Scientific Method Works

Cell Differentiation
BiologyWise: What is Cell Differentiation?
Your genome: What is mitosis?
Video: Amoeba Sisters: How Cells Become Specialized
Newsela: All the cells in the human body

Systems, Components
Sciencing: How Are Cells, Tissues, & Organs Related?
BBC Bitesize: Cells to Systems
Video: National Geographic: Human Body 101

Homeostasis
Video: Amoeba Sisters: Homeostasis and Negative/Positive Feedback
Video: SciShow: Can I Die From Too Much Water? Blood? Oxygen?
Video: TED-Ed: Why do we sweat? - John Murnan
Online Interactive: Body Control Center
Animation: Skin and temperature regulation
Online Heart Rate Monitor
Livestrong: How Does the Body Maintain Homeostasis in Response to Exercise?
Sciencing: How Does the Body Regulate Heart Rate?

Water Contaminants
Bozeman Science: Water Pollution
EPA: Carbon Footprint Calculator
EPA: Potential Well Water Contaminants and Their Impacts
All About Water Filters: Causes and Effects of Water Contamination: Your Ultimate Guide
CDC: Water-related Diseases and Contaminants in Public Water Systems
American Geosciences Institute: What are the effects of contaminants on water quality?

Additional
Science: Outside the Pipeline: Reimagining Science Education for Nonscientists
NY Times: Pentagon Pushes for Weaker Standards on Chemicals Contaminating Drinking
Water