Indiana Science HS-ENV2-1

ScienceGrades 9–12Environmental Science

The Standard

Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for the cycling of matter through sources and sinks and how energy is transferred.

Indiana Academic Standards for Science (2023) · Flow of Matter and Energy

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students trace carbon as it moves among the air, plants, animals, and soil. They use evidence to explain which places release or store carbon and how energy moves through the system. They revise their explanation when new evidence challenges it.
What Mastery Looks Like: Given daytime and nighttime CO2 data, a student explains why plants take in more carbon during the day but still release CO2 through respiration. They point to the data, revise an earlier claim, and show that carbon cycles while energy enters as sunlight and eventually leaves as heat.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think energy cycles back to the sun along with carbon. They may think a carbon sink makes carbon disappear or that plants never release CO2.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: A terrarium's CO2 level drops in daylight and rises overnight. Revise the claim “plants only remove CO2,” using both observations, and explain where the carbon and energy go.

Lesson moves

Move carbon beads among air, plant, animal, and soil cups; use separate energy beads to show sunlight entering and heat leaving.
Show a graph of CO2 dropping by day and rising at night; ask students to explain the change and revise a claim about plants.
Give pairs carbon source, sink, and process cards; have them match photosynthesis, respiration, and decay to arrows, then explain one match.
Trace carbon from air into a schoolyard tree and fallen leaves, then into soil; track sunlight to sugars and heat.

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