Mississippi Science MAQ.5

MAQ.5 is a cluster heading. These are the individual standards under it.

• MAQ.5.1

  Survey common primary producers and their roles in primary production in relation to geographical distribution within various aquatic ecosystems.

• MAQ.5.2

  List and describe common autotrophs that may be found in particular aquatic ecosystems, including prokaryotes (e.g., Cyanobacteria and Archaebacteria), protists...

• MAQ.5.3

  Recognize characteristics that are shared and derived using graphical representations of primary-producer evolution and develop cladograms/phylogenetic trees.

• MAQ.5.4

  Use dichotomous keys to identify sample producers within an aquatic ecosystem.

• MAQ.5.5

  Paraphrase energy conversion processes (e.g., photosynthesis and chemosynthesis).

• MAQ.5.6

  Enrichment: Research, analyze, and communicate historical and current methodologies for measuring primary productivity. Use an engineering design process to des...

01

What Students Need to Do

Students identify common aquatic producers and match them to likely habitats. They use a key to identify samples and shared traits to build a simple evolutionary tree. They explain how producers make food using sunlight or energy from chemical reactions.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

A student can place kelp in cool coastal water, mangroves on warm shorelines, and chemosynthetic archaea at vents. They can identify a diatom with a key and group producers by traits rather than habitat. They can explain why a vent producer does not need sunlight.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students may call kelp and seagrass the same kind of plant because both grow underwater. They may assume all producers need sunlight. They may group organisms on an evolutionary tree because they share a habitat, rather than shared traits.

04

How to Assess It

Give students three trait cards: silica shell and nucleus, flowers and nucleus, and no nucleus with chemical energy use. Ask them to name a producer and likely habitat for each, then group the cards by presence of a nucleus.

1. 01

   Give pairs cards with photos and habitat clues for diatoms, kelp, seagrass, mangroves, and vent archaea; sort them by habitat and energy source.

2. 02

   Ask students why seagrass grows in a sunlit bay while chemosynthetic archaea survive at a dark vent.

3. 03

   Use a printed dichotomous key to identify producer photos, then place cyanobacteria, diatoms, and seagrass on a tree using nuclei and flowers.

4. 04

   Compare satellite chlorophyll maps with upwelling maps; mark where phytoplankton growth may be high and explain why chlorophyll is only an estimate.

• ENV.1

  Students will investigate the interdependence of diverse living organisms and their interactions with the components of the biosphere.

• BIO.5

  Students will Investigate and evaluate the interdependence of living organisms and their environment.

• MAQ.6

  Students will investigate characteristics of aquatic invertebrates.

• MAQ.4

  Students will examine characteristics of specific aquatic ecosystems and the effects of human and natural phenomena on those ecosystems.