NGSS MS-LS1-6
The Standard
Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.
Next Generation Science Standards
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students use observations or data to explain how plants use carbon dioxide, water, and light to make sugars and release oxygen. They trace matter between organisms and the environment while tracking energy from sunlight into food.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can model carbon dioxide and water entering a plant, and sugars and oxygen being produced. They can cite data and distinguish cycling matter from energy moving through a food chain.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think plants get most of their mass from soil or that sunlight is matter. They may also say energy cycles, rather than recognizing that matter cycles while energy moves through organisms and leaves as heat.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A plant gains dry mass while carbon dioxide in its chamber decreases. Draw and label matter and energy arrows, then explain how the data support your model.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Place Elodea in bromothymol blue under light and darkness, then record color changes and infer carbon dioxide movement.
Write an explanation for where a growing tree's mass comes from, using carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight in the response.
Arrange cards for sunlight, carbon dioxide, water, sugar, oxygen, plants, and animals, then label each arrow as matter or energy.
Analyze why greenhouse growers add carbon dioxide and artificial light, then predict how each change affects plant growth.
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Printable MS-LS1-6 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to MS-LS1-6, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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What This Unlocks
Mastery here sets students up for these next.
- HS-LS2-5
Understanding photosynthesis as matter cycling and energy input is essential for modeling how carbon moves between organisms and Earth systems.
- HS-LS1-7
Photosynthesis matter and energy ideas help students understand food molecules as stored energy used in cellular respiration.
- HS-LS1-6
Understanding photosynthesis as matter and energy flow supports explaining how sugar atoms are rearranged into larger biomolecules.
- HS-LS1-5
Understanding photosynthesis as matter cycling and energy flow supports modeling how light becomes stored chemical energy in sugars.
Keep exploring
Related Standards
- MS-LS1-5
Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
- HS-LS2-4
Use a mathematical representation to support claims for the cycling of matter and flow of energy among organisms in an ecosystem.
- HS-LS2-3
Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for the cycling of matter and flow of energy in aerobic and anaerobic conditions.
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