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Meet the Micro:bits
Coding is easy and fun when students meet the micro:bits. Learn to write and download code, so you are ready to create your own scientific tools!
Meet the Micro:bits
Coding is easy and fun when students meet the micro:bits. Learn to write and download code, so you are ready to create your own scientific tools!
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
California Wildfires
Watch Class Movie
teacher Prep
Lab sheet & activites
Class Movie
Watch Class Movie
Class Movie
Teacher Prep Movie
Lab Materials Needed
Blockey Koa Crate
from Kea STEMCrate
- 1 Springy Spring Scale per student
Student Lab Sheet
All Living Things are Made of Cells
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
Teacher Edition
(English/Spanish)
From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes MS-LS1-1:
Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells, either of one cell or of many different numbers and types of cells. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on developing evidence that living things are made of cells, distinguishing between living and non-living things, and understanding that living things may be made of one cell or many and varied cells.]
Pacing Guide:
Color Key: Green words- Hands-on Activity Black words- Book reading Blue words: Revisit the Phenomenon
Instruction day 1: Explore the Phenomenon: Experiment with yeast
Yeast Lab
By Soleil Hurst
Cell/Molecular Biologist, STEMTaught
Summary: Students watch a short animation on the history of cell theory.
They will experiment with yeast and observe its properties.
Lesson Objective: Students will observe what characteristics comprise something that is living vs something that is nonliving.
Materials needed:
- Yeast, pipette
- 2 test tubes per student (Kea)
- Lab spoon per student (Kea)
- Petri dish Kea
- water (warm and/or cold),
- Meeka Microscope or Micro Peek app
- Paper towels or plate for students to experiment on (Good outdoor lab)
Lesson Anchor Question:
How do you determine if something is living or nonliving?
Introduction: Students will explore the difference between living and nonliving things. A common life cycle for a living organism is to be born, to grow, to reproduce, and to die.
Watch this video about seeing the invisible through a microscope.
Video was made by HHMI entitled 'Seeing the Invisible: van Leeuwenhoek's first glimpses of the microbial world.' "In 1674, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek looked at a drop of lake water through his homemade microscope and discovered an invisible world that no one knew existed. His work inspired countless microbiology researchers, including HHMI investigator Bonnie Bassler, one of the narrators of this animated feature. Leeuwenhoek was a haberdasher and city official in Delf, The Netherlands.He started making simple microscopes and using them to observe the world around him. He was the first to discover bacteria, protists, blood cells, rotifers, and much more." http://www.biointeractive.org/seeing-...
Yeast Lab:
1. Have students observe the yeast under the microscope and record observations. Students get a small spoon-full of yeast in a petri dish.
Guiding questions:
What do you see? What do you smell? Do you think that yeast is living or non-living?
2. Direct students to discuss their reasons why they think the yeast is living or non-living? How could the students set up an experiment to find out?
Guiding questions:
How could you set up an experiment to find out if the yeast is living or non-living using supplies in our room?
3. Listen to the students suggestions and try and guide the students to use the food source that you have in the class namely sugar!
Guiding questions:
What do living things require? Do living things grow? What makes them grow?
4. Prompt students to use a few test tubes maybe with some yeast with some food and without food.
Explain:
Water is another important part of life and water will also help break down (Dissolve) the sugar.
5. Place test tubes side by side, observe and record volumes.
Class Powerpoint
1. Guide students through the experiment with these slides.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: Looking at the dry yeast, how is it different from the sugar?
Example: The yeast looks yellow and round. The sugar looks white.
Ask: What happened when you added sugar to your yeast test tube?
Example: What happened when you added sugar to your yeast test tube?
Ask: What happened when you added water to your yeast and sugar test tube?
Example: After closing the test tube and waiting, the volume changed. Example: The test tube volume was at about 15mL right after I added the water. After 30 minutes, the volume changed! It increased to 20 mL.
Ask: What happened when you added water to your test tube containing only yeast?
Example: After all the conditions were the same as the other test tube, except for sugar, I did not see a change in volume after 30 minutes. The volume remained the same from the beginning, as 15 mL.
Ask: Did the temperature of the water have an effect on any changes you observed in your test tubes?
Example: Yes, I observed that with cold water the volume changed slow. But when adding warm water, the volume changed faster.
Ask: What changes did you observe in your test tubes? Did you observe a difference in volumes? What do you think caused the change in volume?
Example: I saw a change in volume and a lot of foam and bubbles form at the top of the liquid. The volume of the test tube with yeast, sugar and water increased. The volume of the test tube with yeast and water remained the same.
Ask: Based on all your observations in this experiment, do you think yeast are living or nonliving? Explain your answer.
Example: Yeast are living organisms. They break down the sugar, they reproduce. I saw them become active yeast in the test tube.
Explore Further:
Design an experiment where you will be able to observe the behavior of yeast in the presence of other substances. Determine if your experiment can confirm whether yeast are living or nonliving (for example, adding salt instead of sugar to the yeast).
Instruction day 2 (pages 11 - 12): Read and discuss
Summary: A fun introduction to the author and to cells in a riddle. This can be a fun interactive activity to guess the riddle.
Lesson Objective: To introduce the concept that all living things are made up of cells. Cells form tissues in animals and plants. Some organisms are made up of a single cell; these are unicellular.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: What do you call an organism that is made up of multiple cells?
Answer: A multicellular organism.
Instruction day 3 (pages 13 - 14): Read and discuss
Summary: An introduction to the cell.
Lesson Objective: Students understand that all living things come from a single cell and that living things are classified as either unicellular or multicellular.
Who came first; the egg or the chicken?
Teacher Support:
Watch a video on zebrafish development. Zebrafish are excellent animal models for development studies because they grow fast and are transparent.
Additional Resources
Instruction day 4 (pages 15 - 16): Read and discuss
Summary: The components of cells are called organelles, and they help the cell function and survive.
Lesson objective: Students learn that plants and animals are multicellular organisms, made up of millions and millions of cells.
Instructions: Label the amount of cells each organism on p. 16 by using the information on the table on p. 15.
Additional Resources
Instruction day 5 (pages 17 - 18): Read and discuss
Summary: Living organisms are classified into two kingdoms: eukaryotes and prokaryotes.
Lesson objective: Students learn the general classification of living organisms.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: What characteristics distinguish a eukaryotic vs. a prokaryotic cell?
Example: Eukaryotes have a membrane enclosed organelles, including a membrane enclosed nucleus.
Prokaryotes do not have membrane-enclosed organelles. Genetic material is not enclosed but free in the cell.
Instruction day 6 (pages 19 - 20): Read, draw, and discuss
Summary: Students learn about plant and animal cells
Lesson objective: Students understand the difference between plant and animal cells.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: Why do you think animal cells can’t produce food energy from the sun like plant cells do?
Example: Animal cells do not have the specialized chloroplast organelle. The chloroplast is responsible for photosynthesis and is able to transform light energy from the sun into sugar (food energy).
Additional Resources
Watch a cool 3D animation of the inside of a leaf:
Cells rap song!
Instruction day 7 (pages 21 - 22): Read and discuss
Summary: Protists are eukaryotic cells that live as solitary cells. There are different types of protists: some are hunters like the protozoa, some are photosynthesizers like the unicellular algae, and some are scavengers like yeast.
Lesson Objective: Students understand that unicellular organisms can be just as complex as multicellular organisms.
Materials Needed: Petri dish, Pipette, Meeka Microscope or Micro Peek app, water sample (from puddle, pond or nearby water source)
Instructions: Students observe a water sample they will collect from a puddle, pond or nearby water source. Investigate and count the number of protozoa and diatoms. Each sample should have lots of small diatoms and not very many protists. Diatoms are responsible for producing some oxygen, as their numbers will probably show.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: Which type of protists were more abundant in your water sample?
Example: I saw lots of algae and protists.
Ask: Why do you think it is unsafe to drink puddle water?
Example: Some microorganisms are parasitic, they can cause harm. Drinking puddle water could cause stomach problems because of the microorganisms and bacteria that may be in the dirty water.
Instruction day 8 (pages 23 - 24): Read, draw, and discuss
Summary: Bacteria are simple microorganisms that belong to the prokaryotic kingdom. Bacteria have a fast growth rate. They exist in various different shapes and live in all kinds of environments.
Lesson Objective: Students learn that bacteria can be beneficial and harmful. Bacteria are important microorganisms that live in different environments and are used as model organisms for scientific studies.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: What is a microbiome? Do a little research to find out!
Example: A microbiome is a community of microorganisms such as bacteria, archaea, fungi, and even viruses, that live within an ecosystem or organism.
Additional Resources
The Hidden World of Microbiomes
Instruction day 9 (pages 25 - 26): Read, graph, and discuss
Summary: Measuring bacterial growth rate by calculating how many bacterial cells grow in a given amount of time
Lesson Objective: Students will calculate and graph a bacterial growth model.
Instruction day 10 (pages 27 - 28): Read and discuss
Summary: Archaea are the most primitive form of bacteria.
Lesson Objective: To learn about archaea that live in extreme temperature environments.
Tongariro National Park, New Zealand
Read about the Arctic bacteria: Signs of Life: Sulfur Deposits at Borup Fiord Pass, Canadian Arctic
A virus is a simple infectious agent that takes advantage of its host’s machinery to replicate itself. Viruses are very small; they are submicroscopic. They can infect animals, plants, and even bacteria.
Borup Fiord Pass, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada
Watch a video on how cells battle viruses. A good introduction to cell function and the role of the different organelles.
Additional Resources
Covid 19 Virus video:
Instruction day 11 (pages 29 - 30): Read and discuss
Summary: The mechanism of how viruses attack cells is explained.
Lesson objective: Students learn about how the T4 virus hijacks a bacterial cell.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: Viruses are not considered living organisms, but some scientists believe that they are. Based on what you know now, what do you think? Are viruses living or nonliving?
Example: Living.
Instruction day 12 (page 31): STEM Vocabulary
Summary: Students use their notes and STEMTaught journal to elaborate on the list of STEM vocabulary words.
Lesson Objective: Students learn the definition of cell related science terms.
Instruction day 13 (pages 32 - 34): Hands on activity: Discover critters!
Summary: Students discover the microscopic world of cells with their own pond water samples. An in-class video explores the microscopic species found at River Walk Park in California, and in a hot spring in Utah. Students are introduced to basic concepts in microbiology as they view single-celled protozoa, single celled algae called diatoms, and multicellular microscopic organisms with visible body systems made of unique cell types.
Lesson objective: Students investigate pond water samples with Meeka microscope or the Micro Peep app to see that plants and animals are made of cells. Observe how cells connect to make living organisms and that cells have organelles inside them. Identify unicellular and multicellular organisms.
Materials needed:
- 1 Tedros test tube, 1 Pippi Pipette, 1 Petri dish, Sienna sampler class set (Test tube holder to prevent spills)
Cells in Pond Water
Your students will be amazed at the life that can be found with a single drop of water.
Teacher support:
Before the Lab:
Teachers, watch the Teacher Prep video for the lab:
Teacher Video: Lab Prep
Use the Lab Assistant sheet to prepare for the lab:
Have students watch the water sampling video.
Lab day:
Watch the video on discovering cells in pond water samples
Pond Water Microorganism Identification Guide
Additional Resources
Instruction day 14 (page 35): Writing Workshop
Summary: After being introduced to cells, students are able to apply what they learned by writing about living vs. nonliving things and how organisms are classified into the different kingdoms of bacteria, archaea, prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
Lesson objective: Prompt reading and comprehension on how things are classified as living or nonliving.
Students compare and contrast eukaryotic vs. prokaryotic organism.
Instruction day 15: Evaluate
Google Forms Quiz: Teachers can access what students understand through this google forms quiz.
Click the link to copy this google form into your personal Google classroom.
Click the link to copy this form into your Google classroom.
*No password is required for the quiz*
Coding Activity: Bubble Bots
Bubble Bots are on the Move
Manipulate angles and coordinate axes
Make your bubble bot trace obtuse angles, acute angles and various triangles, parallelograms, and shapes.