OpenSciEd 7.6, Lesson 7: Concentration of Gases Data Task
Task
Use this Data Task with OpenSciEd Unit 7.6, Lesson 7. Tuva has digitized the paper graphs used during Part 3: Analyze Changes in Composition of Gases in the Air to to provide opportunities for students to deepen their ability to process and analyze data. This Data Task is not a standalone lesson. Use it in tandem with the OpenSciEd Teacher Edition to guide overall instruction and collaborative sensemaking. How This Data Task Fits into the Storyline? In the previous lesson, students used evidence from multiple case sites to explain how rising temperatures are affecting Earth's water system. They concluded that temperatures are increasing across all case sites and began wondering what might be causing those temperature changes. During this lesson, students investigate whether changes in the composition of Earth's atmosphere could be related to rising temperatures. When to Use This Data Task Use this Tuva Data Task after completing Parts 1 and 2 of the OpenSciEd lesson.(Use pages 5–8 of the OpenSciEd Teacher Edition to facilitate.) During Part 3 (Analyze Changes in Composition of Gases in the Air), project Tuva, have students open the Data Task on their computers. Students will work in small groups to graph the atmospheric gas data and calculate percentages. Depending on your students' comfort levels with calculating percentages, you may want to complete Step 1 together. At the end of Part 3, we have added a few reflection questions designed to get students thinking about scale and proportion in graphs and how scale can be misleading. These questions simultaneously prepare students for active participation during the subsequent discussion. Rely on the Teacher Edition for guidance. What Comes Next During Part 4, Facilitate a Building Understandings Discussion, students can use the graphs they created in Tuva to compare changes in atmospheric gases, justify their percent-change calculations with evidence, and discuss which gases may be related to rising temperatures. The saved visualizations provide evidence for updating the Driving Question Board and developing new questions for future investigations. The remainder of the lesson will be completed outside of Tuva.
In the last lesson, you used evidence from communities across the United States to explain how rising temperatures are affecting Earth's water system. You discovered that temperatures are increasing across all of the case sites. That led to a new question: What is causing temperatures to rise? Today, you will investigate the gases that make up Earth's atmosphere. You will look at data to see how gas levels have changed over time, compare how much each gas changed, and find patterns that might help explain why Earth is getting warmer.
Topics and standards: Earth Science, MS-ESS3-3, MS-ESS3-5, MS-ESS3-4, MS-ETS1-2, Grade 7, MS-ESS3-1, OpenSciEd, 3.3.6-8.O, 3.3.6-8.K, 3.3.6-8.M, 3.3.6-8.N