In this unit, From Sun to Food, students try to figure out how a delicious pizza comes to be.  To try to explain this phenomenon, students will develop and refine a farm model throughout each lesson.  Students will see how matter is cycled through ecosystems and how energy flows from the sun to the consumers in a food chain. As students engage in the activities in this unit, the Crosscutting Concepts of Energy and Matter and Systems and System Models will be emphasized.

First, students will plan and conduct investigations about the needs and growth of plants and discover what happens to plants after they die. The observations and conclusions from these experiments will inform students’ thinking throughout the remainder of the unit. Then, students will engage in readings and hands-on modeling activities that build understanding of various plant structures and their functions, including the process of photosynthesis.

Next, students will expand their focus of matter and energy to include animals and food chains. They will figure out why plants and decomposers are important to our planet.  Finally, students will apply their learning to problems on both a local and global scale.  They will consider how to protect resources and the environment of their own school.  In the design challenge for this unit, students will design a farm, where their choices about what to grow and eat have different environmental impacts.