Download Role play activity with the Nitrogen Cycle

Name
Date
Class
Playing Nitrogen Cycle Roles
The nitrogen cycle occurs as nitrogen moves from air, to the soil, into living
things, and then back into the air again. As gaseous nitrogen moves into the
soil, bacteria fix the nitrogen into compounds that living things can use.
INQUIRY FOCUS Make Models
Procedure
Materials
1. Your class task is to role-play the organisms and materials shown in the figure of the nitrogen cycle in your
textbook.
blue index cards
white index cards
tape
2. Each member of the class will have one of the following roles to play: air, clover, sheep, nitrogen-fixing
bacteria in nodules on the clover’s roots, decomposers
in the soil, and bacteria in the soil.
3. The white index cards represent free nitrogen. The students playing the role of air
should each begin with one white card. The students playing the role of nodule
bacteria should each begin with one blue card.
4. To begin the cycle, the air students should give their free nitrogen (white cards) to
the nodule bacteria students, who should attach, or “fix” each white card to one
of their blue cards with tape. This combination of white and blue cards represents
a nitrogen compound.
5. Work as a group to move the nitrogen compounds through the cycle. Be sure that
each person plays their role in moving the free nitrogen or nitrogen compounds
through the cycle correctly. Use the figure in your student edition to help you.
Think It Over
When is one cycle completed?
What type of nitrogen was present in living things—free or fixed? Why?
CYCLES OF MATTER