Download Grading the Explanation Tool for Decomposer Digestion

Grading the Explanation Tool for Decomposer Digestion: How
does a decomposer get food to a cell in its fruiting body?
This grading worksheet does not have an Activity number in the title because it can be used to grade all
Explanation Tools for digestion in this Unit.
This worksheet has “grading” in the title because at this point, students can be held accountable for correct
answers. Level 4 (correct) responses to the questions are in blue bold italics below. There are also
comments about common Level 2 and Level 3 responses to help you with grading and making decisions about
what to emphasize in future lessons.
Fungi, like all decomposers, need food to survive and grow. Answer the Three Questions to explain how a
shelf fungus gets food to a cell in its fruiting body to help it grow.
The Movement Question: Zooming in to trace matter
1. Draw and label arrows to show how molecules with
carbon atoms move into and through the fungus when
it sends food to a cell in its fruiting body.
Level 4: Polymers (large organic molecules) such as
proteins, fats/lipids and/or carbohydrates, in the tree
are broken down to monomers. Arrows labeled with
these monomers (small organic molecules) such as
amino acids, sugars, fatty acids and glycerol show
them entering the fungus and traveling through the
hyphae to a particular cell.
2. Where are large organic molecules made into small
organic molecules?
Level 4: Outside the fungus
3. What is the name of this chemical change that allows
the fungus to absorb food into its cells?
Digestion
The Carbon Question: How atoms are rearranged into new molecules
What molecules are carbon atoms in before the
What molecules are carbon atoms in after the
chemical change?
chemical change?
Level 4: starch, protein, fats
Level 4: glucose, fatty acids, glycerol, amino acids
What other molecules are needed?
Level 4: water
Chemical
Change
What other molecules are produced?
Level 4: None
The Energy Question: How energy is transformed
What forms of energy are needed for this chemical
What forms of energy are produced by this chemical
change?
change?
Decomposers Unit
Carbon: Transformations in Matter and Energy
Environmental Literacy Project
Energy
1
TransformationMichigan State University
Level 4: Chemical energy
Where does the energy come from?
Level 4: C-C and C-H bonds in the
Protein, fat/lipids and/or carbohydrates.
Level 4: Chemical energy
Where does the energy go or stay after the
change?
Level 4: C-C and C-H bonds in monomers
like amino acids (for proteins), sugars (for carbs),
fatty acids and glycerol (lipids/fats). The chemical
energy is conserved through the reaction.
Remember: Atoms last forever (so you can arrange atoms into new molecules, but can’t add or subtract atoms).
Energy lasts forever (so you can change forms of energy, but energy units can’t appear or go away).
Use the process tool to help guide your written explanation. Answer all Three Questions in your explanation.
Question: How does a shelf fungus get food to a cell in its fruiting body? (Answer on the back).
Level 4: The shelf fungus excretes extracellular enzymes that digest polymers (e.g., starch, proteins,
fats, cellulose) into monomers (e.g., glucose, amino acids, glycerol, fatty acids) that can then be taken
up by the fungus and transported through hyphae to a cell in the fruiting body. These polymers (large
organic molecules) have chemical energy stored in the C-C and C-H bonds, which maintained in the CC and C-H bonds of the monomers (small organic molecules).
Level 3 or 2 responses may describe a digestive process of breaking down food, but will state or imply the food
is broken down or turned into energy which is then sent to cells. Level 3 responses might include more detail
equating digestion to cellular respiration than Level 2 responses.
Decomposers Unit
Carbon: Transformations in Matter and Energy
Environmental Literacy Project
2
Michigan State University