Driving question: How do decomposers grow and function?

Activity 1: Explaining What Happens When Mushrooms Grow

Three types of decomposers One common decomposer: Fungi Another decomposer – Invertebrates Crucial decomposers: bacteria and microscopic fungi

Are decomposers more like plants or more like animals? Kind of OrganismChanges in MassChanges in CO 2 Plants growing in the lightPlants gain more mass than the soil loses, so plants and soil combined gain mass Plants in the light absorb CO 2 from the air Growing animals (e.g., mealworms, cows, people) Animals gain less mass than their food loses, so animals and food combined lose mass Animals add CO 2 to the air when they breathe Bread mold (your investigation) ???

The structure of mushroom hypha cap gill stem mycelium Are mushroom plants?

The Movement Question: How do mushrooms grow? How can mushrooms digest food without digestive systems?

Materials in Mushrooms and their Food Sources What is in MUSHROOMS? What is in DEAD PLANTS (SPINACH)?

Food Polymers in Dead Plants Plant protein Cellulose …and many other polymers

Mushroom Polymers Mushroom protein Starch …and many other polymers Question: How can mushrooms make their polymers from plant polymers?

Activity 2: Modeling Digestion and Biosynthesis

How can a fungus digest food without a digestive system?

Matter movement for digestion at macroscopic scale Material identity Matter Energy Energy transformation Matter Movement All Analyzing All Blank scales Atomic molecular Microscopic Macroscopic Large scale scales Process DigestionBiosynthesis Cellular respiration

Digesting OUTSIDE the Body Fungi can break down polymers (large organic molecules) OUTSIDE their bodies The cells in the hyphae send out digestive enzymes that break the polymer into monomers (small organic molecules) The small monomers then can enter the cells of the hyphae and travel through the mycelium

Materials needed for the paperclip modeling activity 20 paperclips to make bonds between monomers: Protein monomers: Carbohydrate monomer: Mushroom poster

Build Food Molecules Step 1: Build PROTEIN molecules by linking 5 amino acid monomers. There are different amino acids (3 types of cards) and when combined in different ways you get different protein molecules. (Plants have 20 different amino acids.) Step 2: One type of carbohydrate is cellulose, also called fiber. Build a FIBER molecule by making a chain of 6 glucose molecules.

Digest Food Molecules Step 1: Digest PROTEIN molecules by breaking the protein into individual amino acids. Step 2: People cannot digest FIBER (cellulose) molecules, but some fungi can digest fiber. Digest cellulose molecules by breaking the chain of glucose molecules into individual glucose molecules

Digested Monomers

Material identity Matter Energy Energy transformation Matter Movement All Analyzing Blank scales Atomic molecular Microscopic Macroscopic Large scale scales Process DigestionBiosynthesis Cellular respiration Click to see animation Matter movement for digestion at atomic-molecular scale

Matter movement for digestion at microscopic scale Material identity Matter Energy Energy transformation Matter Movement All Analyzing All Blank scales Atomic molecular Microscopic Macroscopic Large scale scales Process DigestionBiosynthesis Cellular respiration sugar

How do fungi digest dead plants? Remember: Atoms last forever (so you can rearrange 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) What forms of energy are in the reactants? What molecules are carbon atoms in before the change? What other molecules are involved? Where are atoms moving from? What forms of energy are in the products? What molecules are carbon atoms in after the change? What other molecules are produced? Where are atoms moving to? Chemical change

The Movement Question: Show on your poster how the monomers can move through the mycelium to the mushroom.

Matter movement for biosynthesis at macroscopic scale Material identity Matter Energy Energy transformation Matter Movement All Analyzing Blank Process DigestionBiosynthesis Cellular respiration Atomic molecular Microscopic Macroscopic Large scale scales

Build a Mushroom Step 1: Build PROTEIN molecules by linking 5 amino acid monomers. You can make a different protein by combining the amino acids in a different order. Step 2: Build STARCH molecules by linking glucose monomers. What is in MUSHROOMS?

Mushroom Polymers Mushroom protein Starch …and many other polymers

Matter transformation for protein synthesis at atomic-molecular scale scales Atomic molecular Microscopic Macroscopic Large scale scales Material identity Matter Energy Energy transformation Matter Movement All Analyzing Blank Process DigestionBiosynthesis Cellular respiration Click to see animation

How do fungi make a mushroom? Remember: Atoms last forever (so you can rearrange 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) What forms of energy are in the reactants? What molecules are carbon atoms in before the change? What other molecules are involved? Where are atoms moving from? What forms of energy are in the products? What molecules are carbon atoms in after the change? What other molecules are produced? Where are atoms moving to? Chemical change

Activity 3: Cellular Respiration in Decomposers

Identify where chemical energy is located (atomic molecular scale): Which molecules have chemical energy? Molecules in dead plants: Digested monomers in fungus: Example: CELLULOSE Example: AMINO ACID Example: SUGARS Molecules in mushroom: Example: STARCH

Matter movement for cellular respiration at macroscopic scale Material identity Matter Energy Energy transformation Matter Movement All Analyzing Blank Process DigestionBiosynthesis Cellular respiration scales Atomic molecular Microscopic Macroscopic Large scale scales

Matter movement for cellular respiration at atomic-molecular scale Material identity Matter Energy Energy transformation Matter Movement All Analyzing Blank Click to see animation Process DigestionBiosynthesis Cellular respiration scales Atomic molecular Microscopic Macroscopic Large scale scales

How do mushroom cells get energy? Remember: Atoms last forever (so you can rearrange 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) What forms of energy are in the reactants? What molecules are carbon atoms in before the change? What other molecules are involved? Where are atoms moving from? What forms of energy are in the products? What molecules are carbon atoms in after the change? What other molecules are produced? Where are atoms moving to? Chemical change

Writing a Chemical Equation Chemists use chemical equations to show how atoms of reactant molecules are rearranged to make product molecules Writing the equation in symbols: Chemists use an arrow to show how reactants change into products: [reactant molecule formulas]  product molecule formulas] Saying it in words: Chemists read the arrow as “yield” or “yields:” [reactant molecule names] yield [product molecule names] Equations must be balanced: Atoms last forever, so reactant and product molecules must have the same number of each kind of atom Try it: can you write a balanced chemical equation to show the chemical change when animals move (use energy)?

Chemical equation for cellular respiration C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6O 2  6 CO H 2 O (in words: sugar reacts with oxygen to yield carbon dioxide and water)

The end