Appendix 1
Standards
The Next Generation Science Standards and the Common Core standards encourage teachers to embed rigor into their curricula: this unit is specifically designed to meet the following Next Generation Science Standards: ETS1.B and HS-ESS3 34. The intention is for students to be given nonfiction text where they will need to identify the problem given in the text. Then they will need to decipher what information from the text can be used to create possible solutions. They will then need to analyze which of the given possible solutions is the most appropriate, then extend their thinking by determining what other problems may arise as a result of the solution they chose. Students will need to acknowledge both the positive and negative effects of the microbes around us and associate these interactions with the steps in a chemical reaction. One major difference is that in chemistry we can usually write a balanced chemical reaction with only one specific pathway and set of products. When using this parallel with microbes students are also forced to think about how microbes can evolve in order to survive changing the effects of a given situation. This process will help them model the behaviors of scientists and develop their skills at backing up their opinions using data.
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