Balance: This Generative topic is applicable to different areas of science such as chemistry but also applicable to our health like our diet and in sports, law, and time management.
Unit Disciplines
Time: Balancing how time is managed
Art: The balance in pictures for stability
Music: Having balance with instruments and voice
Sports: Being able to balance for performances
Health: The balance of diet
Chemistry: The balance of atoms
Concept: How having a balanced pH of elements in our blood keeps us healthy
Misconceptions
Correlational Features
Processes are only happening one at a time or in one specific location but really they can be happening in multiple locations all at different times.
There are multiple things that are playing a role in maintaining a pH balance in blood. It is not just the act of breathing that removes carbon dioxide but parts of the kidney as well.
Both processes and cycles can be considered ideas of balance in the human body but not all processes and cycles are considered to be part of balance
Undergeneralizing: Thinking that there has to be a new outcome or process involved for things to be balanced in the body; Such as diffusion or osmosis in cells
Overgeneralizing: Thinking that any movement of molecules is because of balance; Such as the electron transport chain, the transmission of action potential, or the translation of proteins.
Defining Characteristics: Blood has a specific pH it has to maintain for us to stay healthy. Maintaining a pH of 7.35 - 7.45 is where we have to be. This level is dependent on the balance of free hydrogen ions and dissolved carbonic acid. Our bodies maintain this level by releasing more carbon dioxide from our lungs.
Nonexamples: The Krebs Cycle is a process that uses similar molecules and is a repetitive cycle but not balance because it only goes one way
Exemplars: The blood buffer formula is what the body uses to maintain a level pH. The formula goes both ways to maintain balance in the blood.
Prototype: CO2 + H2O <-> H2CO3 <-> HCO3 + H+
Students: 12-14 years old
Age Group
Relevance: Heavy on peers and the need for communication with them as well as sensitive to personal image (body awareness and consciousness)
Attention Span: Shorter ranging from 12-15min when there is not a change in the activity
Gender
Boys: Are more physical and require more opportunities for movement, perform better than girls with competition and stress created
Girls: Need social interactions with each other and peers, rely on positive experiences with teacher heavier, and are more stress and detail sensitive
Developmental
Piaget: Students will have the ability to test and construct hypotheses also utilize concrete and formal operations
Vygotsky: Utilize self talk with students and also differentiated scaffolding techniques
