5 Exciting Ways to Bring the WOW Factor When Teaching Cycling of Matter

Teaching the cycling of matter and flow of energy are important topics when teaching about ecosystems. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. It makes up everything.

Matter flows between abiotic (air, water, etc.) and biotic factors (animals, plants, etc.). Matter cycles in and out of an ecosystem.

Organisms in an ecosystem give off gases, water, and other wastes that go into the atmosphere and other ecosystems. They also take in these forms of matter as well. For example, producers take in carbon dioxide through photosynthesis.

What is cycling of matter? Matter that cycles includes water, nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen. In this post, I share how you can bring the WOW factor to your classroom when teaching the cycling of matter in an ecosystem. First, I share how you can bring WONDER to students and help them to become internally motivated to learn. Second, I share an interactive lesson that helps reduce students’ cognitive load and helps students to retain content. Finally, I share some WIDEN activities to help students expand their knowledge.

Cycling of Matter Introductory WONDER Activities

Who doesn’t want their students to be internally motivated to learn, right? Once students have the buy-in, the rest is a smooth ride. Here are two activities you can try with your students to get them excited to learn more about how matter cycles in an ecosystem!

Cycles Matching

This is an easy and fun activity to get your students out of their seats to learn more about how matter cycles before jumping into the lesson.

Materials:

• All you’ll need is printed pictures of the water cycle, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and the oxygen cycle. You’ll need to cut these pictures into a “puzzle”. You’ll need as many pieces as there are students in your classroom. For example, if you have 24 students in your class, you should cut each cycle into 6 pieces.

1. Give each student a “piece of the puzzle”.
2. Tell students to walk around and find the other students with the other pieces of their cycle and see if they can put the pieces together.
3. Once students find each other and put their puzzle together, have them to discuss what they see. Do they have any questions about their cycle?
4. After, each group should share out one fact about their picture.

Now, they are ready to learn even more!

Outdoor Intro Activity

Take your students outside to look at the ecosystem right in the backyard of the school (or the front!).

1. Create a list of items that are outside and a part of the ecosystem such as a leaf, a puddle, a rock, a patch of soil, a twig, a cloud, an animal, etc.
2. Put your students into groups. Take them outside, and as a group, have them to search for these items and then observe them.
3. Ask them how each may be involved in cycling nitrogen, oxygen, water, or carbon. For example: “How might this leaf be involved in the cycling of matter?” and “How is this puddle involved in the cycling of water?”.
4. After students observe and think about the items involvement in the cycles of matter, have them share out loud and discuss it as a class. Some may even be able to give some cycling of matter examples.

The Cycling of Matter Interactive Lesson

Interactive lessons are great for so many reasons. They are engaging, perfect for middle school, and incorporate the 7 steps to helps students retain information!

The lessons use strategies such as highlighting the most important text, leaving out unnecessary information, modeling examples, and more! What makes them so awesome for students is that the science content is segmented and inside the lesson, there are activities for students to complete to help them process the information before moving on.

What is matter cycling? In this cycling of matter interactive lesson, students will learn about the water cycle, the nitrogen cycle, the carbon cycle, and the oxygen cycle and their relationship with ecosystems. Students will also learn about the cycling of matter definition, the law of conversation of mass, and matter.

As students complete the lesson, they will do activities such as a KWL, drag-and-drop activities, and more! Skip the cycling of matter worksheet and try this!

You can find this lesson in the Bright in the Middle Shop.

You can also find this on TPT.

WIDEN Strategies for Cycles of Matter

As always, if time allows, students should work on something to expand their knowledge on a topic and or apply what they have learned so far! Here are two fun activities to do for cycling of matter!

Cycles Comic Story

At this point, students have learned an overview of how different matter cycles in an ecosystem. Now, it’s time for them to dive a little deeper.

1. Assign each student a cycle or let them choose one! They will be making a comic strip.
2. Once students have an assigned cycle, have them to brainstorm different ideas, thinking about the different stages of the cycle and the other elements.
3. Give students paper or a comic strip template.
4. Tell them to create a series of frames to tell a story involving their cycle.
5. Make sure to tell them to be creative!

There are many ways to grade this, or it can just be for a fun display inside or outside of the classroom!

Real-World Issue Application

This is a really good activity to do, especially if you have students that say, “Why do we even need to learn this?”.

1. You’ll need to assign each student, or group of students, a real-world issue that relates to the cycling of matter in ecosystems.
2. These issues could include: water pollution, urban development, agricultural practices, deforestation, overfishing, invasive species, waste management, etc.
3. Once students get their assigned issue, they can research the issue and how it affects the cycling of water, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon in ecosystems. (Also, teach the how to research effectively).
4. Once students research, they should prepare a presentation. This could be an oral presentation, a PowerPoint Presentation, a skit, or whatever your preference is.
5. Then, they can present it to the class.
6. After, reflect and discuss!

Help your students master science content!