Grade/Course Title of Unit Proposed Duration 6 th Grade Science Ecology: An Interconnected World 56 class periods Big Idea Essential Questions How do living and nonliving things, including humans, interact in local and global ecosystems? How do abiotic factors in the environment impact organisms? How do adaptations increase the survival of organisms? How do populations of plants and animals interact with each other and their environment? How do human actions impact the living and nonliving elements of our environment? CCSS “Habits of Mind” Standards Demonstrate independence S63.22 Define environment. S63.23 Explain characteristics of his/her environment. S63.1 Describe characteristics of living and nonliving things. S63.2 Classify familiar objects as living or nonliving. S63.3 State basic needs of living things. S63.29 Construct food chains/food webs illustrating energy flow in an ecosystem. S63.30 Define and correctly use the terms: producers, consumers, decomposers. S63.31 Describe ways in which populations of plants and animals in a community interact with one another and their environment. S63.24 Give examples of changes in environments. S63.25 List some effects of changes in environments. Build strong content knowledge Respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline Comprehend as well as critique Value evidence Use technology and digital media strategically and capably Come to understand other perspectives and cultures 21 st Century Themes 21 st Century Skills Global Awareness Creativity and Innovation Flexibility and Adaptability Financial, Econ, Business Literacy Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Initiative and SelfDirection Civic Literacy Communication and Collaboration Social and CrossCultural Skills Health Literacy Informational Literacy Productivity and Accountability Environmental Literacy Media Literacy Leadership and Responsibility Warm Up Day 1 – What do you need to survive? (Food, water, shelter, and space to live, grow and reproduce. The place that provides the things an organism needs to survive is called a habitat.) Day 2 – What is a population? (all the members of one species that live in a specific area) Day 3 – What are same ways organisms interact in an ecosystem? Day 4 – Where does your body get the energy it needs to survive? Instruction Day 1 – Divide students into groups and pass out photographs of different environments (ocean, mountain, pond, forest, prairie, etc.) Instruct students to list all aspects of the environment that interact in this picture. Then, ask students to divide their list into “living things” and “nonliving things.” Ask them to label the “living things” as biotic factors and the “nonliving things” as abiotic factors. On their abiotic factors list, they should include: water, sunlight, oxygen, temperature, and soil. Day 2 – Discuss with students why it might be important to know the size of a population? What are some ways you could figure out how large a population is? Why might it be difficult to count populations? Read the topic introduction from the “Population Sampling Activity,” available at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/ActivityPackPopulationSamplingActivity 1170673 Day 3 – Students will read in the Green Sciencesaurus, p. 132. They will define competition, predation, symbiosis, parasitism, and mutualism. Present students with several images of relationships between populations, such as competition, predation, symbiosis
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Grade/Course Title of Unit Proposed Duration 6th Grade Science Ecology: An Interconnected World 5-‐6 class periods Big Idea Essential Questions How do living and non-‐living things, including humans, interact in local and global ecosystems?
How do abiotic factors in the environment impact organisms? How do adaptations increase the survival of organisms? How do populations of plants and animals interact with each other and their environment? How do human actions impact the living and nonliving elements of our environment?
CCSS “Habits of Mind” Standards
Demonstrate independence S63.22 Define environment. S63.23 Explain characteristics of his/her environment. S63.1 Describe characteristics of living and non-‐living things. S63.2 Classify familiar objects as living or non-‐living. S63.3 State basic needs of living things. S63.29 Construct food chains/food webs illustrating energy flow in an ecosystem. S63.30 Define and correctly use the terms: producers, consumers, decomposers. S63.31 Describe ways in which populations of plants and animals in a community interact with one another and their environment. S63.24 Give examples of changes in environments. S63.25 List some effects of changes in environments.
Build strong content knowledge
Respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline
Comprehend as well as critique
Value evidence
Use technology and digital media strategically and capably
Come to understand other perspectives and cultures
21st Century Themes 21st Century Skills
Global Awareness Creativity and Innovation Flexibility and Adaptability
Financial, Econ, Business Literacy Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Initiative and Self-‐Direction
Civic Literacy Communication and Collaboration Social and Cross-‐Cultural Skills
Health Literacy Informational Literacy Productivity and Accountability
Environmental Literacy Media Literacy Leadership and Responsibility
Warm Up Day 1 – What do you need to survive? (Food, water, shelter, and space to live, grow and reproduce. The place that provides the things an organism needs to survive is called a habitat.) Day 2 – What is a population? (all the members of one species that live in a specific area) Day 3 – What are same ways organisms interact in an ecosystem? Day 4 – Where does your body get the energy it needs to survive? Instruction Day 1 – Divide students into groups and pass out photographs of different environments (ocean, mountain, pond, forest, prairie, etc.) Instruct students to list all aspects of the environment that interact in this picture. Then, ask students to divide their list into “living things” and “non-‐living things.” Ask them to label the “living things” as biotic factors and the “non-‐living things” as abiotic factors. On their abiotic factors list, they should include: water, sunlight, oxygen, temperature, and soil. Day 2 – Discuss with students why it might be important to know the size of a population? What are some ways you could figure out how large a population is? Why might it be difficult to count populations? Read the topic introduction from the “Population Sampling Activity,” available at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-‐Pack-‐Population-‐Sampling-‐Activity-‐1170673 Day 3 – Students will read in the Green Sciencesaurus, p. 132. They will define competition, predation, symbiosis, parasitism, and mutualism. Present students with several images of relationships between populations, such as competition, predation, symbiosis
(mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism). Ask students to describe the relationship between the two organisms and how each organism is affecting the other. Then, present each type of relationship (competition, etc.) and ask them if the picture at their table illustrates that type of interaction. Finally, in groups, students should brainstorm two examples for each type of relationship. If they have access, they may use the internet to help them. Day 4 – Students will read about Food Chains and Food Webs from the Green Sciencesaurus, p. 133-‐135. They will record definitions for food chain, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer, and food web. They will copy the example of the food chain on p. 134 into their notebook and then create another example of a food chain, which they will also record in their notebook. Day 5 – Interactions in Ecosystems Quiz, available at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Quiz-‐Interactions-‐in-‐Ecosystems-‐1179621 Activity Day 1 – Students will read p. 130-‐131 in Green Sciencesaurus, “Ecosystems” and “Factors That Affect Populations.” Students will cut and paste the FishChannel Community Tank coloring page into their notebook. They will title the page “Abiotic Factors” and add captions to identify and describe each abiotic factor on the page (water, sunlight, oxygen, temperature, and soil), using Then, below the picture, they will make predictions about what would happen if ________ were not present.
• Without water, I predict… • Without sunlight, I predict… • Without oxygen, I predict… • If the temperature changed, I predict… • Without soil, I predict… • Answer: What are two more abiotic factors?
Day 2 – Students will complete the Population Sampling Activity available at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-‐Pack-‐Population-‐Sampling-‐Activity-‐1170673 Day 3 – Students will read in the Green Sciencesaurus p. 132, “Relationships Between Populations.” They will record definitions for competition, predation, symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. Then, they will read Doctor Betsy Jackson’s Journal, available at http://www.nsta.org/publications/interactive/galapagos/activities/pdf/atales.pdf. They will identify five ecological relationships and record them on the chart available at http://www.nsta.org/publications/interactive/galapagos/activities/pdf/btales.pdf. Day 4 -‐ Students will cut out the Galapagos Marine Organisms from a worksheet, available at http://www.nsta.org/publications/interactive/galapagos/activities/pdf/marine.pdf. They will paste these pictures onto index cards. They will use these cards for several activities. First, they will work in partners to create a food web, connecting organisms with string. They will copy the food web into their notebooks. Then, they will make predictions for the following scenarios:
1. What would happen to the population of seals, if the population of grouper suddenly dropped? 2. What would happen to the population of ulva, if the population of sea turtles suddenly dropped? 3. What organisms would be affected if zooplankton populations suddenly dropped? Describe how they would be affected. 4. What organism do you think is most important to this food web? Why?
Assessment
-‐ Population Sampling Activity questions, available at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-‐Pack-‐Population-‐Sampling-‐Activity-‐1170673
-‐ Quiz, available at: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Quiz-‐Interactions-‐in-‐Ecosystems-‐1179621