Grade 4 Life Science Module Investigating Ecosystems In a code such as 5.2.4.D.1, the 5 indicates the science standards, the 2 indicates the physical science standard within the set of science standards, the 4 indicates a fourth grade cumulative progress indicator, the D indicates a strand or theme within the science standards, and the 1 indicates the first of the fourth grade cumulative progress indicators within the D strand.
In completing the work in Lesson 1 of Investigating Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: Students become aware that ecosystems contain living and nonliving things that interact in a variety of ways. Students become aware that different living things exist in different ecosystems. Develop and use evidence-based criteria to determine if an unfamiliar object is living or nonliving. (5.3.4.A.1) Describe the living and nonliving components and interactions in their own environment. Speculate about the components and interactions within unfamiliar ecosystems. Compare the interactions within ecosystems that they observe on a video. Demonstrate understanding of the interrelationships among fundamental concepts in the physical, life, and Earth systems sciences. (5.1.4.A.1) Formulate explanations from evidence. (5.1.4.B.3) Communicate and justify explanations with reasonable and logical arguments. (5.1.4.B.4) In completing the work in Lesson 2 of Investigating Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including:
Page 2 Students recognize that natural systems contain diverse organisms and nonliving components that interact in a variety of ways. Students become aware that organisms interact with both the living and nonliving components of their environment to meet their needs for survival. Students recognize that all organisms (including humans) cause changes to their environment. Describe the ways in which organisms interact with each other and their habitats in order to meet basic needs. (5.3.2.C.1) Organisms can only survive in environments in which their needs are met. Within ecosystems, organisms interact with and are dependent on their physical and living environment. (5.3.4.C.1) Identify the characteristics of a habitat that enable the habitat to support the growth of many different plants and animals. (5.3.2.C.2) Communicate ways that humans protect habitats and/or improve conditions for the growth of the plants and animals that live there, or ways that humans might harm habitats. (5.3.2.C.3) Model an adaptation to a species that would increase its chances of survival, should the environment become wetter, dryer, warmer, or colder over time. (5.3.4.E.1) Evaluate similar populations in an ecosystem with regard to their ability to thrive and grow. (5.3.4.E.2) Observe, describe, and record interactions that occur within the system(s). Record evidence that organisms interact with other living things in their environment.
Page 3 Record evidence that organisms interact with nonliving things in their environment, and state that organisms can survive only in environments in which they can meet their needs for survival. Describe and record changes they observe in the study system(s). Identify or propose the cause of the changes to the study system(s). Use scientific facts, measurements, observations, and patterns in nature to build and critique scientific arguments. (5.1.4.A.3) Design and follow simple plans using systematic observations to explore questions and predictions. (5.1.4.B.1) Measure, gather, evaluate, and share evidence using tools and technologies. (5.1.4.B.2) Formulate explanations from evidence. (5.1.4.B.3) Communicate and justify explanations with reasonable and logical arguments. (5.1.4.B.4) Actively participate in discussions about student data, questions, and understandings. (5.1.4.D.1) Work collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories. (5.1.4.D.2) Demonstrate how to safely use tools, instruments, and supplies. (5.1.4.D.3) Handle and treat organisms humanely, responsibly, and ethically. (5.1.4.D.4)
Page 4 In completing the work in Lessons 3, 5, and 6, of Investigating Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: Students recognize that organisms interact through food chains and food webs to meet their needs for food energy. Students become aware that all living things in a food web depend on plants and ultimately the energy from the Sun for their food. Identify sources of energy (food) in a variety of settings (farm, zoo, ocean, forest). (5.3.4.B.1) Illustrate the flow of energy (food) through a community. (5.3.6.B.2) Show the interactions in a make-believe food chain, describe interactions within food chains and food webs in terms of energy flow, and create a personal food chain based on the food they ate. Explain why the Sun should be included in every food chain or web, and predict what would happen if the green plants or plankton disappeared from their respective food webs. Communicate and justify explanations with reasonable and logical arguments. (5.1.4.B.4) Work collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories. (5.1.4.D.2) In completing the work in Lesson 4 of Investigating Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including:
Page 5 Students recognize that plants survive only in environments in which their needs can be met. Students realize that plants interact with both living and nonliving things in their environment in ways that both help and harm the plants or the other living things. Organisms can only survive in environments in which their needs are met. Within ecosystems, organisms interact with and are dependent on their physical and living environment. (5.3.4.C.1) Explain the consequences of rapid ecosystem change (e.g., flooding, wind storms, snowfall, volcanic eruptions), and compare them to consequences of gradual ecosystem change (e.g., gradual increase or decrease in daily temperatures, change in yearly rainfall). (5.3.4.C.2) Identify and categorize the basic needs of living organisms as they relate to the environment. (5.4.2.G.3) Describe a tree s interactions within its environment and how those interactions help it grow and survive. Compare good and bad years for a tree s growth and suggesting possible causes. Identify interactions within an environment that promote or hinder a tree s growth, and describe interactions between trees and other living things that help or harm the other living things. Demonstrate understanding of the interrelationships among fundamental concepts in the physical, life, and Earth systems sciences. (5.1.4.A.1)
Page 6 Use scientific facts, measurements, observations, and patterns in nature to build and critique scientific arguments. (5.1.4.A.3) Measure, gather, evaluate, and share evidence using tools and technologies. (5.1.4.B.2) Formulate explanations from evidence. (5.1.4.B.3) Actively participate in discussions about student data, questions, and understandings. (5.1.4.D.1) Work collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories. (5.1.4.D.2) Evaluate similar populations in an ecosystem with regard to their ability to thrive and grow. (5.3.4.E.2) In completing the work in Lesson 7 of Investigating Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: Students recognize that all organisms (including humans) cause changes to their environments and that the changes can be beneficial or detrimental to the organisms. Students realize that the number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the available resources, such as food, water, shelter, and space. Compare how different animals obtain food and water. (5.3.2.B.2) Identify sources of energy (food) in a variety of settings (farm, zoo, ocean, forest). (5.3.4.B.1) Illustrate the flow of energy (food) through a community. (5.3.6.B.2)
Page 7 Describe the ways in which organisms interact with each other and their habitats in order to meet basic needs. (5.3.2.C.1) Communicate ways that humans protect habitats and/or improve conditions for the growth of the plants and animals that live there, or ways that humans might harm habitats. (5.3.2.C.3) Describe the relationship between the size of a deer herd and the amount of available resources, showing the relationship on a graph. Use their data to explain that the size of a deer herd increases when resources are plentiful, and use their data to explain that the size of a deer herd decreases when resources are not as available. Describe how the size of a deer herd causes changes in the available resources. Speculate on how a natural event or human intervention might change a prairie ecosystem, and describe whether certain changes would be beneficial or detrimental to the organisms involved. Use scientific facts, measurements, observations, and patterns in nature to build and critique scientific arguments. (5.1.4.A.3) Design and follow simple plans using systematic observations to explore questions and predictions. (5.1.4.B.1) Communicate and justify explanations with reasonable and logical arguments. (5.1.4.B.4) Actively participate in discussions about student data, questions, and understandings. (5.1.4.D.1)
Page 8 In completing the work in Lesson 8 of Investigating Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: Students recognize that all organisms cause changes in ecosystems and that those changes can be beneficial or detrimental to those or other organisms. Some changes in ecosystems occur slowly, while others occur rapidly. Changes can affect life forms, including humans. (5.3.4.C.2) Describe the changes in interactions within three unique ecosystems, and identify which organisms were helped or harmed by the changes. Work collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories. (5.1.4.D.2) In completing the work in Lesson 9 of Investigating Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: Students understand that ecosystems are comprised of living things (plants and animals) and nonliving things (physical factors) that interact in a variety of ways. Students understand that all animals depend on green plants for food. Students understand that the Sun provides energy for all organisms and that the energy is transferred through producers to consumers and decomposers in a food web. Students understand that organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met and that different environments support different types of organisms.
Page 9 Develop and use evidence-based criteria to determine if an unfamiliar object is living or nonliving. (5.3.4.A.1) Identify sources of energy (food) in a variety of settings (farm, zoo, ocean, forest). 5.3.4.B.1 Organisms can only survive in environments in which their needs are met. Within ecosystems, organisms interact with and are dependent on their physical and living environment. (5.3.4.C.1) In any ecosystem, some populations of organisms thrive and grow, some decline, and others do not survive at all. (5.3.4.E.2) Changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of individual organisms and entire species. (5.3.6.E.1) Identify the interactions between living things and between living and nonliving things in an ecosystem shown on video. Describe the interactions in a story and on a poster; and explain their understanding of the interactions by sharing their story and poster with the class. Show plants at the beginning of a food web for the ecosystem, and explain that all animals meet their needs for food by either eating plants or eating animals that eat plants. Display the Sun at the beginning of the food web; trace the energy from the Sun through the food web; identify organisms on their posters as producers, consumers, and decomposers. Compare the organisms that live in different environments, and explain how the organisms in a particular environment meet their needs to survive.
Page 10 Demonstrate understanding of the interrelationships among fundamental concepts in the physical, life, and Earth systems sciences. (5.1.4.A.1) Use outcomes of investigations to build and refine questions, models, and explanations. (5.1.4.A.2) Use scientific facts, measurements, observations, and patterns in nature to build and critique scientific arguments. (5.1.4.A.3) Measure, gather, evaluate, and share evidence using tools and technologies. (5.1.4.B.2) Formulate explanations from evidence. (5.1.4.B.3) Communicate and justify explanations with reasonable and logical arguments. (5.1.4.B.4) Monitor and reflect on one s own knowledge regarding how ideas change over time. (5.1.4.C.1) Revise predictions or explanations on the basis of learning new information. (5.1.4.C.2) Present evidence to interpret and/or predict cause-and-effect outcomes of investigations. (5.1.4.C.3) Actively participate in discussions about student data, questions, and understandings. (5.1.4.D.1) Work collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories. (5.1.4.D.2)
Linden Public Schools Linden, New Jersey INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE CURRICULUM focusing on the HAWK RISE ECOSYSTEM HAWK RISE CURRICULUM OVERVIEW Hawk Rise, in the City of Linden, New Jersey, represents a unique 37-acre natural preserve that offers nearly limitless opportunity for Linden public school students to learn about natural systems and their relationships to those systems. The site which includes terrestrial, wetland, and aquatic habitats is within a 15-minute bus ride from most of the schools in the district, and will ultimately be accessible by means of parking facilities and a pedestrian trail system that winds its way through notable features of the site. The site s natural features and phenomena are also very well-suited to inquiry-based lessons that can be correlated to the K-12 Science Curriculum of the Linden Public Schools. A Science curriculum consultant has drafted a curriculum framework designed to engage students from Grades 2 through Grade 8 in science lessons that pertain to the Hawk Rise ecosystem. The lessons will support the District s existing grade-level science modules and units, but also add an outdoor, discovery/investigation dimension to the modules and units that will enrich them and engage the students, at times, in field-based, experiential learning. Most of the lessons will also be very well-adapted to interdisciplinary connections to the learning domains of Mathematics, Social Studies, and Language Arts Literacy. Field trips to Hawk Rise are planned for Grades 2,4,6 and 7 with perhaps select opportunities for Grade 8 students to visit the Hawk Rise site as part of their Environmental Issues Unit. Grades 3,5, and 8 students will be engaged in classroom, school-site, or local park habitat sites that will either prepare them for or follow-up learning experiences at the Hawk Rise site. All lessons will be correlated to the recently revised New Jersey Department of Education Core Curriculum Content Science Standards, as well as the Four Strands of Science Learning championed by the text that serves as a guideline reference for the Linden District s Science Curriculum: Ready, Set, Science. As with all innovations in science education in the Linden Public School District, a rigorous program of professional development training is recommended that will seek to familiarize teachers from each of the participating grade levels Grades 2 through 8 in classroom and field-based strategies for enhancing student awareness and understanding of the Hawk Rise ecosystem. Experts in ecology-based instruction some from the New Jersey Audubon Society will be recruited to facilitate the professional development training of classroom teachers, as well as initial field trips that will include their students. It is hoped that, ultimately, Linden s classroom teachers will not only develop a command of classroom, school-yard, or park-based lessons relating to Hawk Rise, but also be capable of facilitating lessons at the Hawk Rise preserve on their own.
Linden Public Schools Linden, New Jersey GRADE 4 INQUIRY-BASED CURRICULUM focusing on the HAWK RISE ECOSYSTEM and Correlated with the Grade 4 Science Modules: LAND & WATER (NSRC/STC) INVESTIGATING ECOSYSTEMS (BSCS) The following outline highlights key ecosystem concepts pertinent to Hawk Rise that can be focused on through adherence to key New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Science Standards and the Grade 4 Science curriculum modules, LAND & WATER (NSRC/STC) and INVESTIGATING ECOSYSTEMS (BSCS). LAND AND WATER Science Module: NJCCC SCIENCE STANDARD CPI# 5.4.4.G.3 Background Content: (Earth Systems Science Strand G Biogeochemical Cycles) Most of Earth s surface is covered by water. Water circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the water cycle. NSRC/STC GRADE 4 LAND AND WATER MODULE KEY CONCEPTS Water has an important role in shaping the land on earth. The water cycle includes the processes of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation and the passage of water over and through land. These processes affect the shape of the land. The wearing away and moving of soil and rock is erosion; the settling of eroded materials is deposition. Both the flow of water and the slope of the land affect erosion and deposition. Tributaries are branches of streams that converge to form the trunk of a larger stream or river. Together, they act as a system that drains the land HAWK RISE ECOSYSTEM CURRICULUM CORRELATION FEATURES Hawk Rise includes wetland, river, salt marsh, and estuarine habitats that can provide an outstanding laboratory in which to observe and learn the relationships between land and water. Seasonal variations in water abundance and flow in Hawk Rise can contribute to important understandings about the water cycle in the surrounding region.
Linden Public Schools Hawk Rise Grade 4 Curriculum 2 INVESTIGATING ECOSYSTEMS Science Module: NJCCC SCIENCE STANDARD CPI# 5.3.4.C.1 Background Content: (Life Science Strand C Interdependence) Organisms can only survive in environments in which their needs are met. Within ecosystems, organisms interact with, and are dependent on their physical and living environment. NSRC/STC GRADE 4 INVESTIGATING ECOSYSTEMS MODULE KEY CONCEPTS Ecosystems are areas in which diverse living things (plants and animals) and non-living things (physical components, such as air, water, and soil) interact in a variety of ways. Organisms in an ecosystem can only survive in environments in which their needs can be met. For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs. Animals eat plants or other animals for food and may use plants (or even other animals) for shelter and nesting. Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem (e.g., producers, consumers, decomposers). HAWK RISE ECOSYSTEM CURRICULUM CORRELATION FEATURES Hawk Rise is large and diverse enough to illustrate nearly all of the ecosystem features and concepts highlighted in the Grade 4 Investigating Ecosystems module. Seasonal variations in plants and animals at Hawk Rise can demonstrate the fluid and ever-changing nature of energy flow and food-web relationships in an ecosystem like Hawk Rise.
Linden Public Schools Linden, New Jersey INQUIRY-BASED CURRICULUM focusing on the HAWK RISE ECOSYSTEM KEY CURRICULUM SUPPORT REFERENCE Essential guidelines from a reference that has been strongly endorsed and institutionalized in the Linden School District will be seamlessly woven into the Hawk Rise Curriculum: Ready, Set, SCIENCE! Putting Research to Work in K-8 Classrooms (National Research Council of the National Academies, 2008). A credible and well-respected blueprint for quality Science Education, this reference reviews principles from the latest educational research and applies them to effective teaching practice. Four interrelated and learner-focused science education strands are highlighted: 1) marshalling scientific explanations 2) using their own data as evidence 3) reflecting on their current understanding, and 4) participating in authentic scientific practices as presenters and audience members. Each of these Strands will be purposefully infused into the Hawk Rise curriculum, since it will focus on student-based observations, investigations, data-based documentation, and inquiry skills. The Strands also correlate very closely with the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in Science, and the associated Cumulative Progress Indicators (CPI s).