Ecology


Standards

Idaho State Standards

Here are correlations to the Idaho State Language and Math standards and to the Idaho State Science Standards. For more information about the overall standards, see the complete Idaho Content Standards for Science, the Next Generation Science Standards, and the alignment between Idaho and NGSS Science Standards. You may also access the Idaho English Language Arts/Literacy Standards and Mathematics Standards.

Language

Second Grade

ELA/Literacy 2.RS-IP1

With support as needed, conduct short research tasks to take some action or make informal presentations by gathering information from experiences and provided sources (including read alouds), and organizing information using graphic organizers or other aids.

Suggested Lesson

Make a two-column list of living (biotic) and nonliving things (abiotic) that can be found in the schoolyard environment. Pick another environment — forest, ocean, desert, backyard, classroom, grocery store, etc. — and make similar lists.

Fourth Grade

ELA/Literacy 4.W-RW3

Write informational texts that introduce the topic; develop the focus with facts, details or other information; and provide a concluding statement or section.

Suggested Lesson

Create a poster about some aspect of ecology. Include details and scientific facts about your topic. Illustrate your poster.

Sixth Grade

ELA/Literacy 6.W-RW2

Write arguments that introduce and support a distinct point of view with relevant claims, evidence and reasoning; demonstrate an understanding of the topic; and provide a concluding section that follows from the argument presented.

Suggested Lesson

What makes something a living thing? Research the properties of living things. Write an opinion piece about fire. Is it living? Why or why not? Support your answer with details.

Math

Second Grade

Math 2.MD.D.10

Draw a picture graph and a bar graph (with single-unit scale) to represent a data set with up to four categories. Solve simple put-together, take-apart, and compare problems using information presented in the graph.

Suggested Lesson

Bury some standard garbage objects — such as paper, aluminum foil, plastic bottle cap, etc. — into small containers of soil. Water them often and check them daily to see how quickly the objects decay. Create a graph to plot the decay process.

Fourth Grade

Math 4.MD.A.2

Use the four operations to solve word problems involving measurements. Include problems involving simple fractions or decimals. Include problems that require expressing measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Represent measurement quantities using diagrams such as number line diagrams that feature a measurement scale.

Suggested Lesson

Test acid rain and plant growth. Plant seeds in soil placed in small containers such as plastic drinking glasses. Arrange the cups so they will get sunshine. Water them with regular water until the plants can be seen.

Once the seeds have sprouted, label the cups to indicate how much “acid rain” they will receive. Then on a regular schedule, water the plants with acidic water (vinegar is an easy option), varying the amount of acid each plant cup receives. Measure the vinegar going into each cup and modify the amount used to water each plant. Compare the plant growth. Create graphs and/or plot lines to show the results.


Science

Kindergarten

Life Science: K-LS-1.1

Use observations to describe how plants and animals are alike and different in terms of how they live and grow.

Supporting Content

All animals need food in order to live and grow. They obtain their food from plants or from other animals. Plants need water and light to live and grow. Examples of observations could include that animals need to take in food, but plants produce their own; the different kinds of food needed by different types of animals; the requirement of plants to have light; and that all living things need water.

Earth and Space Science: K-ESS-2.3

Communicate ideas that would enable humans to interact in a beneficial way with the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.

Supporting Content

Things that people do can affect the world around them. People can reduce their effects on the land, water, air, and other living things. Examples of human influence on the land could include planting trees after a burn, protecting farm fields from erosion, or keeping plastic trash out of waterways.

Earth and Space Science: K-ESS-2.1

Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals and the places they live.

Supporting Content

Living things need water, food, air, and resources from the land, and they live in places that have the things they need. An example of a relationship is that deer eat buds and leaves so they usually live in forested areas, and grasses need sunlight so they often grow in meadows. Plants, animals and their surroundings make up a system.

Second Grade

Life Science: 2-LS-1.1

Plan and conduct an investigation to determine the impact of light and water on the growth of plants.

Supporting Content

Plants depend on water and light to grow.

Life Science: 2-LS-1.2

Develop a model that demonstrates how plants depend on animals for pollination or the dispersal of seeds.

Supporting Content

Some plants can depend on animals, wind, and water for pollination or to move their seeds around. Emphasis is on the interaction between animals and plants rather than all forms of pollination and seed dispersal.

Life Science: 2-LS-2.1

Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.

Supporting Content

There are many different kinds of living things in any area, and they exist in different places on land and in water. Emphasis is on the diversity of living things in each of a variety of different habitats.

Third Grade

Life Sciences: 3-LS-3.2

Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.

Supporting Content

Interactions with the environment affect the characteristics that organisms develop. Examples of the environment affecting a trait could include that normally tall plants grown with insufficient water are stunted, and a pet dog that is given too much food and little exercise may become overweight.

Fifth Grade

Life Science: 5-LS-2.3

Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals living there may change.

Supporting Content

Populations live in a variety of habitats and change in those habitats affects the organisms living there. When the environment changes in ways that affect a place’s physical characteristics, temperature, or availability of resources, some organisms survive and reproduce, others move to new locations, yet others move into the transformed environment, and some die. Examples of environmental changes could include changes in land characteristics, water distribution, temperature, food, and other organisms.

Earth and Space Science: 5-ESS-3.1

Obtain and combine information about ways communities protect Earth's resources and environment using scientific ideas.

Supporting Content

Human activities in agriculture, industry, and everyday life have effects on the land, vegetation, streams, ocean, air, and even outer space. Individuals and communities can often mitigate these effects through innovation and technology.


All Grades

Multiple Grades Two-Part Experiment

Do you know what soil is made of? Kids Ecology Corps offers a two-part experiment that will help you find out. Try both activities, measuring both the layers of soil and the quantities of soil and water that you use in the experiment.

Suggested Lesson

This two-part experiment can be adapted to fit the target grade level. 

Sixth Grade - Middle School

Life Science: MS-LS-2.1

Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.

Supporting Content

Organisms, and populations of organisms, are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors. In any ecosystem, organisms and populations with similar requirements for food, water, oxygen, or other resources may compete with each other for limited resources, access to which consequently constrains their growth and reproduction. Growth of organisms and population increases are limited by access to resources. Emphasis is on cause and effect relationships between resources and growth of individual organisms and the numbers of organisms in ecosystems during periods of abundant and scarce resources.

Life Science: MS-LS-2.2

Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.

Supporting Content

Predatory interactions may reduce the number of organisms or eliminate whole populations of organisms. Mutually beneficial interactions, in contrast, may become so interdependent that each organism requires the other for survival. Although the species involved in these competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems, the patterns of interactions of organisms with their environments are shared. Emphasis is on predicting consistent patterns of interactions in different ecosystems in terms of the relationships among and between organisms and abiotic components of ecosystems. Examples of types of interactions could include competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial.

Life Science: MS-LS-2.3

Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

Supporting Content

Food webs are models that demonstrate how matter and energy is transferred between producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem. Transfers of matter into and out of the physical environment occur at every level. Decomposers recycle nutrients from dead plant or animal matter back to the soil in terrestrial environments or to the water in aquatic environments. The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem. Emphasis is on describing the conservation of matter and flow of energy into and out of various ecosystems, and on defining the boundaries of the system.

Life Science: MS-LS-2.5

Construct an argument supported by evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.

Supporting Content

Ecosystems are dynamic in nature; their characteristics can vary over time. Disruptions to any physical or biological component of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations. Emphasis is on recognizing patterns in data and making warranted inferences about changes in populations, and on evaluating empirical evidence supporting arguments about changes to ecosystems.

Life Science: MS-LS-2.6

Design and evaluate solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Supporting Content

Biodiversity describes the variety of species found in Earth's terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems. The completeness or integrity of an ecosystem's biodiversity is often used as a measure of its health. Changes in biodiversity can influence humans' resources, such as food, energy, and medicines, as well as ecosystem services that humans rely on-for example, water purification, nutrient recycling, and prevention of soil erosion. Examples of design solution constraints could include scientific, economic, and social considerations. There are systematic processes for evaluating solutions with respect to how well they meet the criteria and constraints of a problem.

Earth and Space Science: MS-ESS-3.3

Apply scientific practices to design a method for monitoring human activity and increasing beneficial human influences on the environment.

Supporting Content

Human activities can positively and negatively influence the biosphere, sometimes altering natural habitats and ecosystems. Technology and engineering can potentially help us best manage natural resources as populations increase. Examples of the design process include examining human interactions and designing feasible solutions that promote stewardship. Examples can include water usage (such as stream and river use, aquifer recharge, or dams and levee construction); land usage (such as urban development, agriculture, wetland benefits, stream reclamation, or fire restoration); and pollution (such as of the air, water, or land).