Forests

Group students into teams of approximately 4 or 5 kids. Assign them a forest and have them create a “tour” of that forest. Students should plan a tour guide script that points out the plants and animals that would be seen on that tour. Encourage them to include a fact or two for each item on the tour. Then the students act out the tour for their classmates. Students can play the parts of trees, bushes, animals and people.

Draw or create a model rainforest and label the layers: emergent, canopy, understory, forest floor.

Select a plant or animal from any of the three types of forests. Create a PowerPoint presentation about it to share with students in a younger grade. Text, images, graphs, maps and textual information should be factual and researched.

Use tree cookies to determine ring sizes. Discuss and compare the rings. Explain that growth is based on rainfall and heat. Find the rings that show good growing years and poor growing years.

Write mathematical equations using data from this pie chart. Solve and label.

Write fractional statements using data from this pie chart.

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.

Living things need water, air, and resources from the land. They live in places that have the things they need. Examples of relationships could include that deer eat buds and leaves therefore 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.

Things that people do can affect the world around them. People can reduce their effects on the land, water, air, and other living things. Designs can be conveyed through sketches, drawings, or physical models. These representations are useful in communicating ideas for a problem’s solutions to other people. 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.

Plants have different parts (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits) that help them survive and grow. Examples of human problems that can be solved by mimicking plant solutions could include designing protective clothing by mimicking acorn shells, stabilizing structures by mimicking roots, and keeping out intruders by mimicking thorns on branches.

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

Plants depend on water and light to grow.

Some plants can depend on animals, wind, and water for pollination or to move their seeds around. Designs can be conveyed through sketches, drawings, or physical models. These representations are useful in communicating ideas for a problem’s solutions to other people. Emphasis is on the interaction between animals and plants rather than all forms of pollination and seed dispersal.

Many characteristics involve both inheritance and environment. The environment affects the traits that an organism develops. Examples of the environment affecting a trait could include that normally tall plants grown with insufficient water are stunted.

Climate describes a range of an area's typical weather conditions and the extent to which those conditions vary over years.

The energy released from food was once energy from the Sun. The energy was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter (from air and water).

Plants acquire their material for growth chiefly from air and water. The energy released from food was once energy from the Sun that was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter (from air and water). Emphasis is on the idea that plant matter comes mostly from air and water, not from the soil.

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.

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.

Plants, algae (including phytoplankton), and many microorganisms use the energy from light to make sugars (food) from carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water through the process of photosynthesis, which also releases oxygen. These sugars can be used immediately or stored for growth or later use. Emphasis is on tracing movement of matter and flow of energy.

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.

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.

Biodiversity describes the variety of species found in Earth's 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, forest ecosystem services could include oxygen production, water purification, carbon absorption, 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.

Human activities can positively and negatively influence the biosphere, sometimes altering natural habitats and ecosystems. (MS-ESS-3.3) 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).