by Liana Ponce
Here is the next installment of this science unit! In Part 3 of the blog series you can download Objective 2 of the unit. I fell in love with the content in this objective and I hope it helps you develop scientific thinking in your classroom. Read about what’s included in this objective.
Objective 2 Big Ideas: 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.
Day 1 Lesson Plan: Students will brainstorm about how humans respond to different temperatures.
Students practice reading thermometers and reasoning about the implications of varying temperatures on humans.
Day 2 Lesson Plan: Students will reflect on real world situations where animals either survived, migrated, or died.
This lesson features an in-depth look at how changing temperatures affect tawny owls in Finland.
Day 3 Lesson Plan: Students will learn about real world situations where animals either survived, migrated, or died.
This is one of my favorite lessons. Students get to explore the migration patterns of 4 animals around the world using Google maps and animal stories. It can be expanded to take several days if you want students to explore more about these migrations!
Day 4 Lesson Plan: Students will learn about real world situations where animals either survived, migrated, or died.
Lessons 4 and 5 have a special place in my heart as they explore the plight of the Black-Footed Ferret. In lesson 4 students learn about the near extinction of these animals and the dangers they faced.
Day 5 Lesson Plan: Students will make a claim about the merit of a solution to problems causing an animal to go extinct.
Day 5 continues the exploration into the Black-Footed Ferret and students learn how scientists worked to save them from extinction.
This whole unit is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License (international): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .
Please make sure you follow the guidelines for use of these materials. Please give attribution when using or sharing these lessons. Please do not lift images from the work. The source of each image is listed where necessary. Images under the public domain are noted and can be used accordingly, otherwise the images fall under some form of copyright restriction.
*Update 2/16/19 - The whole unit is now available for download! Click below*