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Worms, Water, and People on the Schoolyard

Unit Plan: Schoolyard InquiriesTime: 1 class period Setting: Classroom
3-5Schoolyard Ecology
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Objectives

Students will learn how different elements of the schoolyard ecosystem are linked, how scientists compile data and search for patterns and relationships, and how these relationships can be described.

    Overview
    Rating:

    Students will combine their data into drawings and then write stories that explain the relationship of the data depicted in the drawings.

    Materials

    • Student Sheets
    • Pens, Pencils, Crayons or Color markers
    • Bar Graphs from “Data Display’a”
    • Student Assignment
    1. Explain the assignment to the students, using the student sheet as a guide. The students will need their bar graphs from the previous assignment. You may wish to do the first drawing as a class, and let them do the second two drawings on their own.
    2. Have the students complete the second part of the assignment, creating a “scientific story” based on their drawings. This is synonymous to scientists compiling data and drawing conclusions based on patters they see in that data. The goal here is to enable the students to recognize and describe patterns in their data when comparing the variables of worms, percolation, humans, and land use type.

    Closure: Have the students compare their stories with each other. For closure, discuss the assignment as a class and see what the students had in common regarding links between humans, land use, worms, and percolation on the schoolyard. Allow the discussion to lead your class to a group conclusion regarding the experiments.


     

    Lesson Files

    pdf
    Worms, Water, and People on the Schoolyard Worksheet

    Benchmarks for Science Literacy

    1B Scientific Inquiry, 1C The scientific enterprise, 2A Patterns and Relationships, 4B The Earth, 4C Processes that shape the earth, 4G Forces of Nature, 5A Diversity of Life, 5D Interdependence of Life, 9D Uncertainty, 9E Reasoning

    NYS Standards

    MST 1 - Mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, MST 4- Physical setting, living environment and nature of science
    Next Generation Science Standards

    Science and Engineering Practices

    Engaging in argument from evidence, Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information