Mathematics Grade Prototype Curriculum Guide

Sample assessment

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  List the animals used during the activity and the habitats in which they belong. Have students match the animals with the appropriate habitats.
  
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  Assess the accuracy of the information on the data charts and in the letters written.
  

Follow-up/extension

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  Conduct the same activity, using pictures of other organisms, such as plants.
  
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  Let students make a bulletin board with the letters and pictures they have drawn of their animals.
  
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  Have another class complete the activity, writing letters to your class.
  

Resources

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  Chesapeake Bay Program: America’s Premier Watershed Restoration Partnership. http://www.chesapeakebay.net/. Provides articles and other resources on the Chesapeake Bay’s natural resources.
  
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  Connections: Connecting Books to the Virginia SOLs. Fairfax County Public Schools and The College of William and Mary. http://www.fcps.edu/cpsapps/connections. Presents a database of more than 1,000 works of children’s literature and their connection to the Virginia Standards of Learning.
  
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  Lessons from the Bay. Virginia Department of Education. http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/LFB/. A resource for grades 3–6, including 16 lessons concerning watersheds and the negative human impact on the environment, specifically the Chesapeake Bay.
  
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  Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12. National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). http://www.nsta.org/ostbc.
  
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  Project Learning Tree. American Forest Foundation. http://www.plt.org/. Provides details on this national environmental education program.
  
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  Project WET (Water Education for Teachers). http://www.projectwet.org/. Offers watershed resources through an online store.
  
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  Project WILD. Council for Environmental Education. http://www.projectwild.org/.
  
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  Search for Literature: Literature for Science and Mathematics. California Department of Education. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/sc/ll/ap/searchlist.asp. Offers a searchable database.
  
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  Virginia Naturally: Linking Virginians to the Environment. http://www.vanaturally.com/. Offers environmental resources for teachers.
  
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  Virginia Naturally School Recognition Program. Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. http://www.dgif.state.va.us/education/van_school_recognition.html. Provides information about the Virginia Naturally program to recognize environmental stewardship in schools.
  
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  Virginia’s Wildlife. Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries. http://www.dgif.state.va.us/wildlife/va_wildlife/index.html.
  

Hello from My Habitat! Data Sheet

Name: Date:

Organism’s name: ___________________________

Diet
Appearance
Predators
Number of young
Habitat

Hello from My Habitat! Data Sheet

Name: Date:

Organism’s name: ___________________________

Diet
Appearance
Predators
Number of young
Habitat

Life in the Web

Organizing Topic Investigating Ecosystems

Overview Students study the roles of members of food chains and food webs and investigate the niches of those organisms in the community. The students use this information to create a forest mural.

Related Standards of Learning 4.5b, c, d, e

Objectives

The students should be able to

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  illustrate the food webs in a local area and compare and contrast the niches of several different organisms within the community.
  

Materials needed

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  Paper chain
  
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  Bulletin board paper
  
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  Art supplies
  
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  Push pins
  
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  Yarn
  
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  Stapler
  
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  Attached data sheet
  

Instructional activity

Content/Teacher Notes

A food chain is a representation of the energy flow among organisms in an ecosystem. A food web shows the interrelationship of all of the food chains in an ecosystem. All life benefits from the process of photosynthesis, in which plants take energy from the sun and make it available to animals. The first step of a food chain is always a producer, which is usually a plant. The chain continues as herbivores eat plants. Omnivores (plant and animal eaters) or carnivores (animal eaters) then eat the herbivores or other carnivores.

A simple way to illustrate a food chain is to use arrows to designate the direction of energy flow. An example of a simple food chain would be: sunwheatmouseowl.

The arrow points to the organism that receives the energy. Of course, this food chain is far too simple, as in reality there will be many organisms eating the mouse and the wheat, and the owl will be eating other organisms other than just the mouse.

An organism’s niche (rhymes with ditch) is the organism’s role in an ecosystem, and a niche includes everything that the organism affects, where it lives, what it eats, and what eats it. The major difference between a niche and a habitat is that a habitat is a place, while a niche is an organism’s role. A student’s habitat is his house, but his niche is that of a brother, son, neighbor, friend, student, basketball player, and any other roles the student plays. The difference between a niche and a habitat may be a difficult distinction for students to make, but with practice they will understand how the two differ.

Introduction

1. Hold the paper chain up with one finger so that it hangs straight down. Ask students what would happen to the chain if you cut off any of the loops. (The chain will be broken and will not be viable.)

2. Explain that in nature, plants and animals pass energy from one to another through a food chain. As in the paper chain, if one link of the food chain is broken, the entire chain will be weakened.

3. Tell students that they will be creating a food chain and a food web in the classroom.

Procedure

1. Draw a familiar food chain on the board. Examples include: sunwheatmouseowl (in grasslands or forest); sunplankton (small floating plants and animals)clamsea staroctopus (in ocean); sungrasscowhuman.

2. Inform students that the arrows point to the organisms receiving energy. Point out that all food chains begin with plants (producers) capturing the sun’s energy. The plant uses some of the energy to live and grow and then passes the rest on to the herbivore that eats the plant. The energy moves from organism to organism through the chain.

3. Have the class participate in making a list of animals that live in the forest. Some examples are crickets, squirrels, owls, bats, deer, worms, frogs, snakes, mosquitoes, raccoons, woodpeckers, snails, skunks, and lizards.

4. Have the class participate in making a list of plants that live in the forest. Some examples are mosses, clover, honeysuckle, pine trees, oak trees, violets, maple trees, and azaleas.

5. Combine the two lists, and have students determine the food chains within. Provide reference sources.

6. Divide the class into pairs of students, and assign each pair a plant and an animal to study. Students may draw their forest organisms or collect pictures from magazines, the Internet, old calendars, coloring books, and other sources.

7. Allow students to staple their pictures or drawings onto the bulletin board to form a forest mural.

8. Then, have students use push pins and yarn to connect one organism to another to show the different food chains and food webs.

Observations and Conclusions

1. Ask the students the following questions to stimulate class discussion:

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  Does any animal eat only one thing? (No, usually animals are diversified in their diet.)
  
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  How does eating a variety of things make it easier for an organism to survive? (If one food source disappears, then the consumer can survive by eating other organisms.)
  
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  What happens if one link in the food chain is lost? (The whole ecosystem is affected. Demonstrate by removing the yarn connector from one organism to another.) How about two organisms lost? Three? (The more organisms that are lost in an ecosystem, the weaker the whole food web becomes. A healthy food web can stand to lose some components, but there is a limit.)