Curriculum planning chart Generative Topic (Blythe et al, 1998): Trees and the Ecosystem Name: Heather Brubach

Concept ("The student will understand")

We use specific criteria to classify and identify things in nature Informational texts can help us to organize information and learn about the world around us We can learn about the world around us by making careful observations and keeping a record of them Science S4.B.3.1.2: Describe interactions between living and nonliving components (e.g. plants water, soil, sunlight, carbon dioxide, temperature; animals food, water, shelter, oxygen, temperature) of a local ecosystem.

Subject: 4th Grade Science

Skills ("The students will be able to")
Classify something as an ecosystem, community or population Discuss the interactions present in a food chain and/or energy web. Classify organisms as producers, consumers or decomposers. Explain that a producer makes it's own food and food for others, a consumer gets it's energy from eating producers and/or other consumers, a decomposer release energy by breaking down dead producers and consumers.

Standard

Assessment: (How will you have evidence that they know it?)
Observe accurate sorting of example organisms into decomposer, consumer, and producer Assess student understanding of concept with an exit ticket asking them to create/draw a food chain with one of each type of organism. Clicker quiz on terminology related to ecosystems and food chains.

Facts ("The students will know")

An ecosystem is defined as a system formed by the interactions of living organisms and the surrounding physical environment. A community is a term referring to all living things within the same ecosystem. A population is a term for all living things of one species within a community.

Problems to pose ("Guiding questions" or "unit questions")

How do we classify and organize information? How are natural things in our world connected or related to each other?

Activities:

Play a game on the smart board to introduce the concepts of producers, consumers and decomposers and to illustrate the sequence of a food chain. Will do a sorting activity to determine whether something is a producer, consumer or decomposer Class discussion about what happens if parts of the chain are removed or parts of a web are altered. Students will set up a terrarium as an example micro ecosystem.

Natural resources benefit their environments' ecosystem as well as human lives and communities

S4.B.3.2.2: Describe and predict how changes in the environment (e.g., fire, pollution, flood, building dams) can affect systems. BIO.B.4.2.4: Describe how ecosystems change in response to natural and human disturbances (e.g., climate changes, introduction of nonnative species, pollution, fires).

Smart Board Clicker quiz on terminology including: ecosystem, community, population, producer, consumer, decomposer and photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is the process by which producer organisms make sugar/food from sun,oxygen in the air, soil and water. Soil is composed of air, humus, rocks and water.

Explain why trees are important for soil and soil is important to trees. Summarize the respiration cycle of trees/plants.

Why are natural resources important? How are natural things in our world connected or related to each other?

Class discussion about what the tree needs to provide food/energy for the ecosystem. Also discuss how food is not the only thing that a tree provides an ecosystem.

Natural resources benefit their environments' ecosystem as well as human lives and communities

Literacy CC.1.2: Reading Informational Text: Students read, understand, and respond to informational text with emphasis on comprehension, making connections among ideas and between texts with focus on textual evidence.

Constructed response about why trees are an important part of any ecosystem (including the concepts of respiration cycle, photosynthesis, preventing erosion and animal habitats)

Trees participate in a cycle of respiration by taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen into the air.

Illustrate that trees are important to a forest ecosystem because they provide food and oxygen for other organisms, when their leaves fall it enriches the soil, their roots hold soil in place, and they are an important habitat for other organisms.

Class discussion about what the tree needs to provide food/energy for the ecosystem. Also discuss how food is not the only thing that a tree provides an ecosystem. Read a non-fiction text together explaining the cycles involved with photosynthesis and the respiration cycle. Students will observe models of water moving through different types of soil and a model with and without plant roots to hold soil in place. Students will create a web with a tree at the center of it.

Informational texts can help us to organize information and learn about the world around us We can learn about the world around us by making careful observations and keeping a record of them

CC.1.2: Reading Informational Text: Students read, understand, and respond to informational text with emphasis on comprehension, making connections among ideas and between texts with focus on textual evidence.

Students will create a short presentation/poster about their chosen tree type, including: what type of tree it is, what environment it lives in and what adaptations it has made to thrive in it's environmental conditions.

Trees are found in very diverse environments around the world.

Compare how different trees have adapted to different ecosystems and environments.

How are natural things in our world connected to each other?

Research and learn about diverse types of trees in different environments around the world.

Individuals can make a difference in protecting our natural resources/environment

Science S4.B.3.2.2: Describe and predict how changes in the environment (e.g., fire, pollution, flood, building dams) can affect systems.

Make a poster to persuade people in the community to care about and protect urban trees.

Urban trees are important to human communities and sustaining the environment. Persuasive writing involves using evidence to support your claims or position.

Identify impacts that humans have had on trees including: deforestation for development, timber cutting for paper and fuel, pollution that creates acid rain, etc.

How are natural resources threatened? How have humans impacted the natural world?

Read about how urban trees are affected by humans and what we can do to protect them from common stresses.

BIO.B.4.2.4: Describe how ecosystems change in response to natural and human disturbances (e.g., climate changes, introduction of nonnative species, pollution, fires). Literacy PA S.S.1.4.5.C Write persuasive pieces, include a clearly stated position or opinion and include supporting details, citing sources when needed. Literacy CC.3.6: Writing: Students write for different purposes and audiences. Students write clear and focused text to convey a well-defined perspective and appropriate content.

Evaluate the impact of human disturbances to ecosystems involving trees.

What makes a persuasive piece of writing successful?

As a class we will compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of different types of deforestation.