We've talked about organisms when we discussed the different kingdoms of life, and we talked about ecosystems and biomes at the beginning of our ecology unit, and today's lesson pulled it all together as we discussed the organization levels of ecology, focusing on the populations, which are all of one type of organism that live in a particular area or ecosystem. We started with an activity that outlined the levels of organization, beginning with a single organism, and then followed it through to the biosphere. The students labeled cups that can then be stacked in order. In order to help them remember the order, we walked through an example: an ochre seastar. We talked about the organism and population levels, which just include the seastar. Then, we looked at the community that they live in, which includes all the living things in that area--sea anemones, barnacles, mussels, algae, sponges, and whatever other plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi that can be found in the tidepool with our sea star. Then, there is the ecosystem which includes the non-living factors, like rocks, water, sunlight, and air. Next, is the biome, which in this example, is right on the line of the ocean biome and a coastal chapparal biome of CA. Finally, all the biomes together make up our biosphere--the earth! Then, the kids had a chance to do their own example, choosing an organism to follow through to it's spot on earth. We had all types of organisms, including a few trees, fish, mushroom, farm animals, and small plants. The older two classes also learned how field biologist estimate population sizes by using a method called "capture-recapture" or "mark and recapture". They were able to try out this method on our "wild beans" in an activity similar to the one below that uses goldfish. This was a great way to see how scientists work. Additional ActivitiesVideos:
Population Ecology This is an overview of what a population is in ecology. Biological Levels in Biology: The World Tour The Amoeba Sisters tour through the biological levels of organization: cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere! Activities: Scientists have to estimate population sizes all the time and one method is the "capture-recapture" or "mark and recapture" method. Try it out with goldfish in this activity. Use this computer simulation to see what happens when a population explodes. Test this out with a sheep farm model.
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Today was all about who eats who. We learned about producers, consumers, carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, and decomposers. We talked about organisms that compete--over food or habitats--and organisms that live together, helping one another. Additional ActivitiesVideos:
Fabulous Food Chains: Crash Course for Kids Everyone eats, right? But how does that food get the energy to power you? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina talks about the way energy moves, or flows, through an ecosystem and how that movement forms Food Chains! Magic School Bus Gets Eaten The Food Chain. Arnold and Keesha are in trouble when they forget to bring in their assignment on "two things that go together." Bill Nye the Science Guy: Food Web Watch Bill Nye become tangled in a complex food web in his quest to demonstrate that all living things depend on other living things to survive. Activities: Make a food web--use miniature animal figurines, or photos, or stuffed animals and connect them with yarn or string, making lines between any that eat each other. Here's an example from Adventures in Mommydom. Make a Forest Food Pyramid. In this activity, you’ll create a food pyramid that shows what eats what in the forest. First, you’ll do some research on the plants and animals that live in your area to discover what food pyramids are out there in your local forests. From tiny plants to giant hunters, create a forest food web and discover what’s on the menu in the forest. Today we talked all about the different factors that make up an ecosystem. We learned the terms abiotic (non-living) and biotic (living) and then figured out which are which. We looked a few pictures from various biomes and determined what abiotic and biotic factors we could see in the pictures, and which were implied (for example, we may not always see water, but if there are plants growing there, then water must be present in some form.) Once we were all very comfortable identifying the factors, it was time to discuss how they all relate to one another. In an ecosystem, there are always limited resources available--food, water, shelter--and the living parts of the ecosystem are often in competition for these resources. They fight for food, or for the best places to live, or supplies to build their home. Plants may have to fight for sunlight and water, animals for grass and trees, or even other animals. But all relationships in an ecosystem aren't competitive--sometimes organisms help one another, like a tree providing the needed shade for a mushroom or moss to grow, or grass seeds being carried to new soil by the rabbit that was eating that same grass. We looked at another picture of a forest rich in life and found examples of the biotic factors relating to the abiotic (birds flying in the air, animals standing on soil and plants growing in it. or animals climbing rocks to get a better view) and then the biotic factors relating to each other (animals using trees for homes, grass to hide in, or hunting one another.)
Understanding the parts of an ecosystem and how they relate to one another leads us right into our topic for next week--food chains and webs. Videos:
Build a Tiny Plant World Sci Show Kids Jessi and Squeaks just learned about terrariums, and now they want to make one for themselves! Join them to learn all about these tiny gardens in a bottle and how you can make one of your own! Abiotic and Biotic Factors An ecosystem contains living and non living things. The ecosystem has many examples of the interaction between the living and non living. Dr Binocs Show: Ecosystem Hey kids! Do you know what is an Ecosystem? Did you know every nook and cranny of the world could be its own system! Books: What if There Were No Sea Otters? The ocean ecosystem is huge, covering most of our planet. Countless animals and plants live there. So what difference could the loss of one animal species make? Follow the chain reaction, and discover how important sea otters are. Activities: Take a look around you--everything is part of at least one ecosystem. This worksheet has lots of examples of factors and then you get to decide what the ecosystem would be that contains those factors. Once you get the hang of this, make up your own and see if someone in your family can figure out what ecosystem you are describing. Make a working ecosystem! Use your new knowledge about all the parts of an ecosystem that work together to design your own. Check out this engineering challenge to come up with your own design, or follow these directions to create your own self-sustaining ecosystem in a jar. Another fun activity is to look at the factors in an ecosystem (maybe your backyard or a nearby park, or even just a picture or description, like a faraway desert or jungle). Pick one of the factors and describe what would happen if it completely disappeared. What if a stream in the forest completely dried up? Would it affect other abiotic factors? What about the plants, animals, fungi, bacteria? And if it means some animals disappear, would that affect other organisms? Or maybe even abiotic factors, like the soil or rocks? Try the same "What if. . ." game with another factor from that same ecosystem. We began our ecology unit this week, starting with an overview of the biomes found on earth. In the upcoming weeks, we'll look at all the details--the factors that work together to determine a biome's characteristics, and the interactions between all of the living things in each ecosystem. But for this week, we focused on the huge variety in the different areas of land on this planet. Along with creating color-coded maps of the main biomes, the older two classes also took notes on some of the key features and examples of plants and animals found in the main 6 biomes.
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Biomes-The Living Landscapes of Earth Explore the Rainforest! Sci Show Kids Take a look at one of earth's biomes where it rains just about every day! Amazing Ways to Live in the Desert Sci Show Kids Some biomes offer some serious challenges because of their extreme conditions. Check out how plants and animals cope in the desert. Articles and Books: Biomes: National Geographic A biome is an area of the planet that can be classified according to the plants and animals that live in it--read about them in this article. The Wonderous Workings of Planet Earth An illustrated tour of the planet exploring ecosystes large and small, from reefs, deserts, and rainforests to a single drop of water. Activities: Check out this free printable habitat game which will help you distinguish between the different biomes and habitats animals live in. Build a biome, or maybe a whole set of earth's biomes. Use a shoebox, or paper plate, or legos! Make sure to review the key features of each biome and include a few species of living organisms that would be found in your biome. Check out the Lego inspiration here!
We went through a dozen or so traits and put them in the correct parts of the Venn diagram shown above. A couple were tricky thanks to the amphibians two very different stages of life. For instance, they both have gills, and have lungs, throughout their life, just not at the same time. Additional ActivitiesVideos:
See a Salamander Grow Watch this time-lapse video of a salamander growing from a single cell egg. Amazing Snakes! Sci Show Kids takes a look at the myths and truth about snakes. Turtle Time with Dr. Turtleman Sci Show Kids teaches all about turtles. Turtle: The Incredible Journey This documentary follows the lifecycle and migration of a loggerhead turtle. It is really well done for all ages. Check the library system to borrow a copy (currently not available streaming anywhere.) Activities: Incorporate an craft project into your science study and talk about what you know about the animals as you create. Make a paper chain python, or a clothespin iguana, or try a floating turtle made from recycled materials. You can even create your own sea turtle life cycle model using this kit, sand, and rocks. Go for a walk in an area with vernal pools to hunt for amphibians and other water loving animals. Spring is the perfect time to look for these seasonal ponds and streams, and the life they support. Check out this article for more information about how they work and diagrams of the plants and animals you might find there (focused on the vernal pools in CA). Then head out for a hike after the winter and spring rains. The vertebrates are some of the most familiar groups of animals for most kids--fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and, of course, mammals, so this can be one of the most fun to learn about. We started with a look at what all of the animals in this group have in common, like an endoskeleton, being multicellular, and having gills at some point in their development (yes, even mammals have gills at the early embryonic stages!) Then, we moved on to the specifics for each group. They enjoyed putting together this visual representation from Getting Nerdy with Mel and Gerdy. It was a great activity to differentiate for the different ages and abilities so every class was able to work at their level. We talked about the different heart structures, breathing through gills vs. lungs, how they reproduce, and whether the animals are endothermic or ectothermic. I purposefully left out the body coverings, which is a great distinguishing feature between the different vertebrate classes because I had a second activity for that feature. They created this flap booklet with scraps of different materials to represent each of the body coverings (including insects because I thought it was helpful to compare each of these to the hardness of an exoskeleton.) On the inside, there is a place to record examples of the animals in this group and other key features. Some classes will be finishing this as homework, while others were able to get it all done in class. My lower elementary kids didn't take all the notes that the older classes did, so we had a few minutes at the end to demonstrate how fish gills are able to get oxygen out of the water, which I linked to below if any of the other kids would like to give this a try. Additional ActivitiesVideos:
Vertebrates: Grades 4-6 Take a virtual field trip with the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium to look at the similarities and differences between vertebrates. Shape of Life: Chordates - We’re All Family An obscure worm-like animal called Amphioxus teaches us about our relatives. See how chordates are related. How Do Fish Breathe? This SciShow Kids episode explores how fish breathe underwater. Activities: We're just beginning our study of the various classes of vertebrates, beginning with fish. Check out this super simple demonstration of how fish breath in the water. Or use this cartesian diver STEM activity to better understand how fish are able to rise and sink in the water. Or print out this cootie catcher to go over the different classes, or use these sorting cards. We spent the first half of the class sharing the invertebrates that the students had researched this past week. The middle schoolers paired up and found similarities and differences between their animals. Then, they shared those with the class and we tried to guess what their two animals were. The other classes took turns giving us clues about their animals while the class tried to guess. We learned some interesting facts about some of the invertebrates they had researched--like how the Hercules moth doesn't have a mouth and can't eat as an adult, and that octopuses have 3 hearts. Then, we continued our study of invertebrates by looking at a couple of examples of invertebrate life cycles, which are very different than mammals, and involve a lot of changes for these animals. We studied the 4-stage firefly life cycle, and then compared it to the 6-stage jellyfish life cycle. The students pointed out that both have an egg stage and a larvae stage and go through a LOT of change to go from a newly hatched baby to adult, but jellyfish are able to produce multiple adults from just one egg thanks to budding, and fireflies go through a pupa stage where they create a hard outer covering, while jellyfish always maintain their soft body. Additional ActivitiesVideos:
Butterfly: A Life Check out this quick video of the lifecycle of a monarch butterfly - from pupa to adult. The Stunning Life Cycle of a Ladybug This will change everything you thought you knew about ladybugs. Moon Jellyfish Life Cycle See the stages of a jellyfish life cycle in action. Activities: Ladybug Life Cycle Printable--for the younger students, use this printable to go over an example of an insect life cycle. Butterfly Life Cycle Craft--Use various pasta shapes to map out the life cycle of a butterfly. Try raising your own invertebrates. Order worm cocoons, or butterfly eggs and watch them go through their life cycle. Within this group of animals with no backbone, there are tiny insects, giant squid, sea sponges, and earthworms. Some have soft bodies, others have a hard exoskeleton. There are over 30 phyla of invertebrates, but we just took a look at 7 of the most common groups and learned where they live, what type of symmetry they exhibit, and some characteristics of the group. After going over the phyla Porifera, Cnidarians, Platyhelminthes, and Annalida, we paused the note taking and the students were able to create some 3D models of one of the invertebrates we had just talked about. We had a lot of sea sponges, jellyfish, flatworms, and hydra. Then, we finished with Mollusca, Echinodermata, and the largest group--Arthropoda. Then, the students had a more challenging task--to create a model of one of these invertebrates with an exoskeleton, using foil and playdough. They made snails, beetles, butterflies, and sea stars. The youngest students had a chance to learn about the differences of soft-bodied invertebrates and those with exoskeletons through a couple different activities. We looked at the anatomy of a snail, and then made jellyfish from coffee filters and streamers. We also watched short video clips of each of these animals to see how their bodies move. There are still so many things to learn about these animals, and the students will get a chance to dig a little deeper this next week as they pick a single animal to study and share with the class next week. Additional ActivitiesVideos:
Bill Nye The Science Guy: Invertebrates Check out this episode to learn more about the wide variety of invertebrates on earth. Invertebrates (Dr. Binocs Show) Earthworms, Jellyfish, Snail, Octopus, Cockroach and Spider! What's that one common thing about them? Well, they all don't have a backbone! And that's why they are called Invertebrates. Inspect an Insect (SciShow Kids) There are more insects in the world than any other kind of animal! In this episode of SciShow Kids, Jessi and Squeaks show you how to identify an insect, in three easy steps! Worms are Wonderful Ever wonder what those little earthworms are up to? Learn why worms are wonderful with Jessi and Squeaks! 8 Boss Invertebrates That Eat Whatever They Want Even if you’re tiny, you can still be fierce. Here are 8 little invertebrates who punch above their weight class at dinner time. Podcasts: Do Insects See the World in Slow Motion? Brains On Podcast Do insects see the world in slow motion? Do animals see the same rainbow we do? How do eagles see so far away? Cuttlefish: Ultimate Shapeshifters! Masters of camoflauge, cuttlefish are part of the cephalopod family, like squid and octopus. Learn how they use 3 colors, 2 layers of skin, and papillae to make them into the ultimate shapeshifters. Activities: Explore different types of invertebrates through art and STEM. Make jellyfish from coffee filters, or flapping butterflies, or create a 3D tidepool. Or play a game like Insect Movement Dice, or Spiders and Scorpions Tag from the PE Shed. It's easy to say that the difference between invertebrate animals and vertebrate animals is whether or not they have a backbone, and that is the criteria that scientists use to divide animals into these two categories, but as we learned in class, it's not always easy to tell which animals actually have a spinal cord and backbone. Is a shark a vertebrate, even though it doesn't have actual bones? What about worms and snakes? They look very similar, so are they in the same category? As a class, we looked at a lot of examples of animals and sorted them into the correct category.
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Vertebrate and Invertebrate Elesapiens animated video about how animals are classified into these two categories. Vertebrates and Invertebrates funsciencevideos Jared helps us learn that some animals have backbones and some do not, and what scientists call these two special groups of organisms. Articles: Are Sharks a Vertebrate? If vertebrates have a backbone, but sharks don't have real bones, are they vertebrates or invertebrates? Activities: Study.com has a lesson on invertebrates vs. vertebrates with videos, quizzes, and activity suggestions. Go on a field trip--to the zoo, aquarium, or to visit a local area with wildlife (tidepools, forest, pond, etc. . .). Look for animals and identify whether they are invertebrates or vertebrates. You can add in an art component and make a collage of all the animals you find when you get back home. Play 20 questions or charades with animals and then identify whether they are invertebrates or vertebrates at the end. Create animals from candy, using toothpicks to represent the vertebrates' backbone, while using frosting to put together the invertebrates. The animal kingdom is full of examples of various types of symmetry. While most animals exhibit bilateral symmetry, where the two sides are identical, there are exceptions. Some marine animals have external radial symmetry, and a few animals from each class are actually asymmetrical, with an odd feature that keeps them from being symmetrical at all. We looked at the types of symmetry, examples of each, and then created our own animals with bilateral symmetry. Bilateral symmetry offers animals a more streamlined body, which means faster movement to get away from predators or chase down prey. There's a good reason that the majority of animals have evolved this body form. Additional ActivitiesVideos & Podcasts: A Symmetrical World Examples of symmetry in the world around us. For use in mathematics units requiring investigation of line and rotational symmetries. Narwhals--Unicorns of the Sea? Brains On! Science podcast about one of the asymmetrical organisms of the animal kingdom. Books & Articles: What is Symmetry in Nature? Introduces the concept of symmetry and demonstrates its presence in natural objects, including ferns, butterflies, human faces, and starfish. Wikipedia List of Animals Featuring Asymmetry While bilateral symmetry is common in all animal groups, there are exceptions in every group. Activities: Art Lessons for Kids: Symmetry Painting Whether you create abstract paintings, or try to create an animal, this is a great activity to explore bilateral symmetry. Try another form of art to create radial symmetry designs. Symmetrical origami can be used to create any type of symmetry. Or maybe printmaking will interest your students. Or make a symmetry dinner--pizzas and cakes or cookies are both perfect for creating your own examples of radial symmetry. Gizmos Gizmos are interactive math and science simulations for grades 3-12. We tried out a lab on osmosis in class, and there are hundreds of others covering all areas of science. |
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