Smithsonian Science for the Classroom™: What Do Plants and Animals Need to Live? 3-Use Module

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Grade K. Module Highlights: In 10 lessons spanning 14 class sessions, students investigate 2 phenomena and propose solutions to 3 problems related to what plants and animals need and how Earth's systems support them. In lessons 1 through 3, students investigate what is causing radish plants to become unhealthy. In lessons 4 and 5, when their instructional video experiences technical problems and cannot be watched, students must figure out what caterpillars need to live. In lessons 6 and 7, students collect and analyze data to figure out the phenomenon of caterpillars building webs. In lesson 8, students identify what is causing a sidewalk to crack and propose a solution that meets the needs of both humans and non-humans in the environment. In the science challenge, lessons 9 and 10, students develop plans for a play area that minimizes its impact on the land and the organisms that depend on it.

This module includes a teacher guide, 1 Smithsonian Science Stories big book, 4 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 24 students to use 3 times.

Alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards*
Performance Expectations

• K-LS1-1: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
• K-ESS2-2: Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals (including humans) can change the environment to meet their needs.
• K-ESS3-1: Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live.
• K-ESS3-3: Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.

Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

• All animals need food in order to live and grow. They obtain their food from plants of from other animals. Plants need water and light to live and grow.

ESS2.E: Biogeology

• Plants and animals can change their environment.

ESS3.A: Natural Resources

• Living things need water, air and resources from the land and they live in places that have the things they need. Humans use natural resources for everything they do.

ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems

• Things that people do to live comfortably can affect the world around them. But they can make choices that reduce their impacts on the land, water, air, and other living things.

ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions**

• Designs can be conveyed through sketches, drawings, or physical models. These representations are useful in communicating ideas for a problem's solutions to other people.

**Indicates a DCI that is addressed in the module but not summatively assessed.

Science and Engineering Practices
Focal:

• Developing and using models
• Analyzing and interpreting data
• Engaging in argument from evidence

Crosscutting Concepts
Focal:

• Systems and system models

Module Objectives

• Use observations to develop a model that represents relationships among living things on an area of land.
• Argue from evidence about which play area plan is best for the system of living things on a piece of land.

Phenomena and Problems Storyline
Phenomenon: The radish plants look unhealthy.
Students figure out: The radish plants need light and water to live and grow.
How they figure it out:
Lesson 1: Students use observations as evidence to explain why the radish plants look unhealthy. Then they develop questions for investigation.
Lesson 2: Students collaborate to plan how to collect data. They make predictions about what will happen to their radish plants as the investigation proceeds. Students collect their first set of data.
Lesson 3: Students collect and analyze their final pieces of data from their radish plant investigation. They use their data to identify patterns of growth and survival based on how each plant was treated during the investigation. Students use their observations as evidence to develop models showing the different resources plants need to live.
Problem: Ada needs us to take care of her caterpillars, but we don't know what they need.
Students solve the problem: The class feeds the caterpillars so they can get the food and water they need to live and grow.
How they solve the problem:
Lesson 4: Students draw on prior experience as evidence to develop a claim about what the caterpillars need. Students use information from a text to identify a pattern in what animals need to live. Students refine their claim using evidence from a text.
Lesson 5: Students use evidence from observations to revise and support an argument about what caterpillars need to live and grow.
Phenomenon: Caterpillars build webs.
Students figure out: Organisms need other things beyond food and water, such as shelter or space to grow. Plants and animals change their environment to get the things they need.
How they figure it out:
Lesson 6: Students observe different parts of the caterpillar cup. Students use observations as evidence to develop a model showing how the different parts of the caterpillar habitat are related.
Lesson 7: Students use information from a text to identify some of the other things plants and animals need to live and grow. Students make observations of caterpillars' webs found in nature and use them as evidence to create a model showing how the webs relate to the things caterpillars need.
Problem: The pavement is broken, and this makes it hard for people to move down the sidewalk.
Students solve the problem: Students think about the needs of both the tree and humans and consider how to meet both through proposed designs.
How they solve the problem:
Lesson 8: Students use observations as evidence to determine that the tree trunk and roots are causing the pavement to crack. They collaborate with a partner to develop and propose a solution that attends to both human and non-human needs.
Science Challenge
Problem: Ada's school wants to build a play area behind the school. There are 3 different plans for the play area.
Students solve the problem: Students predict how each plan will impact the living system on the land and choose the plan with the least impact.
How they solve the problem:
Lesson 9: Students observe photographs taken of the schoolyard. Students develop a model of the school area that shows the parts and relationships within the living system that is on the land.
Lesson 10: For each proposed play area plan, students predict whether caterpillars, woodpeckers, plants, and trees will get what they need. Students use their schoolyard model and their predictions to choose which plan they think Ada's school should adopt.

*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.