Embedded Files
An inquiry into the natural world and its laws; the interaction between the natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society and on the environment.
Click here to see our unit of inquiry questions and wonderings.
Click here to see student ACTION!
Central Idea: interconnectedness shapes cycles.
Lines of Inquiry:
✦ Connections between components of an ecosystem
✦ Consequences of balance and imbalance
✦ Invasive species impact ecosystems (student-created line of inquiry)
Nature Center
Students helped maintain and clean-up our school nature center and garden to preserve it, so others can enjoy it throughout the school year.
Poudre River at Lee Martinez Park
Students explored our local watershed and discovered what makes a river healthy and why that is important by collecting aquatic macroinvertebrates, which are indicators of water quality, and observing them under microscopes.
Does Air Have Weight?
Students discovered the nutrient which accounts for most of a plant's food. In the activity, Weighing Air, students blew up a balloon and hypothesized whether it weighed anything. Then, we watched a video simulation in which balloons were balanced and they let the air out of all the balloons on one side of the balance to directly observe that air does in fact has weight. Students learned that this is primarily what plants eat, specifically with General Sherman and how that tree has gained so much weight and gotten so big over time.
Eat, Or Be Eaten Card Game
In this lesson, students develop their thinking about the predator/prey relationships between living things. In the activity, Eat or Be Eaten, students play a card game in which they make food chains with predators and prey, and producers and consumers. The students who make the longest food chains win the game!
Do Worms Really Eat Dirt?
In this lesson, students discovered the critical role earthworms play in decomposing dead material and releasing nutrients into the soil.
What Do Plants Eat?
In this activity, students used a carbon dioxide monitor, grass, and a closed off environment to see what the effect would be of adding oxygen to the environment and monitoring the CO2 levels. The CO2 levels spiked very high, setting off the alarms, and then as the grass started the process of photosynthesis the numbers began to reduce.
McGraw Pond
In this lesson, we spent time at the pond by our school paying attention to the biotic and abiotic factors within this ecosystem.
StoryBoard That
This activity detailed the setting and how the setting impacted the novel Island of the Blue Dolphins.
In this activity, students compared sea otters to seals in any format of their choice.
Island of the Blue Dolphins Drawing
Students created an art piece that illustrates one of the major conflicts in the story.
Biosphere Challenge
The assessment criterion for this unit focuses on attempts to grow food in an enclosed ecosystem and sustaining life. I created and designed a solution to growing food inside a dome for two years.
Biosphere 2 Provocation and Challenge.mp4
Oh-Deer.pdfBlue, green, yellow cards
STUDENT REFLECTIONS
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