Neighborhood Ecosystems Come Alive – Grade Five
Ohio Standards Lesson Summary:
Connection: In this lesson students will learn about the relationship
Life Sciences
between living organisms and their environments. Students
will conduct field investigations around their school. They
Benchmark C will also look at different scenarios that might occur in a
Compare changes in an habitat and decide if they were beneficial for the survival of
organism’s ecosystem / the living organisms. A variety of instructional strategies
habitat that affect its
survival.
are used during this lesson.
Indicator 5 Estimated Duration: Three hours and 20 minutes
Support how an organism’s
patterns of behavior are
related to the nature of that
organism’s ecosystem,
including the kinds and Commentary:
numbers of other Students will learn how living organisms and environments
organisms present, the can be changed in both positive and negative ways. If a
availability of food and marshland or wetland is located in the general vicinity of
resources, and the
changing physical the school or city, it could be used to do a more thorough
characteristics of the investigation. Another option is to set up various
ecosystem. ecosystems in your classroom. Examples might be: pond
water with organisms, humus and dead leaves (or sticks) for
Indicator 6 a forest, sand and cacti for a desert or an aquarium. Make
Analyze how all
organisms, including observations of living and non-living things and their
humans, cause changes in interdependencies. If possible, bring in speakers that work
their ecosystems and how in that area or plan a field trip. The lesson assessments and
these changes can be instructional procedures may be included in a unit on
beneficial, neutral or
ecosystems.
detrimental (e.g., beaver
ponds, earthworm burrows,
grasshoppers eating plants,
people planting and cutting Pre-Assessment:
trees and people Show students postcards that illustrate different
introducing a new species). ecosystems. Have each student choose an
ecosystem.
Related Standard
Science and Technology
Have students draw a table or chart with the
following headings to identify the: producers,
Benchmark A consumers, decomposers and non-living
Describe how technology components of their chosen ecosystem in the
affects human life. picture on their postcard.
Indicator 1 A template of a table or chart can be prepared
Investigate positive and prior to the pre-assessment so that the
negative impacts of human appropriate headings are in each column and to
activity and technology on reduce the time needed for students to complete
the environment. the pre-assessment.
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Neighborhood Ecosystems Come Alive – Grade Five
Scoring Guidelines:
Prepare simple rubrics for the postcards selected.
Have students show their postcards to the class and briefly explain their observations
focusing on one or two of the headings.
Post-Assessment:
Ask students to obtain an article from a newspaper or magazine that describes an
ecosystem which has experienced changes. Examples may include an article or picture of
forest fires, a hurricane, a flood in the Mississippi Valley or a new housing development
in a community.
Have the students create a poster or brochure whose purpose is to help the citizens
understand what effects (positive or negative) the changes are having on the ecosystem.
The poster or brochure should include answers to the following questions:
1. What has occurred that created change within the ecosystem?
2. Did this change benefit the environment?
3. What basic needs were being affected?
4. What was happening to the populations of living organisms (increase or decrease)?
5. Are there any patterns of behavioral change that affect organisms living there
(migration, hunting season)?
6. Are there any clear alternatives to these changes, and if so, what are their possible
consequences?
Scoring Guideline:
See Attachment A, Post-Assessment Scoring Guideline.
Instructional Procedures:
Day One
1. Divide the class into groups of four.
2. Have students take a paper and pencil and go to the school yard.
3. Have each group use string, rulers or hoops to define the shape of a small ecosystem. The
size or shape of the ecosystem is not important.
4. Instruct the students to create a two-column chart to list the living and non-living things
within their ecosystem.
5. Ask them to closely examine their ecosystem, even scratching the surface to look at what
is beneath. Then ask students to look for evidence of other organisms, such as droppings,
feathers, tracks or insect exoskeletons.
6. Next to each living organism in the list have students write what each needs to survive,
what each depends upon (living or non-living) and what they might expect to find in the
ecosystem in a particular season. Give the students about 10 to 15 minutes to do this. If
this is done during the fall, what changes would they expect during the winter and how
would the organism’s behavior change in order to survive.
7. Bring the class together and share what each group found.
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Neighborhood Ecosystems Come Alive – Grade Five
8. Have the students identify the common needs that living organisms require in order to
survive and what each organism depends upon (food, water, air, space, shelter).
9. Assure that students have correctly: classified the living / non-living organisms;
identified the interdependent connections with accurate detail that is consistent with the
data collected; and stated multiple changes in the physical environment.
Day Two
10. Review the previous day’s work with the class.
11. Have students create a three-column chart. Instruct students to label the columns as
producers, consumers and non living things.
12. Choose five different areas around the school. Divide the students into five groups.
Direct students to rotate to each of the identified areas and list the producers, consumers
and non-living things observed in the area on their chart.
13. Ask the students to discuss how these components are related and what the organisms are
dependent upon for survival. Have the students identify any interdependencies they might
discover (the insect depends on the rock for shelter) within the assigned area.
14. Bring the class together and share. Compare and contrast the findings from each group.
15. Have the students choose one of the micro habitat and reflect upon what might happen to
change the interdependencies of the organisms living there. Ask students to record these
possible changes in their science journals.
16. If time allows, have the students create a postcard. Provide students card stock cut to
postcard size. Have them make an illustration of the ecosystem on the front of the
postcard. Instruct the students to write a summary of the interactions of organisms of
their chosen ecosystem on the back of the postcard.
Day Three
17. Day three requires the use of “Scenario Cards” which should be prepared in advance.
These “Scenario Cards” include pictures, words, phrases or newspaper articles that
represent possible changes within a community. The scenarios that are created should
include man-made as well as natural events. Some of the possible scenarios might
include:
a. Man-made events
building a road
damming a river
building a shopping mall
creating a nature sanctuary
cutting down trees for lumber or farm fields
fertilizing farm fields or lawns
planting a tree row
using no till farming
building a pond on your property
building a medical center
b. Natural phenomenon
over population of deer
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Neighborhood Ecosystems Come Alive – Grade Five
migration of coyotes to a new area
a disease that is killing a certain animal population
18. Review the previous day’s work with the class.
19. Have each student choose a scenario card that has a chance of occurring in an ecosystem.
20. Divide the class into five groups. Each person in the group must tell the others why the
event on their chosen scenario card is significant. As a small group, they will decide the
pros and cons of each situation and how the change will affect the ecosystem.
21. Have the class come back together and share.
22. Produce a chart on a large piece of paper that illustrates how changes will affect
ecosystems. Instruct students to write the information in their journal or science
notebook.
Day Four
23. Review the previous day’s work with the class.
24. Have students go to the library or use the Internet to research how organisms of an
ecosystem are affected by the event on the scenario card they selected on day three. Did
the research support or expand the group conclusions reached on Day three?
25. Have the class come back together and share.
26. Have students summarize their findings in their science journals.
27. Administer the Post-Assessment
Differentiated Instructional Support:
Instruction is differentiated according to learner needs, to help all learners either meet the
intent of the specified indicator(s) or, if the indicator is already met, to advance beyond the
specified indicator(s).
Role-play different living and non-living components of an ecosystem. Have the students
become a “living” ecosystem. They are to explain the part they play and why their role is
important. (e.g., grass, plants, weeds, flowers, air, sun, river, rain, factory smoke or
discharge, bugs, birds, small and larger animals, humans of all ages.)
Have students work in small groups or pairs.
Use pictures for assessments or instructional procedures.
Extensions:
Instruct students to write riddles to describe different ecosystems. Make sure the riddles
include the living and non-living things that are part of the ecosystem. Basic needs should
also be mentioned in the riddle.
Invite speakers from different organizations to talk to the students about positive and
negative effects on ecosystems in your community. These organizations might include:
National Wildlife Federation, Soil and Water Conservation District, Ohio Department of
Natural Resources, Ohio Agricultural Extension Office, The Audubon Society, Water
Treatment Plant, and the Landfill.
Have the students mark on a map of North America where different ecosystems can be
found. The different ecosystems can be marked in different colors or shapes.
Many legends are written to explain something in nature. Have the students read a
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Neighborhood Ecosystems Come Alive – Grade Five
legend. They are to identify the ecosystem, what organism live there, what they eat,
where they live, how they survive, what effects their survival and what non-living
components are related to their survival.
Identify the different solutions that communities have attempted in order to deal with the
problem of too many deer in the area. Also have the students list the effects that solution
would have on the other components of the ecosystem. Use the deer population data from
the Wildlife Federation to create a graph of the populations over several years or decades.
Have students think of reasons why the deer population either increased or decreased.
Homework Options and Home Connections:
Have the students identify different ecosystems that are near their homes. List plants and
animals are part of the ecosystem and what the ecosystems have that will enable them to
survive.
Ask the students to watch the news or read a newspaper to find a story that deals with
positive and negative effects on an ecosystem. Write a paragraph summarizing the story.
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Social Studies
Geography
Benchmark C: Identify and explain ways people have affected the physical
environment of North America and analyze the positive and negative consequences.
Indicator 9: Identify ways that people have affected the physical environment of Ohio
including:
a. Use of wetlands;
b. Use of forests;
c. Building farms, towns and transportation systems;
d. Using fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides;
e. Building dams.
Materials and Resources:
The inclusion of a specific resource in any lesson formulated by the Ohio Department of
Education should not be interpreted as an endorsement of that particular resource, or any of
its contents, by the Ohio Department of Education. The Ohio Department of Education does
not endorse any particular resource. The Web addresses listed are for a given site’s main
page, therefore, it may be necessary to search within that site to find the specific information
required for a given lesson. Please note that information published on the internet changes
over time, therefore the links provided may no longer contain the specific information related
to a given lesson. Teachers are advised to preview all sites before using them with students.
For the teachers: Picture cards (plants, animals, forms of water, soil, the sun, humans,
and objects humans use), newspaper articles or pictures of changes in a
community, index cards.
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Neighborhood Ecosystems Come Alive – Grade Five
For the students: String, hoops, rulers, pencil, chart paper, newspaper articles or pictures
of changes in a community, picture cards (plants, animals, forms of
water, soil, the sun, humans, and objects humans use), glue, index
cards, postcard sized paper, scenario cards which communicate
possible changes to a community.
Vocabulary:
ecosystem
carrying capacity
predator
prey
positive effects
negative effects
beneficial
harmful
interdependence
dependence
micro ecosystem
Technology Connections:
Use the computer to keep a database on the numbers of plants and animals in an area near
the school.
Create posters or brochures to promote activities that will be beneficial to an area.
Research Connections:
Marzano, Pickering, et al., Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for
Increasing Student Achievement. Alexandria, Va.: ASCD. 2001.
Marzano finds the strongest benefits to all students-regardless of ability level-when
working in heterogeneous groups.
General Tips:
In the post-assessment, utilize teacher collected articles or newspapers from the
media/library center.
Prepare sufficient “Scenario Cards” for each student to have a unique event from the
others.
It is preferable if the teacher is able to have two or three different examples of ecosystems
to observe over time in the classroom.
Attachments:
Attachment A, Post-Assessment Scoring Guidelines
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Neighborhood Ecosystems Come Alive – Grade Five
Attachment A
Post-Assessment Scoring Guidelines
Group members: __________________ ____________________ _______________
Name of book or article: _____________________________ Author: _______________
Date of publication: ____________________
1 Identifies what is changing the ecosystem. 3 2 1 0
2 Identifies what basic needs are affected. 3 2 1 0
3 Identifies what was happening to populations of
different living organisms. 3 2 1 0
4 Identifies examples of patterns of change that
occur to organisms living there. 3 2 1 0
5 Identifies alternatives and consequences clearly. 3 2 1 0
6 Poster/brochure is communicated clearly and with
accurate data. 3 2 1 0
Total: ________ (18)
A total of 14 points are required to meet the indicator.
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