Last updated: April 23, 2021
Lesson Plan
Phenology for Upper Elementary Classes
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts,Math,Science
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Additional Standards:
- 5.ESS3.1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
3.5.ETS1.2
Practice 3: Planning and Carrying Out Investigations - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.
Essential Question
What does learning about plants tells us about healthy ecosystems?
Objective
Students will understand that nature/ resources/ habitat/ populations are constantly changing
Students will understand and graph population change over time due to resource availability
Students will understand that good habitat with adequate resources is the key to survival
Students will understand how invasive species may out-compete native populations for habitat and resources
Students will understand the difference between non-native and invasive species
Background
This series of lessons explores the idea that plants have life patterns and cycles and that ecosystems can be impacted by the introduction of new species. Some of these lessons can be done in conjunction with the program Vital Signs. To learn more visit vitalsignsme.org
Preparation
Review the materials. These can largely be broken into three units:
Seedlings
- Seed Strategies and Indicator Species
- Engineering a Seed
- Seed Experiments
- Water Quality and Indicator Species
Plant Observations in Your School Yard
- Plant Observations
- Tagging and Tracking Your Plant
- Pollinators Among Us
Native and Invasive Species
- Defining Native and Invasive Species
- Mapping Native Species
- Finding Native and Invasive Species with Vital Signs
Materials
This is the workbook for the lessons entitled Seed Strategies.
Download Seeds and Indicator Species
In this active and competitive game, students experience how a community of native animals and plants changes over time in response to resource availability in their habitat. Students collect data during the game and then graph and analyze how predators, limited resources, habitat health, and invasive species can disrupt the natural ebbs and flows of native communities.
Download Native versus Invasive
Students will identify, count, and map native and invasive species (from a set list) that can be found on their school grounds. Students teams of 2 will each be responsible for being the expert on one native and one invasive. Over the course of the year, the class will go out to the grounds, focusing on one sector at a time, and map their findings. The culminating project for this outdoor mapping and learning experience will be a presentation by the students about what they found was growing on their grounds, and how the native and invasive species populations interact.
Download Mapping Native Species
Students will make observations of the nature found on their school grounds in order to use specific and detailed language to describe specimen.
At the beginning of the year, students will choose 2 plant species and actively track their phenology. Visits to the outdoor classroom to observe their plant and record data should be no fewer than once in each season, but ideally weekly. A good middle ground is once a month.
Download Tracking and Tagging Your Plants
Students will adopt a pollinator to role play as in order to better understand the phenology on their school grounds and how the phenology affects different animals. Through this activity, students will learn the different criteria that attract different pollinators and at what times.
Download Pollinators and Plants
Students will research and find native and invasive shrub species for the Vital Signs Maine project page. Vital Signs Maine is a citizens Science environmental monitoring website that provides researchers with data they need about different environments and the things happening within them. All of the science that your students do through vital signs will be used as meaningful resources by real scientists and researchers.
Download Finding Native and Invasive Species
Download Native and Invasive Species Worksheet 1
Download Native and Invasive Species Worksheet 2
Download Native and Invasive Species Worksheet 3
This is composed of four different lessons: 1. Seed Strategies and Indicator Species 2. Engineering a Seed 3. Seed Experiments 4. Water Quality and Indicator Species
Procedure
Download the lesson of your choosing. Each will come with a material list and procedure list.