Rings, Ripples, and Echoes UBD (Understanding By Design) Framework: Third/Fourth Grade

Desired Results

Goals of the Program
Students will...
•	Enrich their understanding of a place through inquiry.
•	Experience National Parks as places for learning and recreation and develop a personal connection with their local National Parks.
•	Learn about the historical, cultural, and environmental forces that shape and influence Muir Woods.

Transfer
•	Recognize that there is a relationship between culture and the land.
•	Engage in scientific inquiry and plant identification.

Meaning
Essential Question:

How do living things thrive in their habitat?

Enduring Understandings: Students will understand that... 

•	Living things adapt to survive in a changing world.
•	Culture and land are related.
•	Individuals and communities can help protect and preserve natural environments.

Acquisition
Students will know...

•	The ways in which living things thrive in Muir Woods.
•	How Native American values shape their relationship with Muir Woods.
•	How animals and plants adapt to a changing environment.
•	The indications of a healthy habitat.

Students will be able to...

•	Identify the Native American uses of plants found in Muir Woods.
•	Recognize signs of a healthy environment in Muir Woods.
•	Explain how plants and animals adapt for survival at Muir Woods.

Evidence
Students will show their learning by…
•	Creating a story of how living things have adapted to the changing environment of Muir Woods.
Or
•	Writing and illustrating a poem that shows the life cycle of a redwood tree.

CA Next Generation Science Standards
3-LS4-3: In a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
3-LS4-4: Determine whether environmental changes can affect the types of animals and plants in a place.
4-LS1-1: Plants have internal and external structures that function to support survival.

CA Common Core Standards
Speaking and Listening:
1.3 & 1.4: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussion (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led).
Writing:
3.3 & 3.4: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events.

CA History-Social Science Standards
3.22: Discuss the ways in which physical geography, including climate, influenced how the local Indian nations adapted to their natural environment.
3.41: Discuss the major nations of California Indians, including their geographic distribution, legends, and describe how they depended on, adapted to the land.

Learning Plan
Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction
•	Pre-trip Preparation: Teacher facilitates Activities 1 - 3 to introduce students to vocabulary, environment, and the cultural history of the Coast Miwok. Activities 1 - 3 are found in the teacher guide.
•	Muir Woods Field Trip: Students are invited to use their senses while investigating the Essential Question in the woods through applied inquiry methods. Students record and explore the characteristics of a healthy and unhealthy habitat. They are also encouraged to observe and identify plants used by native cultures.
•	Educators and adult chaperones accompany the students in the investigation of the redwood forest.
•	Post-trip: Students demonstrate what they have learned by completing the post-visit classroom activities found in the guides.

Other resources:
Save the Redwoods League
https://www.savetheredwoods.org/