Caretakers versus Exploiters: Impacting Biodiversity in the Age of Humans

Appendix on Implementing District Standards

This unit is designed for first, second, and third grade students but can be adapted for higher grades as well. It is based on the third grade Pennsylvania Common Core Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, and Montessori guidelines and philosophy.

In English Language Arts, students will have to read on-level text with accuracy. In their research, students must draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research, applying grade-level reading standards for literature and informational texts. Students will conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic and write routinely over extended time frames, including time for research, reflection, and revision. These writings will be an informative/explanatory text to examine their chosen topic and convey ideas and information clearly.⁶⁵

  In the Pennsylvania Common Core Science Standards, students will identify organisms that are dependent on one another in a given ecosystem and define habitat and explain how a change in habitat affects an organism. In addition, students will describe changes in natural or human-made systems and the possible effects of those changes on the environment. This includes describing how human interactions with the environment impact an ecosystem. Students will identify plants and animals that live in certain areas including wetlands. They will also identify resources humans take from the environment for their survival. Students will recognize the structures in plants that are responsible for food production, support, water transport, reproduction, growth, and protection, and acknowledge that plants survive through adaptations, such as stem growth towards light and root growth downward in response to gravity.⁶⁶

  The Next Generation Science Standards are also included in the unit. Students will need to construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive and use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing. These examples of cause and effect relationships could be plants that have larger thorns than other plants may be less likely to be eaten by predators; and, animals that have better camouflage coloration than other animals may be more likely to survive and therefore more likely to leave offspring. Students will also have to construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat, some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. Examples of evidence could include needs and characteristics of the organisms and habitats involved. The organisms and their habitat make up a system in which the parts depend on each other. The last standard addressed states the student would need to make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change. Examples of environmental changes could include changes in land characteristics, water distribution, temperature, food, and other organisms.⁶⁷