Ecosystems Pacing Guide
Use the information below to assist you in determining the amount of time needed to complete the entire unit. These recommendations assume the average science class period is 50 to 60 minutes in length. We recommend teaching science a minimum of three sessions per week in order to maintain consistency and keep students engaged. Many teachers accomplish this by rotating a science unit with a social studies unit, enabling you to teach more science sessions in one week and finish the unit in fewer weeks. We highly recommend that all teachers participate in the Expository Writing and Science Notebooks Program in order to further develop students' science understandings, as well as their scientific thinking and writing skills. To implement the science-writing curriculum requires, for most lessons, a separate 20 to 30 minutes for a science-writing mini-lesson and independent writing time. Time for these mini-lessons are not included in this pacing guide.
Lessons and Common Assessments(see corresponding lesson in Instructional Guide (IG) for lesson planning) / Recommended Number of
Periods / Standards Addressed/Concept(s) of the Lesson /
Considerations for Planning
/ Recommended Applications and ExtensionsLesson 1: Thinking About Ecosystems
Students share prior knowledge about the relationships between living things and the nonliving things in the environment, while viewing a visual aid. / 1-2 / Students will be beginning to develop
understanding of the following standard.
4-5LS2A: An ecosystem includes all of the plant and animal populations and nonliving resources in a given area. Plants and animals depend on one another and the nonliving resources in their ecosystem to help them survive. PE: Identify the living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem. Give examples to show how the plants and
animals depend on one another for survival. / · Students are just beginning to think about the parts of an ecosystem in this lesson. They will construct a definition for ecosystem after observing their model ecosystems in Lesson 4.
· The organisms will arrive to all teachers on one date. Refer to the yellow pages at the beginning of the instructional guide (IG) for instructions in caring for these organisms. Place them in holding tanks until you are ready to place them in the student models. / · Take students into the schoolyard to observe relationships between living things and between living and nonliving things in the environment.
· Groups collect dead leaves & 1 twig with lichen on it to add to terrariums they will build in the next lesson.
Lesson 2: Setting Up the Terrarium
Students plan a controlled experiment as a class, identifying the 3 types of variables, then construct model terrariums to collect and record data. Students make and record observations of change in the terrariums over time. / 2 / 4-5INQB: Scientists plan and conduct different kinds of investigations, one of which is a controlled experiment.
4-5INQC: An experiment involves a comparison. For an experiment to be valid and fair, all of the things that can possibly change the outcome of the experiment should be kept the same, if possible.
4-5INQF: A scientific model is a simplified representation of an object, event, system, or process created to understand some aspect of the natural world. PE: Create a simple model to represent an event, system, or process. Use the model to learn something about the event, system, or process. / · This longer, modified lesson includes planning and conducting a controlled experiment. This is excellent practice for the controlled experiment students plan and conduct in Lessons 10-14, as well as effective practice for the science MSP. Follow the IG.
· Follow the yellow plant & animal care sheets at the beginning of the IG.
Lesson 3: Setting Up the Aquarium
Students construct model aquariums; observe, draw, read about, and take notes about 3 producers, which are added to the aquariums. Students make and record observations of change in the aquariums over time. / 4 / 4-5SYSC: Systems have inputs and outputs. Changes in inputs may change the outputs of a system.
4-5LS1C: Certain structures and behaviors enable plants and animals to respond to changes in their environment.
4-5LS2B: Plants make their own food using energy from the sun. . . PE: Explain that plants make their own food.
4-5PS3A: Energy has many forms, such as heat, light, sound, motion, and electricity. PE: Identify different forms of energy (e.g., heat, light, sound, motion, electricity) in a given system.
4-5PS3B: Energy can be transferred from one place to another. PE: Draw and label diagrams showing several ways that energy can be transferred from one place to another (e.g., light energy through space, [light energy from the sun to plant leaves]). / · Language Arts integration: nonfiction reading and note-taking in the context of science – find reading selection on pgs. 55-58 in teacher manual (pgs.31-34 in binder version of manual)
· Modified lesson includes constructing understanding of a producer as a system with interrelated parts, with inputs and outputs of matter and energy. Follow the IG.
Lesson 4: Adding Animals to the Aquarium
Students observe, draw, read, take notes
and write about 2 consumers (fish and snails),
which are added to the aquariums. Observations are recorded over time. / 2-3 / 4-5SYSC: Systems have inputs and outputs. Changes in inputs may change the outputs of a system.
4-5LS2B: Plants make their own food using energy from the sun. Animals get food by eating plants and/or other animals that eat plants. Plants make it possible for animals to use the energy of sunlight.
4-5LS1B: Each animal has different structures and behaviors that serve different functions. PE: List parts of an animal’s body and describe how it helps the animal meet its basic needs (e.g., the bones support the body so it can move; [crickets’ back legs allow them to jump high]).
4-5LS2A: An ecosystem includes all of the plant and animal populations and nonliving resources in a given area.
4-5PS3A: Energy has many forms, such as heat, light, sound, motion, and electricity.
4-5PS3B: Energy can be transferred from one place to another. PE: Draw and label diagrams showing several way that energy can be transferred from one place to another. / · Language Arts integration: nonfiction reading and note-taking in the context of science – find reading selections on pg. 72 of manual (pg. 41 in binder) and pg. 50 of instructional guide (IG)
· Use the multiple copies of the Ecosystems book, which comes with the kit, to read pgs. 6-10, “What is an Ecosystem?” and “Eco Words”.
· Modified lesson includes constructing understanding of a consumer as a system with interrelated parts, with inputs and outputs of matter and energy. Follow the IG.
Lesson 5: Observing the Completed Aquarium
Students create a tree map to explain the relationships between living and nonliving components in an ecosystem. Students identify dependent and interdependent relationships between living and nonliving things. / 2 / 4-5SYSA: Systems contain subsystems. PE: Identify at least one of the subsystems of an object, plant, or animal (e.g., an airplane contains subsystems for propulsion, landing, and control; [an ecosystem contain subsystems, (e.g., producers and consumers)].
4-5SYSB: A system can do things that none of its subsystems can do by themselves. PE: Specify how a system can do things that none of its subsystems can do by themselves (e.g., a forest ecosystem can sustain itself, while the trees, soil, plant, and animal populations cannot, [a model pond ecosystem can sustain itself, while the duckweed, fish, snails, and water cannot]).
4-5SYSC: Systems have inputs and outputs. Changes in inputs may change the outputs of a system. PE: Describe what goes into a system (input) and what comes out of a system (output).
4-5LS2A: An ecosystem includes all of the plant and animal populations and nonliving resources in a given area. Plants and animals depend on one another and the nonliving resources in their ecosystem to help them survive. PE: Identify the living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem. / Language Arts integration:
nonfiction reading and note-taking in the context of science – find reading selection on pg. 82 of manual (pg. 58 in binder).
Modified lesson includes constructing understanding of the model aquarium as an ecosystem with interrelated parts, with inputs and outputs of matter and energy. Follow the IG.
Lesson 6: Adding Animals to the Terrarium
Students analyze data from the controlled investigation in lesson 2, then observe, draw, read about, take notes and write about 2 consumers (isopods and crickets) before adding them to the terrariums. / 2 / 4-5SYSA: Systems contain subsystems. PE: Identify at least one of the subsystems of an object, plant, or animal (e.g., an airplane contains subsystems for propulsion, landing, and control; [an ecosystem contain subsystems, (e.g., producers and consumers)].
4-5SYSB: A system can do things that none of its subsystems can do by themselves. PE: Specify how a system can do things that none of its subsystems can do by themselves (e.g., a forest ecosystem can sustain itself, while the trees, soil, plant, and animal populations cannot, [a model terrestrial ecosystem can sustain itself, while the soil, plant and animal populations cannot]).
4-5SYSC: Systems have inputs and outputs. Changes in inputs may change the outputs of a system. PE: Describe what goes into a system (input) and what comes out of a system (output).
4-5LS2A: An ecosystem includes all of the plant and animal populations and nonliving resources in a given area. Plants and animals depend on one another and the nonliving resources in their ecosystem to help them survive. PE: Identify the living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
4-5LS1D: Plant and animals have structures and behaviors that respond to internal needs. PE: Give examples of how plants and animals respond to internal needs (e.g., plants wilt when they don’t have water; animals seek food when they are hungry).
4-5LS3B: Plants and animals inherit many characteristics from their parents. Some inherited characteristics allow organisms to better survive and reproduce in a given ecosystem.
4-5LS3C: Some characteristics and behaviors result from an individual plant’s or animal’s interactions with the environment and are not passed form one generation to the next by heredity. / · Language Arts integration: nonfiction reading and note-taking in the context of science – find reading selections on pg. 92-94 in manual (pg. 68-70 in binder).
· Use the multiple copies of the Ecosystems book, which comes with the kit, to read pgs. 11-19, “Generalists and Specialists”, “What Eats What?” and “Dead and Done?”
· Modified lesson includes constructing understanding of the model terrarium as an ecosystem with interrelated parts, with inputs and outputs of matter and energy.
Assessment A: Interactions: Dependencies and Interdependencies / 1 / 4-5LS2A: An ecosystem includes all of the plant and animal populations and nonliving resources in a given area. Plants and animals depend on one another and the nonliving resources in their ecosystem to help them survive. PE: Identify the living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem. Give examples to show how the plants and animals depend on one another for survival. Describe how the plants and animals in an ecosystem depend on nonliving resources.
Lesson 7: Joining the Terrarium and Aquarium
Students join both models to create a watershed
model, in which they observe runoff draining from the terrarium model into the aquarium model. Students construct understanding of how energy flows through a food chain and make inferences about the results of one type of organism, such as producers, dying out on the rest of the food chain. / 1-2 / 4-5SYSD: One defective part can cause a subsystem to malfunction, which in turn will affect the system as a whole. PE: Predict what might happen to a system if a part in one or more of its subsystems is missing, broken, worn out (e.g., a broken toe will affect the skeletal system, which can greatly reduce a person’s ability to walk; [the decline in an ecosystem of producers will affect the survival of consumers]).
4-5LS2C: Plants and animals are related in food webs with producers, consumers, and decomposers that break down wastes and dead organisms, and return nutrients to the soil. PE: Draw a simple food web given a list of three common organisms. Draw arrows properly and identify the producers and consumers. Compare the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
4-5LS2D: Ecosystems can change slowly or rapidly. Big changes over a short period of time can have a major impact on the ecosystem. PE: Apply knowledge of a plant or animal’s relationship to its ecosystem and to other plants and animals to predict whether and how a slow or rapid change in the ecosystem might affect the population of that plant or animal, (e.g., the decline in producers affects the survival of consumers; introducing a nonnative plant or animal into an ecosystem may reduce the populations of native species).
4-5ES2D: Soils are formed by weathering and erosion, decay of plant matter, settling of volcanic ash, transport by rain through streams and rivers, and deposition of sediments. PE: Explain how the formation of soils is related to. . . decay of plant matter. . .[e.g., decaying plant matter becomes humus, which contains mineral nutrients used by producers]. / · Language Arts integration: nonfiction reading in the context of science – find reading selection on pg. 78-B of the IG.