Animals in the Classroom

Stewardship—Animals in the Classroom

Summary: Classroom specimens or “pets” can provide meaningful learning experiences for students because the animals’ close proximity allows students to make repeated observations and to practice the responsibility of caring for other living creatures.  This focus area explores some of the practical considerations and teachable moments that relate to the use of aquatic wildlife and other small animals in classroom settings.

Concepts to teach: Habitat, stewardship, sustainability

Goals: Students learn about an animal species’ habitat requirements, and provide an appropriate environment for a live specimen in the classroom. Students identify physical and behavioral adaptations of the animal to its environment, and recognize benefits and limitations of these adaptations.

Standards:
S3.2L.1, S4.2L.1, S5.2L.1

Specific Objectives:

  1. Determine the components of a local animal species’ habitat.
  2. Set up a classroom habitat for the organism.
  3. Use classroom live animal specimens to answer inquiry questions students generate about adaptations, food chains, life cycles, etc.

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Create a KWL chart for the classroom animal. Students ask questions that can be tested in class, they make observations, and report their findings. Students keep a daily journal documenting what is going on in the classroom habitat.
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Crayfish Invasion

Human Impacts—Crayfish Invasion

Summary: In this case study, students discover how elementary school classrooms in Oregon are directly connected to the presence/absence of an aquatic invasive species.

Concepts to teach: Invasive species, best practices for classroom pets

Goals: Students see that their personal and classroom behaviors can affect aquatic ecosystem health.

Standards:
S3.1, S3.2L.1
S4.1, S4.2L.1
S5.1L.1, S5.2L.1
SS.05GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. List the reasons why the Rusty (or Ringed, Virile, Red Swamp) crayfish is an example of an invasive species.
  2. Describe how invasive crayfish got into Oregon rivers.
  3. List three ways to stop the spread of invasive crayfish.

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Use or develop formative assessment probes to gauge student understanding about the water cycle. The following probes from Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, vol. 2 could be applied or modified (to obtain Uncovering Student Ideas in Science publications or access sample chapters, visit the NSTA website):
    • Habitat Change—explores student understanding of how animal populations are affected when habitats are changed. Consider modifying this instrument to address student understanding of how competition from invasive species can affect native populations.
  • Within a discussion about the care of classroom pets, ask students what should happen to the animal at the end of the school year. One suggestion may be: release the animal into the wild. Collect all ideas on a paper that can be referenced and adjusted after the following activities.
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How Do Trees Affect Erosion?

Human Impacts—How Do Trees Affect Erosion?

Summary: Students explore the concept of erosion and how it impacts environments. They also discover how trees and other factors affect erosion.

Concepts to teach: Erosion, impervious surfaces, turbidity, models, scientific inquiry

Goals: Students use a model to discover how trees help prevent erosion and turbidity.

Standards:
S3.2P.1, S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2
S4.2E.1, S4.3S.1, S4.3S.2
S5.3S.1, S5.3S.2

Specific Objectives:

  1. Engage in scientific inquiry by conducting an experiment in the classroom.
  2. Define erosion and its effects on nearby land and water ecosystems.
  3. Determine under what circumstances erosion is likely to occur.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • How Do Trees Affect Erosion?
    • This lesson plan from soundsalmonsolutions.org in Washington outlines the classroom experiment and includes a worksheet and answer key.
    • Lincoln County teachers in the Oregon Coast Aquatic and Marine Science Partnership (OCAMP) used this experiment for a peer-to-peer teaching activity among 6th and 3rd graders. See their presentation that includes teaching objectives, techniques and student assessments.
  • Resources concerning the potential effects of changing turbidity, stream flow and temperature on aquatic species
  • Erosion Inquiry—Students conduct a simple experiment that explores the types of conditions under which erosion occurs in the school yard.

Assessment:

  • Use or develop formative assessment probes to gauge student understanding about the water cycle. The following probes from Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, vol. 1 could be applied or modified (to obtain Uncovering Student Ideas in Science publications or access sample chapters, visit the NSTA website):
    • Beach sand—the purpose of this probe is to elicit students’ ideas about weathering, erosion, deposition, and landforms. It may be used as is, or modified to better relate to a similar concept found in the schoolyard habitat (pebble size in streams, for example).
  • Probe: Rain on the Parking Lot—the purpose of this probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how rainwater interacts with impervious surfaces.
  • Worksheet included in the How Do Trees Affect Erosion? lesson plan.
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Local Habitat Assessment

Human Impacts—Local Habitat Assessment

Summary: Students explore their schoolyard or other local site to determine how human activity may have impacts on animal habitats, animal populations, and/or plant populations.

Concepts to teach: Habitat, adaptation, scientific inquiry, erosion, invasive species

Goals: Students will apply their knowledge about land use to their local outdoor site, and assess the real or potential impact of human land use on native species.

Standards:
S3.2L.1, S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2
S4.2L.1, S4.3S.1, S4.3S.2
S5.2L.1, S53S.1, S5.3S.2

Specific Objectives:

  1. Categorize components of a local land area based on the degree to which the land is in a natural or disturbed state.
  2. Determine the habitat requirements for a local species found on the site.
  3. Collect field data that relates species abundance to habitat type.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Refer to studies of habitats in the Coastal Ecology and Ecosystems Module: Macrointertebrate Topic Guide
  • Habitat Inquiry—Students conduct a simple experiment that relates habitat type to species abundance in the school yard.
  • Use historic maps, photographs, and interviews with community elders and other experts to determine local changes that have occurred to the site over time.
  • Oregon Coast Quests
    • Yaquina Head Tale of Two Hills Quest—This self-guided place-based activity located in Newport tells the story of land use changes at Yaquina Head over 100 years. Featured human impacts include burning, livestock grazing, rock quarrying, golfing, residential development, and modern electrical towers.
    • Make a Quest or other interpretive guide that features the human impacts that students have identified in their local field site.

Assessment:

  • Use or develop formative assessment probes to gauge student understanding about the water cycle. The following probes from Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, vol. 2 could be applied or modified (to obtain Uncovering Student Ideas in Science publications or access sample chapters, visit the NSTA website):
    • Habitat Change—explores student understanding of how animal populations are affected when habitats are changed.
  • Probe: Rain on the Parking Lot—the purpose of this OCEP probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how rainwater interacts with impervious surfaces.
  • Select an organism living in the study site and identify its habitat requirements.
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Water Use

Human Use of Resources—Water Use

Summary: How much water do we use? By exploring online water use resources and conducting personal surveys at home and in the classroom, students will gain an understanding of how humans utilize water resources.

Concepts to teach: Water use, resource, conservation

Goals: Students will gain a better understanding of the ways water resources are utilized in residential, industrial, and agricultural settings. They will gain an appreciation for the amount of water used for various activities in the community.

Standards:
S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2
S4.2L.1
S4.3S.1, S4.3S.2
S5.3S.1
SS.05GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Calculate personal water use at home and school.
  2. Describe how much water is used in three different human activities.
  3. Identify three ways water might be wasted.

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • Create a worksheet or classroom document on which students predict how much water is used for various human activities. Revisit the document at the end of the learning period and make adjustments as needed. Students may share their findings with the class through a written or oral report.
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This Land is Your Land

Human Use of Resources—This Land is Your Land

Summary: The classroom-based This Land is Your Land lesson plan from TeachEngineering.org is designed for 4th grade students, with scaling suggestions for 3rd and 5th graders. Because the instructor uses maps of the local area, the activity is place-based, relevant and supports potential field experiences.

“In this activity, students will review and evaluate the ways land is covered and used in their local community. They will also consider the environmental effects of the different types of land use. Students will act as community planning engineers to determine where to place a new structure that will have the least affect on the environment.”

Concepts to teach: Maps, land use, calculating percentage

Goals: Land is used for a variety of human activities, and these uses can be communicated through maps.

Standards:
S3.3S.1, S4.2L.1, S4.3S1, S5.2L.1, S5.3S.1, S5.4D.3
M3.2.3, M4.2.2, M4.3.3, M4.3.7, M5.2.1

Specific Objectives:

  1. Understand and identify the different ways that land is covered and used.
  2. Predict land usage amounts in their community.
  3. Describe the involvement of engineers in community planning.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • This Land is Your Land
    • From TeachEngineering.org, a digital library collection of searchable, standards-based K-12 curricula
    • This lesson plan includes worksheets, standards, and suggestions for assessments. The instructor needs to find land use maps of the local area.
  • To find maps of your local area, contact your local:
    • City Planning Department
    • School District (keyword search: facility plan)
    • Historical Society
  • Use both current and historical maps to show how human use of resources have changed over time.
  • After mapping, discuss the effects of various types of land use might have on the nearby streams and other waterways. This concept will be further in the Human Impact section.

Assessment:

  • Suggestions for pre-activity, activity embedded and post-activity assessments are included in the lesson plan.
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Field Trip Sites

Place—Field Trip Sites

Summary: Planning a field trip to learn about the Oregon coast? Connect students with your field trip destination prior to your visit, to better prepare them for the experience and to reduce some of the novelty that could inhibit effective use of time while on site.

Concepts to teach: Preparation Phase, spatial location of field trip site, watershed, use of equipment

Goals: It will be clear to the students where they are going on their field trip, what they can expect to see and do there, and what behaviors and actions will be expected of them.

Standards:
SS 03.GE.01
SS 05.GE.01

Specific Objectives:

  1. Locate the field trip destination on a map and connect it with the school through both a land and water route.
  2. Preview features of the field trip site through the institution’s website, video, and/or personal contact with staff.
  3. Practice using skills and new equipment at a familiar site prior to the trip.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • B-WET Meaningful Watershed Education Experiences: BWET MWEEs—This document outlines the importance of Preparation, Action, and Reflection phases for experiential learning.
    • Connect your local field experiences with distant trips to the coast. Compare and contrast field sites through data collection, journaling, or other activities.
  • OCEP Meaningful Watershed Education Experiences: OCEP MWEEs—Steps 3, 4, and 5 of this document describes some specific goals for the Preparation phase of field experiences.
  • Research Based Field Trip Challenges and Recommendations
  • The following is a list of OCEP partner institutions, most of which offer educational programming for K-12 classes on field trips. Contact the institutions directly to set up a field trip and to access pre-visit materials. Some OCEP institutions may be able to provide a web-based meeting between their staff and your classroom prior to your visit. View a map with the location of all the OCEP institutions.

Assessment:

  • Discuss with students what they know and how they feel about the field trip site, and address misconceptions and concerns.
  • Use field equipment properly to collect reliable data in a familiar environment.
  • Generate a list of equipment, protocol for collecting data and/or driving directions to the field site
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Mapping the Connection

Place—Mapping the Connection

Summary: This focus area begins with the recognition that the ability to read and understand maps is essential to place-based learning, and can help students construct ideas about the relationship between where they live and the ocean. Students practice reading different kinds of maps, and they use maps to find out how their school is physically connected to the ocean through natural and human-made geographic features.

Concepts to teach: What maps show, map symbols, scale, cardinal directions, watersheds

Goals: Students locate their position within a watershed and determine how they are physically connected to the ocean. They understand the spatial concepts of location, distance, scale, movement and region, and use maps and other tools to acquire, process and report information from a spatial perspective.

Standards:
SS.03.GE.01, SS 03.GE.02, SS 03.GE.03, SS 03 GE.04
SS.05.GE.01, SS 05.GE.02

Specific Objectives:

  1. Use maps to find distant and local landmarks.
  2. Define a watershed and identify the watershed in which the school belongs.
  3. Trace both a land and water connection between school and the ocean.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Introduction to Maps—In this classroom activity from NESTA, students learn or review basic map elements and types of maps, and identify how different maps are useful for different purposes.
  • Mapping the Classroom—Page 26 from Princeton University’s A Teacher’s Guide to the Universe
    curriculum. Students explore the concept of varying map scales by constructing a scale model of the classroom. If desired, this activity can easily be modified to apply to a small outdoor area rather than a classroom space.
  • Google Earth hunt—Instructor creates a scavenger hunt of relevant locations that can be found on Google Earth. Students virtually “fly” from site to site collecting place-based information.
    • Extension: Have students create their own hunts and then test each others’ creations.
  • For maps of your watershed, contact your local watershed organization. Search OWEB for watershed councils in Oregon.
  • Real-time streamflow data is available on the USGS WaterWatch website
  • Online source for visualizing different kinds of Oregon maps

Assessment:

  • Use or develop formative assessment probes to gauge student understanding about the water cycle. The following probes from Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, vol. 4 could be applied or modified (to obtain Uncovering Student Ideas in Science publications or access sample chapters, visit the NSTA website):
    • Where Would it Fall?—gets students to think about how much of the planet is covered by the ocean.
  • Probe: Connections to the Ocean—explores student ideas about connections between Oregon communities and the ocean.
  • Have students use a map and written instructions to describe a driving route from school to the ocean.
  • Have students use a map and written instructions to describe a water route that connects a nearby stream to the ocean.
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Exploring Symbiosis

Coastal Ecology—Exploring Symbiosis

Summary: In this lesson from the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, “students participate in a game to understand the meanings of different types of symbiosis. Children discover the mean and importance of symbiosis by matching hosts and symbionts based on their respective needs. Symbiosis is an excellent example of the interconnectivity between different plants and animals and their environments.”

This lesson goes more easily if it follows a lesson on food webs which can be found throughout the OCEP modules. By teaching students about food webs prior to this lesson, students would already have some understanding of the complex interconnected relationships found between organisms.

Concepts to teach: Community interactions, food webs, symbiosis, adaptations, mutualism, parasitism, commensalism

Goals: “Discover which plants and animals have symbiotic relationships and how this impacts each organism. Explore the advantages and disadvantages of different types of symbiosis.”

Standards:
3.2L.1, 4.2L.1, 5.2L.1

Specific Objectives:

  1. Students will define symbiosis.
  2. Students will be able to identify 3 types of symbiosis (mutualism, parasitism and commensalism) and give examples of each relationship.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • The lesson goes more easily if it follows a lesson on food webs. See the Recipe for an Ocean topic guide for an example.
  • Exploring Symbiosis from the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB)
    • Symbiosis Stories Power Point available on the OIMB website

Assessment:

Assessments included in the OIMB curriculum:

Have students divide a sheet of paper into three columns and head each column with a type of symbiosis (mutualism, commensalism, parasitism). They can then put all the pairs of organisms on the board into one of the categories. Discuss the impacts on both organisms for each of the different types of symbiosis. The impacts on both organisms can be denoted with +/+, +/0, and +/- for each symbiosis type. These follow-up exercises help drive home the main points, but even without these, students grasped the concept of symbiosis. This lesson kept them engaged for 45 minutes, aided by the game atmosphere.

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Kelp Forests

Coastal Ecology—Kelp Forests

Summary: It’s difficult for a class of students to actually swim under the sea and truly experience the wonder of kelp forest ecosystems. In this lesson from OIMB, students explore kelp forests through video. Furthermore, they gain experience collecting data and summarizing a scientific investigation.

Concepts to teach: Kelp forest ecology, diversity, scientific processes

Goals:

  • Learn to make predictions and interpret results
  • Record scientific observations to come up with a conclusion
  • Visually experience the kelp forest ecosystem

Standards:
4.1, 4.2L.1, 4.3, 4.3S.1, 4.3S.2, 4.3S.3

Specific Objectives:

  1. Students will make observations on a virtual field trip of a kelp forest
  2. Students will go through the steps of scientific process by making and testing hypotheses.
  3. Students will collect data, make conclusions and communicate findings with others.

Activity Links and Resources:

Assessment:

  • “The worksheets and student explanations. For this lesson, it is not critical that the conclusions are correct; it is more important that the students give good reasons for their conclusions based on what they observed and know and about the kelp forest. In their presentations, do they articulate the different steps of the scientific method?”
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