populations and ecosystems · proficiency in learning, students may: predict the impact that...

Grade 7

Life Science Module

Populations and Ecosystems Note: The codes used in this curriculum framework are keyed using the following system.

Concepts and skills:

c01, c02, etc. are used to code the concepts addressed. p01, p02, etc. are used to code the process skills addressed.

New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards 2009

In a code such as 5.2.8.D.1, the “5” indicates the science standards, the “2” indicates the physical science standard within the set of science standards, the “8” indicates an eighth grade cumulative progress indicator, the “D” indicates a “strand” or theme within the science standards, and the “1” indicates the first of the eighth grade cumulative progress indicators within the “D” strand.

III. Scope and Sequence: Grade 7 Science - Populations and Ecosystems Page 1

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 01 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c01 An organism is any living thing.

In doing so they begin to acquire knowledge and abilities such as...

Living organisms: (1) Exchange nutrients and water with the environment. (2) Reproduce. (3) Grow and develop in a predictable manner. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Group living and nonliving things according to the characteristics that they share.] (5.3.2.A.1)

Reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Predict the long-term effect of interference with normal patterns of reproduction.] (5.3.6.D.1)

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 01 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c02 An organism's habitat is where it lives-the place where it can acquire all of its requirements.


The number of organisms and populations an ecosystem can support depends on the biotic resources available and on abiotic factors, such as quantities of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Predict the impact that altering biotic and abiotic factors has on an ecosystem.] (5.3.6.C.2)

All organisms cause changes in the ecosystem in which they live. If this change reduces another organism’s access to resources, that organism may move to another location or die. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Describe how one population of organisms may affect other plants and/or animals in an ecosystem.] (5.3.6.C.3)

Changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of individual organisms and entire species. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Describe the impact on the survival of species during specific times in geologic history when environmental conditions changed.] (5.3.6.E.1)


In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 01 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c03 Milkweed bugs have a predictable life cycle.


Plants and animals have life cycles (they begin life, develop into adults, reproduce, and eventually die). The characteristics of each stage of life vary by species. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Compare the physical characteristics of the different stages of the life cycle of an individual organism, and compare the characteristics of life stages among species.] (5.3.4.D.1)


In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 01 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c04 An ecosystem is a system of interacting organisms and nonliving factors in a specified area.


Living organisms: (1) Exchange nutrients and water with the environment. (2) Reproduce. (3) Grow and develop in a predictable manner. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Group living and nonliving things according to the characteristics that they share.] (5.3.2.A.1)

Individual organisms with certain traits are more likely than others to survive and have offspring in particular environments. The advantages or disadvantages of specific characteristics can change when the environment in which they exist changes. Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the characteristics of a species are insufficient to allow survival. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Organize and present evidence to show how the extinction of a species is related to an inability to adapt to changing environmental conditions using quantitative and qualitative data.] (5.3.8.E.1)


In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 01 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p01 A population is all of the interacting individuals of one kind in an area.


Results of observation and measurement can be used to build conceptual-based models and to search for core explanations. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Use mathematical, physical, and computational tools to build conceptual-based models and to pose theories.] (5.1.8.A.2)

Organisms are treated humanely, responsibly, and ethically. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Handle and treat organisms humanely, responsibly, and ethically.] (5.1.8.D.4)

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 01 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p02 A community is all of the interacting populations in a specified area.


In order to determine which arguments and explanations are most persuasive, communities of learners work collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories (e.g., scientific argumentation and representation). [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Work collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories.] (5.1.4.D.2)

Science involves practicing productive social interactions with peers, such as partner talk, whole-group discussions, and small-group work. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Engage in multiple forms of discussion in order to process, make sense of, and learn from others’ ideas, observations, and experiences.] (5.1.8.D.1)

In order to determine which arguments and explanations are most persuasive, communities of learners work collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories (e.g., argumentation, representation, visualization, etc.). [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Engage in productive


scientific discussion practices during conversations with peers, both face-to-face and virtually, in the context of scientific investigations and model-building.] (5.1.8.D.2)

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 02 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c05 An aquatic ecosystem functions in water.



In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 02 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c06 A terrestrial system functions on land


Biological communities in ecosystems are based on stable interrelationships and interdependence of organisms. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Analyze the interrelationships and interdependencies among different organisms, and explain how these relationships contribute to the stability of the ecosystem.] (5.3.12.C.1)


In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 02 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c07 All of the feeding relationships in an ecosystem define the food web for that system.


Various human activities have changed the capacity of the environment to support some life forms. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Explain the impact of meeting human needs and wants on local and global environments.] (5.3.6.C.1)

Symbiotic interactions among organisms of different species can be classified as: (1) Producer/consumer, (2) Predator/prey, (3) Parasite/host, (4) Scavenger/prey, (5) Decomposer/prey [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Model the effect of positive and negative changes in population size on a symbiotic pairing.] (5.3.8.C.1)

An ecosystem includes all of the plant and animal populations and nonliving resources in a given area. Organisms interact with each other and with other components of an ecosystem. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Create a model of ecosystems in two different locations, and compare and contrast the living and nonliving components.] (5.4.6.G.2)

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 02 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p03 An ecosystem is a web of interactions and relationships between the organisms and abiotic factors in an area.


Evidence is generated and evaluated as part of building and refining models and explanations. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Design investigations and use scientific instrumentation to collect, analyze, and evaluate evidence as part of building and revising models and explanations.] (5.1.8.B.1)


In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 02 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p04 The sequence of organisms that eat one another is a food chain.



In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 02 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p05 Energy is measured in kilocalories.



In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 03 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c08 The Mono lake ecosystem is defined by interactions among organisms and physical factors.


The number of organisms and populations an ecosystem can support depends on the biotic resources available and on abiotic factors, such as quantities of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition. [To demonstrate


proficiency in learning, students may: Predict the impact that altering biotic and abiotic factors has on an ecosystem.] (5.3.6.C.2)

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 03 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c09 Food is energy rich organic matter that organisms need for life.



In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 03 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c10 A limiting factor is any biotic or abiotic component of the ecosystem that controls the population size.




An ecosystem includes all of the plant and animal populations and nonliving resources in a given area. Organisms interact with each other and with other components of an ecosystem. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students


may: Create a model of ecosystems in two different locations, and compare and contrast the living and nonliving components.] (5.4.6.G.2)

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 03 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p06 In photosynthesis, food is made from water and carbon dioxide with light.


Core scientific concepts and principles represent the conceptual basis for model-building and facilitate the generation of new and productive questions. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Demonstrate understanding and use interrelationships among central scientific concepts to revise explanations and to consider alternative explanations.] (5.1.8.A.1)


In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 03 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p07 Feeding relationships define trophic levels: producers, consumers, and decomposers.



Mathematics and technology are used to gather, analyze, and communicate results. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Gather, evaluate, and represent evidence using scientific tools, technologies, and computational strategies.] (5.1.8.B.2)


In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 03 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p08 Reproductive potential is the theoretical unlimited growth of a population over time.




In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 04 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c11 Similar ecosystems occur in areas of similar abiotic conditions on Earth.




In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 04 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c12 An ecosystem is a group of interacting organisms and abiotic factors in a specified area.



In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 04 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c13 Variation in a population helps the population survive when the environment changes.






In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 04 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p09 All ecosystems have characteristics in common, such as tropic levels.




In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 04 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p10 Variation is the range of expression of a feature in a population.




In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 05 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c14 Genes are the basic unit of heredity carried by chromosomes in the nucleus of every cell. Genes code for the features of

organisms.


Plants are producers: They use the energy from light to make food (sugar) from carbon dioxide and water. Plants are used as a source of food (energy) for other organisms. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Describe the sources of the reactants of photosynthesis and trace the pathway to the products.] (5.3.6.B.1)

All animals, including humans, are consumers that meet their energy needs by eating other organisms or their products. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Illustrate the flow of energy (food) through a community.] (5.3.6.B.2)




In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 05 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c15 An organism’s particular combination of paired alleles is its genotype; the traits produced by those alleles result in the

phenotype.


Food is broken down to provide energy for the work that cells do, and is a source of the molecular building blocks from which needed materials are assembled. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Relate the energy and nutritional needs of organisms in a variety of life stages and situations, including stages of development and periods of maintenance.] (5.3.8.B.1)

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 05 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c16 Observe milkweed bug individuals and populations to monitor changes.


Plants are producers: They use the energy from light to make food (sugar) from carbon dioxide and water. Plants are used as a source of food (energy) for other organisms. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Describe the sources of the reactants of photosynthesis and trace the pathway to the products.] (5.3.6.B.1)


In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 05 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c17 Describe and communicate a sequence of events during a long-term study.


All animals, including humans, are consumers that meet their energy needs by eating other organisms or their products. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Analyze the components of a consumer’s diet and trace them back to plants and plant products.] (5.3.8.B.2)


In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 05 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p11 An adaptation is any trait of an organism that helps it survive and reproduce in its environment.




In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 05 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p12 Environmental factors put selective pressure on populations.



Carefully collected evidence is used to construct and defend arguments. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Use qualitative and quantitative evidence to develop evidence-based arguments.] (5.1.8.B.3)

Scientific reasoning is used to support scientific conclusions. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Use quality controls to examine data sets and to examine evidence as a means of generating and reviewing explanations.] (5.1.8.B.4)

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 05 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p13 Natural selection is the process by which the individuals best adapted to their environment tend to survive and pass

their traits to subsequent generations.





In order to determine which arguments and explanations are most persuasive, communities of learners work collaboratively to pose, refine, and evaluate questions, investigations, models, and theories (e.g., argumentation, representation, visualization, etc.). [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Engage in productive scientific discussion practices during conversations with peers, both face-to-face and virtually, in the context of scientific investigations and model-building.] (5.1.8.D.2)

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 05 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p14 Analyze and sort images on cards to determine which represent individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems.






In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 06 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c18 Use reference information about organisms to construct a classroom ecosystem.





In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 06 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c19 Observe, describe, and record changes to an ecosystem, using a scientific log.




In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 06 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p15 Identify biotic and abiotic elements.




In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 06 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p16 Relate the characteristics of a population, community, and ecosystem.





In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 06 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p17 Describe the relationship between biotic and abiotic factors.





In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 07 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c20 Investigate and measure the amount of energy from a food source.






In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 07 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c21 Determine the mass of production needed to support primary, secondary, and third-level consumers.






In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 07 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c22 Relate food webs to tropic levels.





In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 07 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p18 Research the functional roles of organisms in an ecosystem.






In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 07 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p19 Use data to construct feeding relationships (food web).





In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 07 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p20 Infer how energy moves through an ecosystem.





In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 08 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c23 Describe and communicate the abiotic and biotic components and their interrelations in a specific area.


Variations exist among organisms of the same generation (e.g., siblings) and of different generations (e.g., parent to offspring). [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Explain how knowledge of inherited variations within and between generations is applied to farming and animal breeding.] (5.3.6.D.2)


The unique combination of genetic material from each parent in sexually reproducing organisms results in the potential for variation. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Explain the source of variation among siblings.] (5.3.8.D.2)

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 08 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c24 Apply understanding of ecological concepts to a new system.


Characteristics of organisms are influenced by heredity and/or their environment. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Describe the environmental conditions or factors that may lead to a change in a cell’s genetic information or to an organism’s development, and how these changes are passed on.] (5.3.8.D.3)


In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 08 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c25 Describe the ways that ecosystems are the same and different.





In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 08 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p21 Calculate theoretical growth of a milkweed bug population with no limits.





In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 08 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p22 Analyze results of experiments on abiotic factors and bug egg hatching.





In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 08 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p23 Relate abiotic and biotic factors to the growth or decline of populations.






In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 09 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c26 Describe how a population can change over time in response to environmental factors.


Traits such as eye color in human beings or fruit/flower color in plants are inherited. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Distinguish between inherited and acquired traits/characteristics.] (5.3.6.D.3)

Some organisms reproduce asexually. In these organisms, all genetic information comes from a single parent. Some organisms reproduce sexually, through which half of the genetic information comes from each parent. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Defend the principle that, through reproduction, genetic traits are passed from one generation to the next, using evidence collected from observations of inherited traits.] (5.3.8.D.1)


In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 09 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c27 Use a simulation to determine the transfer of genetic information during breeding and the traits that result.


Traits such as eye color in human beings or fruit/flower color in plants are inherited. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Distinguish between inherited and acquired traits/characteristics.] (5.3.6.D.3)

Some organisms reproduce asexually. In these organisms, all genetic information comes from a single parent. Some organisms reproduce sexually, through which half of the genetic information comes from each parent. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Defend the principle that, through reproduction, genetic traits are passed from one generation to the next, using evidence collected from observations of inherited traits.] (5.3.8.D.1)



In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 09 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p24 Use a multimedia simulation to investigate the adaptive value of protective coloration.





In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 09 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p25 Explain how adaptations help organisms survive in a specific environment.





In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 09 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p26 Use Punnett squares to predict the proportion of offspring that will have certain traits.






In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 10 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c28 Explain how organisms inherit traits from parents. Describe the interaction of dominant and recessive alleles.




In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 10 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: c29 A kind of organism that is different from other kinds is a species.



Individual organisms with certain traits are more likely than others to survive and have offspring in particular environments. The advantages or disadvantages of specific characteristics can change when the environment in which they exist changes. Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the characteristics of a species are insufficient to allow survival. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Organize and present evidence to


show how the extinction of a species is related to an inability to adapt to changing environmental conditions using quantitative and qualitative data.] (5.3.8.E.1)

Anatomical evidence supports evolution and provides additional detail about the sequence of branching of various lines of descent. [To demonstrate proficiency in learning, students may: Compare the anatomical structures of a living species with fossil records to derive a line of descent.] (5.3.8.E.2)

In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 10 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p27 Describe how selective pressure can affect the genetic makeup of a population.






In completing the work in Lesson or Investigation 10 of Populations and Ecosystems, students are expected to develop understandings and skills including: p28 Explain how the traits expressed by the members of a population can change naturally over time.




Linden Public Schools Linden, New Jersey

INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE CURRICULUM

focusing on the

HAWK RISE ECOSYSTEM

HAWK RISE CURRICULUM OVERVIEW Hawk Rise, in the City of Linden, New Jersey, represents a unique 37-acre natural preserve that offers nearly limitless opportunity for Linden public school students to learn about natural systems and their relationships to those systems. The sitewhich includes terrestrial, wetland, and aquatic habitatsis within a 15-minute bus ride from most of the schools in the district, and will ultimately be accessible by means of parking facilities and a pedestrian trail system that winds its way through notable features of the site. The site’s natural features and phenomena are also very well-suited to inquiry-based lessons that can be correlated to the K-12 Science Curriculum of the Linden Public Schools. A Science curriculum consultant has drafted a curriculum framework designed to engage students from Grades 2 through Grade 8 in science lessons that pertain to the Hawk Rise ecosystem. The lessons will support the District’s existing grade-level science modules and units, but also add an outdoor, discovery/investigation dimension to the modules and units that will enrich them and engage the students, at times, in field-based, experiential learning. Most of the lessons will also be very well-adapted to interdisciplinary connections to the learning domains of Mathematics, Social Studies, and Language Arts Literacy. Field trips to Hawk Rise are planned for Grades 2,4,6 and 7 with perhaps select opportunities for Grade 8 students to visit the Hawk Rise site as part of their Environmental Issues Unit. Grades 3,5, and 8 students will be engaged in classroom, school-site, or local park habitat sites that will either prepare them for or follow-up learning experiences at the Hawk Rise site. All lessons will be correlated to the recently revised New Jersey Department of Education Core Curriculum Content Science Standards, as well as the “Four Strands of Science Learning” championed by the text that serves as a guideline reference for the Linden District’s Science Curriculum: Ready, Set, Science. As with all innovations in science education in the Linden Public School District, a rigorous program of professional development training is recommended that will seek to familiarize teachers from each of the participating grade levelsGrades 2 through 8in classroom and field-based strategies for enhancing student awareness and understanding of the Hawk Rise ecosystem. Experts in ecology-based instructionsome from the New Jersey Audubon Societywill be recruited to facilitate the professional development training of classroom teachers, as well as initial field trips that will include their students. It is hoped that, ultimately, Linden’s classroom teachers will not only develop a command of classroom, school-yard, or park-based lessons relating to Hawk Rise, but also be capable of facilitating lessons at the Hawk Rise preserve on their own.


GRADE 7 INQUIRY-BASED CURRICULUM

focusing on the

HAWK RISE ECOSYSTEM and Correlated with the Grade 7

FOSS Science Module: “POPULATIONS AND ECOSYSTEMS”

The following outline highlights key ecosystem concepts pertinent to Hawk Rise that can be focused on through adherence to key New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Science Standards and the Grade 7 Science curriculum module, “POPULATIONS AND ECOSYSTEMS.” “POPULATIONS AND ECOSYSTEMS” Grade 7 Science Module: NJCCC SCIENCE STANDARDS

Learning Objectives related to Life Science Strand 5.3.CInterdependence: Identify the differences between species, populations, community,

ecosystems, biomes, and biosphere. Identify how population numbers can change. Identify limiting factors for certain populations. Illustrate patterns of how populations in a given area depend on each other for

their basic needs. Explain how energy resources of a community are shared through the

interactions of producers, consumers, and decomposers. Explain how humans can affect ecosystems’ carrying capacity.

NSRC/STC GRADE 7 “POPULATIONS AND ECOSYSTEMS”

MODULEKEY CONCEPTS

A population is all the interacting individuals of one kind in an area. A community is all the interacting populations in a specified area. An ecosystem is a system of interacting organisms and nonliving factors in a

specified area. Similar ecosystems occur in areas of similar abiotic conditions on Earth. All ecosystems have characteristics in common, such as trophic levels. Variation is the range of expression of a feature in a population. Variation in a population helps the population survive when the environment

changes. Reproductive potential is the theoretical unlimited growth of a population over

time.

Linden Public Schools Hawk Rise Grade 7 Curriculum

2

A limiting factor is any biotic or abiotic component of the ecosystem that controls the population size.

HAWK RISE ECOSYSTEM CURRICULUM CORRELATION FEATURES Hawk Rise represents a classic example of several wetland and aquatic

ecosystems that are seamlessly associated with one another. The close proximity of these ecosystems to one another provides unlimited opportunities for ecosystem studies by Grade 7 classes.

Hawk Rise also offers potential for Grade 7 classes to carry out population studies and monitor population fluctuations of select species over time.

Hawk Rise, furthermore, is a good location for Grade 7 classes to observe seasonal breeding and/or over-wintering populations of animals; migratory populations; and/or year-round resident populations of wildlife.


INQUIRY-BASED CURRICULUM

focusing on the

HAWK RISE ECOSYSTEM

KEY CURRICULUM SUPPORT REFERENCE

Essential guidelines from a reference that has been strongly endorsed and institutionalized in the Linden School District will be seamlessly woven into the Hawk Rise Curriculum: Ready, Set, SCIENCE!Putting Research to Work in K-8 Classrooms (National Research Council of the National Academies, 2008). A credible and well-respected ‘blueprint’ for quality Science Education, this reference reviews principles from the latest educational research and applies them to effective teaching practice. Four interrelated and learner-focused science education strands are highlighted: 1) marshalling scientific explanations 2) using their own data as evidence 3) reflecting on their current understanding, and 4) participating in authentic scientific practices as presenters and audience members. Each of these Strands will be purposefully infused into the Hawk Rise curriculum, since it will focus on student-based observations, investigations, data-based documentation, and inquiry skills. The Strands also correlate very closely with the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in Science, and the associated Cumulative Progress Indicators (CPI’s).

populations and ecosystems · proficiency in learning, students may: predict the impact that...

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