Portland Public Schools has developed this unit. Their hope is that ALL …
Portland Public Schools has developed this unit. Their hope is that ALL K-5 students will be able to access rigorous, standards-aligned science instruction that engages them in hands-on experiences and sense-making through student discourse. They want to encourage all students to be critical thinkers and lifelong learners. To that end, the science and ESL departments at Portland Public Schools, in consultation with NGSS writer Rita Januszyk, have developed units that are aligned with both Next Generation Science Standards and Oregon’s English Language Proficiency standards.
Students explore where the energy in our food comes from, the flow of energy in an ecosystem, and the cycle of matter. Students generate an initial model of a farm system and revise it throughout the unit as they learn more about the flow of energy and cycling of matter through seed investigations, observations, and discussions. The unit culminates in an engineering challenge using mostly recycled materials.
This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 5.LS2.1 and is intended …
This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 5.LS2.1 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. These assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify next instructional steps.
Have you ever seen a fallen log in a forest? Have you …
Have you ever seen a fallen log in a forest? Have you wondered how plants could be growing on it or why animals might be visiting it? In this unit, students explore nurse logs to figure out just that. Students begin their exploration of nurse logs by considering how the plant life that grows on them gets the matter needed to grow. They plan, carry out, and evaluate investigations that provide them with evidence that plants get the matter they need to grow primarily from air and water and the energy they need to grow from the Sun. As students build their understanding of matter and energy transfer, they investigate how there are also many animals that live in, on, and around nurse logs. They model to explain the transfer of energy and matter between plants, animals, the nurse log, and the sun. Students figure out that decomposers are a vital component of the nurse log system. Finally, students consider how new species can disrupt that balance and flow of matter and energy, using the example of American bullfrogs that have been recently introduced to nurse log ecosystems.
OpenSciEd curriculum promotes deep and engaging science learning, and it is freely accessible to all. As an Open Educational Resource (OER), we encourage teachers to adapt, transform, and build upon OpenSciEd materials, allowing them to cater to the specific requirements of their classrooms.
To view other elementary units, please visit: https://www.openscied.org/curriculum/elementary-school/explore-the-curriculum/
In this fifth-grade unit on interrelationships in ecosystems, students investigate the apparent …
In this fifth-grade unit on interrelationships in ecosystems, students investigate the apparent disappearance of the body of a dead raccoon over time. Their findings lead them to uncover the role of decomposers in this process, as well as the role of decomposers in the disappearance of plant debris over time. Students ultimately track down where the materials come from that all living things need for repair and growth and where the energy comes from that they use to move and stay warm. Resource from: NextGenStoryline.org
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