Science

Science

Overview

These science lessons were developed for use with third graders as part of the Scott Foresman Science program Discover the Wonder, Module A – Habitats, but can be used with any unit dealing with the desert habitat. The lessons are part of a broader unit on the southwestern United States, which was an integration of language arts, science and social studies.

The students will learn about and compare a region of the United States with their area in New Jersey. They will learn about both the culture and the environment of this section of the United States. Cultural differences will be emphasized through the reading of stories in the Houghton Mifflin Just Listen literature based program. The environmental differences will be explored through science lessons. Social Studies will be used to enhance both the reading and science areas.

Core Curriculum Content Standards addressed in this unit include:

Standard 3.2 All Students will listen actively in a variety of situations to information from a variety of sources.

Standard 3.3 All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content form for different audiences and purposes.

Standard 3.4 All students will read a variety of materials and texts with comprehension and critical analysis.

Standard 3.5 All students will view, understand, and use non-textual visual information.

Standard 4.3 All students will connect mathematics to other learning by understanding the interrelationships of mathematical ideas and the roles that mathematics and mathematical modeling play in other disciplines and in life.

Standard 4.9 All students will develop and understanding of and will use measurement to describe and analyze phenomena.

Standard 5.1 All students will learn to identify systems of interacting components and understand how their interactions combine to produce the overall behavior of the system.

Standard 5.2 All students will develop problem-solving, decision-making, and inquiry skills, reflected by formulating usable questions and hypotheses, planning experiments, conducting systematic observations, interpreting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and communicating results.

Standard 5.5 All students will integrate mathematics as a tool for problem solving in science, and as a means of expressing and/or modeling scientific theories.

Standard 5.6 All students will gain an understanding of the structure, characteristics, and basic needs of organisms.

Standard 5.7 All students will investigate the diversity of life.

Standard 6.5 All students will acquire historical understanding of varying cultures throughout the history of New Jersey, the United States, and the World.

Standard 6.7 All students will acquire geographical understanding by studying the world in spatial terms.

Equipment and Materials

Our classroom presently has one Apple IIE a PC running Office 97; Word, Excel and Power Point. We are not currently connected to the Internet, but I do have Internet access from my home

Disk/CD-ROM:

Desert I and Desert II are Power Point presentations developed by the teacher to be used as review by the children.

Legends is a collection of Power Point presentations written by students.

Multimedia Encyclopedia is available on CD-ROM from the Cyber store of the EverGreen Project at http://www.mobot.org/MBGnet/store.htm. This was a source for the creation of transparencies used to introduce the children to information about the desert.

Transparencies: downloading directly from a web source to a transparency makes Overheads. Pasting appropriate information and pictures to Word and then printing also makes some.

Internet Sites:

Students can access information for all areas of this theme through my website page entitled "The Southwest."

http://www.algorithms.com/users/blairm/RM216southwest.htm

Weather Sources for gathering information:

Historical Weather Data http://www.weatherpost.com/longterm/historical/historical.htm
Welcome to The Weather Underground http://www.wunderground.com/
National Weather Service http://www.nws.noaa.gov/
The Weather Channel http://www.weather.com/twc/homepage.twc

Additional sites are listed on individual lessons.

Bibliography: These are books I have acquired for my classroom library. Stories are read to the children and then made available for students to reread independently. Most titles are available through Amazon.com.

Armadillo Rodeo Jan Brett
Eyewitness Books – Desert Miranda Macquitly
Desert Giant Barbara Bash
Desert Glitters Millie Miller and Cyndi Nelson
Cactus Hotel Brenda Z. Guberson
A Desert Scrapbook Virginia Wright Frierson
Cactus Café Kathleen Weidner Zoelfeld
Usborne Reptile World
World Book – Make It Work Maps
Where the Buffaloes Begin Olaf Baker
Arrow o the Sun Gerald McDermott
Hawk I’m Your Brother Byrd Baylor

Student Assessment:

Teacher Observation
Daily Journal Entries
Completed maps, graphs, diagrams
Formal tests after lessons four and eight.

Preparation for testing will include study sheets, use of Power Point Presentations.

Outline:

I. Into the Desert

A. Introduction

B. Make a Desert Journal

II. What is a desert?

A. Vocabulary

B. Experimentation

C. Mapping

III. The Struggle to Survive

A. Plants

B. Animals

IV. Changes in the Desert

A. Desert Heat

B. Graphing

V. Rain in the Desert

Lesson 1

Objectives

Students will be introduced to the desert.

Students will keep a desert journal.

Materials

Video Plants and Animals Sierra Club Series

Construction paper (18x20) to make journal.

White lined paper (8-/2x11) to make journal.

Activities

1. Explain to the children that they will be learning about the desert.

2. Make a KWL chart on the board.

Know Want to Know Learned

Ask the children what they know about the desert. List all responses on the board under Know.

3. Show and discuss video.

4. Students will now list things they would still like to know about the desert.

5. Have children fold construction paper in half to make a folder.

* Give each child at least 5 pieces of white lined paper to staple inside the folder. On the cover, children will write

* My Desert Journal and their name. They can also add a picture about the desert.

6. Explain to the children:

* each entry should be dated.

* entries can include new information learned, observations made during experimentation, and questions they wish to explore.

7. The first entry should be the KWL chart. Children choose those things they feel would be appropriate for their individual chart.

Evaluation

* Did the children find that the video supported their ideas of a desert?

* Did the children add information to the chart that they wanted to learn?

* Did the children make a journal?

Lesson 2

Objective

Students will learn that deserts can be either hot or cold.

Students will learn that a desert can be covered with sand, dry soil, loose gravel, large rocks, and even ice.

Students will identify a desert as being very dry with less than 10 inches of rain a year.

Materials

Scott Foresman Discover the Wonder, Module A, Chapter 1

Overheads (information downloaded from Internet)

*What is a Desert like?

http:www.mobot,org/MBGnet/vb/desert/whatis.htm

Activities

1. Read and discuss pages A6 & A7 in text.

2. Extend reading with overhead "What is a Desert Like?" Compare rainfall per year with other biome; i.e. grassland, rainforest, taiga, temperate deciduous forest, tundra, using graph on overhead.

3. Make entry in journal: describe a desert.

Evaluation

* Select students to read the journal entry.

* Check journals.