Grade 03 Science - EC: S3.B.3.2.1
Grade 03 Science - EC: S3.B.3.2.1
Continuum of Activities
The list below represents a continuum of activities: resources categorized by Standard/Eligible Content that teachers may use to move students toward proficiency. Using LEA curriculum and available materials and resources, teachers can customize the activity statements/questions for classroom use.
This continuum of activities offers:
- Instructional activities designed to be integrated into planned lessons
- Questions/activities that grow in complexity
- Opportunities for differentiation for each student’s level of performance
Related Academic Standards / Eligible Content
Activities
- Define habitat.
- Identify one way a habitat can change.
- What is a possible effect of trees from an animal’s habitat being knocked down so a city can build a parking lot?
- Deer eat grass. Predict what may happen to a deer population as the availability of grass changes.
- Beavers build dams that cause water to back up. The water floods the surrounding land. Hypothesize the effects this could have on the ecosystem.
- In a prairie, coyotes feed on prairie dogs. Predict what might happen if a new species that feed on prairie dogs was introduced to the ecosystem.
Answer Key/Rubric
- Habitat is defined as the place where an animal lives.
- Acceptable responses may include, but are not limited to:
- Examples of change are: if an animal or plant is no longer in the habitat, a change in weather, a natural disaster, human-made changes, etc.
- Acceptable responses may include, but are not limited to:
- Effect: an animal may have lost its home.
- Effect: more animals might be found in the city due to lack of home.
- Effect: animals could lose their food source.
- Effect: species could die out from lack of food and shelter
- Acceptable responses may include, but are not limited to:
- As the amount of available grass increases, the deer population will thrive and increase.
- As the availability of the grass decreases, the deer population will also decrease, because they depend on the grass for their survival.
- Acceptable responses may include, but are not limited to:
- The beavers will be better suited to survive.
- The dryland might turn into a wetland ecosystem, so new animals and plants can live there.
- This could negatively affect the plants and animals that already live there.
- They might not be able to survive in the changed ecosystem.
- Acceptable responses may include, but are not limited to:
- There might be competition for the prairie dogs between the coyotes and new species.
- The prairie dog population might decrease/become extinct because a new predator was introduced.
- The coyote and the new species may not survive if there are not enough prairie dogs.