THE MOUNTAIN TRAIL OUTDOOR SCHOOL

Aquatic Ecology

Exploring Ponds and Streams

Students explore several aquatic ecosystems and discover first hand (and feet!!) what lives there. Students learn where aquatic animals live, what they eat and about their interactions with each other. Key concepts/vocabulary: hydrology, water cycle, metamorphosis, invertebrate, bog, pond, lake, and stream.

From the South Carolina Standard Course of Study

Go back to SC class list.

4th Grade TOP

Science

II. Life Science

Unit of Study: Organisms and Their Environment

A. Characteristics of Organisms

1. Organisms have basic needs and can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met. The world has many different environments, and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms.

a. Identify the characteristics of different environments, such as forests, wetlands, grasslands, deserts, and in polar, temperate, and tropical regions.

b. Describe the diversity of life forms (vertebrate and invertebrate animals and plants) supported by each environment.

c. Investigate the relationships between the basic needs of different organisms and whether or not a particular environment meets those needs.

2. Organisms have senses that help them detect internal and external cues.

a. Analyze specific behaviors influenced by internal cues (e. g., hunger and thirst).

b. Analyze specific behaviors influenced by external cues in the environment (e. g., temperature, light, and precipitation).

c. Describe how animal sensory organs (including human eye and ear) detect external cues.

3. Many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the parents of the organism, but other characteristics result from an individual's interactions with the environment.

a. Identify and describe characteristics and behaviors that are inherited (e.g., color of flowers and animal instincts).

b. Identify and describe characteristics and learned behaviors that enable organisms to survive in their environment (e.g., bear learning to fish).

c. Distinguish major groups of organisms based on significant characteristics (e.g., body covering, number of legs, body parts, type of skeleton).

B. Organisms and Their Environments

1. An organism's patterns of behavior are related to the nature of that organism's environment, including the kinds and the numbers of other organisms present, the availability of food and resources, and the physical characteristics of the environment.

a. Describe how animals behave and interact within groups (e.g., schools, flocks, packs, hives, and herds).

b. Describe how animals behave and interact within their environment (living and nonliving).

2. All organisms cause changes in the environment where they live.

a. Describe how organisms may benefit their environment (e.g., earthworms improve the quality of soil, birds disperse seeds).

b. Describe how organisms may harm their environment (e.g., locusts destroy crops, red tides reduce oxygen levels in the ocean).

3. Humans change environments in ways that can be either beneficial or detrimental for themselves and other organisms.

a. Describe changes in the environment caused by humans.

b. Infer the impact of agricultural technology (e.g., air/land/ water pollution and improved crop yield) on society and the environment.

c. Infer the impact of industrial technologies (e.g., air/land/water pollution and improved standard of living) on society and the environment.

d. Relate how human population growth changes the environment.

English

4-C1.4

Demonstrate the ability to participate in and contribute to conversations and discussions by responding appropriately.

4-C1.11

Demonstrate the ability to summarize conversations and discussions.

4-C1.15

Begin expressing and explaining ideas orally with fluency and confidence.

4-C1.14

Continue making appropriate statements to communicate agreement or disagreement with others' ideas.

4-C2.1

Demonstrate the ability to follow multistep oral directions.

4-C2.2

Demonstrate the ability to listen for meaning in conversations and discussions.

4-C2.3

Demonstrate the ability to summarize conversations and discussions.

4-C2.5

Demonstrate the ability to distinguish between fact and opinion, comparing and contrasting information and ideas, and making inferences with regard to what he or she has heard.

Math

Data Analysis and Probability

STANDARD I. Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them.

Expectation C- Represent data using tables and graphs such as line plots, bar

graphs, and line graphs.

2. Read and interpret information from tables, line graphs, and bar graphs.

5th Grade TOP

Science

II. Life Science

Units of Study:Cells and Systems: Ecosystems (Aquatic/Terrestrial)

B. Populations and Ecosystems

1. A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time. All populations live together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem.

a. Define a population.

b. Investigate and understand how plants and animals in aquatic/terrestrial ecosystems interact with one another and with the nonliving environment.

2. Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and some microorganisms are producers--they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food.

a. Distinguish among the roles organisms serve in a food web (producers, decomposers, consumers, prey and predators).

b. Describe an organism by its niche in an ecosystem.

3. For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is used by producers through photosynthesis.

a. Recognize that energy passes from organism to organism in food webs.

b. Diagram how energy flows through food webs.

4. The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available.

a. Identify and investigate the abiotic factors in an ecosystem such as quantity of light, air, and water; range of temperature; salinity, water pressure; and soil composition.

b. Identify and investigate the biotic factors in an ecosystem.

c. Describe the effect of limiting factors such as food, water, space, and shelter, on a population.

d. Evaluate the impact of the environment on populations of organisms.

e. Draw conclusions about the influence of human activity on ecosystems.

f. Discuss ways to minimize the negative impact of technology/industralization on ecosystems and to maximize the positive impact.

g. Explore and identify career opportunities in natural resource/ environmental/marine science.

III. Earth Science

Unit of Study: Changes in the Earth's Surface: Landforms and Oceans

A. Structure of the Earth System

3. Water, which covers the majority of the Earth's surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the "water cycle."

a. Diagram, label, and describe evaporation, condensation and precipitation as components of the water cycle.

b. Explain how the water cycle affects the salinity of the ocean's water.

English

5-C1.4

Demonstrate the ability to participate in and contribute to conversations and discussions by responding appropriately.

5-C1.11

Demonstrate the ability to summarize conversations and discussions.

5-C1.15

Demonstrate the ability to express and explain ideas orally with fluency and confidence.

5-C1.15

Demonstrate the ability to make appropriate statements to communicate agreement or disagreement with others' ideas.

5-C2.1

Demonstrate the ability to listen for meaning in conversations and discussions.

5-C2.2

Demonstrate the ability to summarize conversations and discussions.

5-C2.4

Demonstrate the ability to distinguish between fact and opinion, to compare and contrast information and ideas, and to make inferences with regard to what he or she has heard.

Math

Number and Operations

STANDARD I. Understand numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems.

Expectation A- Understand the place-value structure of the base-ten number system and be able to represent an compare whole numbers and decimals

1. Describe the place value structure of decimals.

Expectation B- Recognize and generate equivalent forms of commonly used fractions, decimals, and percents.

2. Identify equivalent relationships among fractions, decimals, and percents such as 1/4 = .25 = 25%, 1/3 = = 33 1/3%, 2/5 = .40 = 40%, 1/2 = .50 = 50%, and 3/4 =.75 = 75%.

Data Analysis and Probability

STANDARD I. Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them.

Expectation C- Represent data using tables and graphs such as line plots, bar

graphs, and line graphs.

2. Construct and interpret tables and line graphs for data sets from applied situations.

6th Grade TOP

Science

III. Earth Science

Unit of Study: Energy Transfer in the Atmosphere

A. Structure of the Earth System

1. Water, which covers the majority of the Earth's surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the "water cycle." Water evaporates from the Earth's surface, rises and cools as it moves to higher elevations, condenses as rain or snow and falls to the surface, where it collects in lakes, oceans, soil, and rocks underground.

a. Identify, investigate and explain the processes of condensation, evaporation, precipitation, and runoff using a model or diagram.

b. Relate the occurrence of water in the Earth's crust, oceans, and atmosphere to the water cycle processes.

c. Analyze why precipitation occurs in the form of rain, sleet, hail, or snow.

2. Water is a solvent. As it passes through the water cycle, it dissolves minerals and gases and carries them to the oceans.

a. Classify different substances based on their solubility in water.

b. Infer the effects of water on the weathering of the Earth's surface in terms of solubility.

c. Describe how minerals (and salts) accumulate in lakes and oceans. [Concept has been taught at a previous grade level]

d. Explain how acid rain forms from gases (carbon dioxide, sulfur and nitrogen oxides from burning fossil fuels) dissolved in the water in the atmosphere.

English

6-C1.4

Demonstrate the ability to express and explain ideas orally with fluency and confidence.

6-C1.5

Demonstrate the ability to participate in conversations and discussions by responding appropriately.

6-C1.13

Demonstrate the ability to make appropriate statements to communicate agreement or disagreement with others' ideas.

6-C1.17

Demonstrate the ability to summarize conversations and discussions.

6-C2.1

Demonstrate the ability to listen for meaning in conversations and discussions.

6-C2.2

Demonstrate the ability to summarize conversations and discussions.

6-C2.3

Demonstrate the ability to distinguish between fact and opinion, to compare and contrast information and ideas, and to make inferences with regard to what he or she has heard.

7th Grade TOP

Science

II. Life Science

Unit of Study: Ecology - The Biotic Environment

D. Populations and Ecosystems

2. Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. All animals, including humans, are consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.

a. Analyze the role of producers, consumers and decomposers in an ecosystem.

b. Identify kinds of relationships organisms have with each other (predator/prey, competition).

c. Analyze energy flow in a food chain and its relationship to a food web.

III. Earth Science

Unit of Study: Ecology - The Abiotic Environment

A. Structure of the Earth System

1. Landforms are the result of a combination of constructive forces (e.g., deposition of sediments) and destructive forces (e.g., weathering and erosion).

a. Distinguish among weathering, erosion, and deposition.

c. Investigate and examine how the earth's surface is constantly changed by weathering, erosion, deposition and human impact.

2. Soil consists of weathered rocks and decomposed organic material from dead plants, animals, and bacteria. Soils are often found in layers, with each having a different chemical composition. Living organisms have played many roles in the Earth system, including affecting the composition of the atmosphere, producing some types of rocks, and contributing to the weathering of rocks.

c. Explain why soil (sediments) can be a major pollutant of streams.

3. Water, which covers the majority of the Earth's surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the "water cycle." Water evaporates from the Earth's surface, rises and cools as it moves to higher elevations, condenses as rain or snow, and falls to the surface where it collects in lakes, oceans, soil, and in rocks underground.

a. Define groundwater, runoff, drainage divide and drainage basin (watershed).

b. Infer what happens to water that does not soak into the ground or evaporate.

c. Analyze the factors that affect runoff.

d. Differentiate between drainage divides and drainage basins using maps or aerial photography and illustrate the relationships between groundwater and surface water in a watershed.

e. Identify and illustrate groundwater zones including water table, zone of saturation, and zone of aeration.

f. Identify technologies designed to reduce sources of point and non-point water pollution.

4. The atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace gases that include water vapor.

a. Infer how air pollution affects people and the environment.

b. Infer how air pollution affects the human body.

b. Analyze ways air pollution can be reduced.

c. Analyze how chemical hazards (pollutants in air, water, soil, and food) affect populations and ecological succession.

7. The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends upon the abiotic factors. Given adequate abiotic resources and no disease or predators, populations (including humans) increase at a rapid rate. Lack of resources and other factors, such as predation and climate, limit the growth of populations in specific niches in the ecosystem.

b. Diagram the cycles of water, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen in the environment.

d. Examine how materials are reused in a continuous cycle in ecosystems.

e. Distinguish between renewable and nonrenewable resources and examine the importance of their conservation.

f. Evaluate the effects of human population on air, water, and land.

g. Analyze the benefits of solid waste management (reduce, reuse, recycle).

English

7-C1.3

Demonstrate the ability to express and explain ideas orally with fluency and confidence.

7-C1.4

Demonstrate the ability to participate in conversations and discussions by responding appropriately.

7-C1.13

Demonstrate the ability to make appropriate statements to communicate agreement or disagreement with others' ideas.

7-C1.6

Demonstrate the ability to summarize conversations and discussions.

7-C2.1

Demonstrate the ability to listen for meaning in conversations and discussions.

7-C2.2

Demonstrate the ability to summarize conversations and discussions.

7-C2.3

Demonstrate the ability to distinguish between fact and opinion, to compare and contrast information and ideas, and to make inferences with regard to what he or she has heard.

8th Grade TOP

English

8-C1.2

Demonstrate the ability to express and explain ideas orally with fluency and confidence.

8-C1.3

Demonstrate the ability to participate in conversations and discussions by responding appropriately.

8-C1.11

Demonstrate the ability to make appropriate statements to communicate agreement or disagreement with others’ ideas.

8-C1.14

Demonstrate the ability to summarize conversations and discussions.

8-C2.1

Demonstrate the ability to listen for meaning in conversations and discussions.

8-C2.2

Demonstrate the ability to summarize conversations and discussions.

8-C2.3

Demonstrate the ability to distinguish between fact and opinion, to compare and contrast information and ideas, and to make inferences with regard to what he or she has heard.

Go back to SC class list.