Fourth and Fifth Grade Lesson

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Fourth and Fifth Grades
Standard:

Objective: Students will develop observation skills.

Materials:
Fourth:
Aquarium
Soil
Plants

Fifth:

Procedure:
1. Show video clip, "What Skills Do Scientists Use?"
2. Discuss how scientists in the video collect data and why.
3. Discuss how scientists carefully observe and record data in order to draw conclusions about topic they are studying.
Fourth Activity:
4. Students will create a terrarium in order to observe changes over time.
5. Students should measure plant growth, temperature, and any changes they observe.
6. Students may create terrariums with different types of habitats that require various needs such as more or less water, light, or air. Then, compare observations.
7. You can ask the question, "What do you think will happen if I provide rainforest like conditions to a desert habitat?" They can change water, light, or air flow and observe changes to draw conclusions.
8. Ask the students to recall the video. The scientist in the video discussed two different groups of turtles, female turtles who are nesting in the northern Great Barrier Reef region and male turtles who are feeding (foraging) a little further southeast in the Great Barrier Reef. He knows that the population of nesting turtles is declining at a rate of about 3% per year. He is now looking at the male foraging turtles to see if the same trend is happening. Why can't he assume that the total population of sea turtles in the Great Barrier Reef is declining at a rate of 3%?
9. Then, compare to terrariums. Can we assume that all plants in a particular habitat will respond the same to changed conditions?

Fifth Activity:

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