HABITATS UNIT STUDY

The following items are included in the unit study package: 1. Parent guide 2. Habitats by Pamela Hickman 3. Healthy Habitats Pan Canadian Science 4. The Cedar Club Forest Detectives Diane Swanson 5. Kingsher Camp River Detectives D. Swanson 6. Central School Seashore Detectives D. Swanson 7. A Freshwater Pond Adam Hibbert (not in all kits) 8. A Freshwater Pond coloring book (not in all Kits) 9. 24 food web cards for Food Chains activity 10. Professor Noggins Freshwater Life o f North America

This guide and the student pages can be found on the library website at: http://www.onlineschool.ca/rooms/library/resource_kits/index.php The online guide has live links that will take you directly to the webpage. Print

the Student pages from the HCOS website so you have them on hand.
Ask your teacher for the password to the Discovery Education website so you can access the videos mentioned.
Discovery Streaming http://my.discoveryeducation.ca/

The Kingsher Camp River Detectives and Central School Seashore Detectives books are included as optional reading material.
Field Guides that may be helpful for this unit study:

plant guides such as Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Pojar and Mackinnon

8/1/2013 Revised

animal track guides such as the Peterson Field Guide to Animal Tracks bird identification guides marine life identification guides such as Seashore of British Columbia by Ian Sheldon

Habitats Unit Daily Lessons Lesson 1:

Introduction to Habitats: the Prairie

Read Healthy Habitats p. 4-5 Read Habitats p. 5-7 Complete Ecology worksheet p. 1 Habitat of the day: The Prairie! Explore the Bell Museum activities at http:// www.bellmuseum.org . This site requires a bit of reading to complete the Build a Prairie game, but it includes a lot of good information. Watch Habitats on the Discovery Streaming website. (about 16 minutes). Discuss with your child how God has provided animals with features to protect themselves. This secular video makes some use of the word adapted in explaining how animals are suited to their environment.

Lesson 2:

Healthy Habitats

Read Healthy Habitats p. 6-9 Complete Ecology Vocabulary worksheet p. 3 (Print from website) Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/8_9/habitats.shtml Complete Investigate an Ecosystem activity (in parent activity guide) based on an area in your neighbourhood such as a park or your backyard

Lesson 3:

Pond Study, Day 1

Read Healthy Habitats p. 10-13 Complete Ecology worksheet p. 9 Do Chain Games (AIMS) activity (in parent activity guide) Read A Freshwater Pond p. 4-7. What makes a pond different from a lake? Read Habitats p. 30-35. Decide if you want to keep a pond habitat at your house for a few days or if you will simply visit the pond in the next lesson. Prepare for the pond trip accordingly.

8/1/2013 Revised

Watch Animal Predators and the Balance of Nature on the Discovery Streaming website. (about 14 minutes) Watch http://www.brainpopjr.com/search/?keyword=habitats to learn more about fresh water habitats.

Lesson 4:

Pond Study, Day 2

Read Healthy Habitats p. 14-17 Read The Flow of Energy through an Ecosystem information sheet p. 11 After having read Pond Study Lesson Plan in parent activity guide, visit a local pond. Take note of organisms spotted. Take along a field guide to help you identify organisms. Read A Freshwater Pond p. 8-21.

Lesson 5:

Pond Study, Day 3

Read Healthy Habitats p. 18-21

Read A Freshwater Pond p. 22-29 Using the organisms that you identified in your pond visit, make a chart of organisms that are producers and those which are consumers. Visit http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/water/waterqual.htm and investigate the water watch section under the environmental issues tab. Some references to evolution occur here. Visit http://search.discoveryeducation.ca/ and search videos on food chains or producers and consumers. Create a simple food chain of organisms that are found in a pond. Can you make a chain that includes 5 organisms? How could the chains be arranged so that animals that eat the same things are shown? Watch All Part of the Whole on on Discovery Streaming website. (about 5 minutes)

Lesson 6: What are decomposers?

8/1/2013 Revised

Read Healthy Habitats p. 22-23 Read Decomposers worksheet p. 12 Read through and do Wonderful Worms activity (Habitats) p. 14-19 and/or Decomposition activity
Visit http://search.discoveryeducation.ca/ and do a search for decomposers videos.

Lesson 7:

How do food chains work?

Read Healthy Habitats p. 24-27. Do Exploration Connection: Food Webs on p. 27. Read and discuss An Introduction to Food Webs and Food Webs information sheets (in parent activity guide) Watch The Food Chain Mystery on the on Discovery Streaming website. (about 15 minutes)

Watch http://www.brainpopjr.com/search/?keyword=habitats and select Food chains.

Lesson 8:

How do changes in habitats affect plants and animals?

Read Healthy Habitats p. 28-31

Read and discuss The Cedar Club Forest Detectives, chapter 1 and 2. Note: this book includes a good amount of information in a story format, but several times explanations are given from an evolutionary standpoint. Please discuss this with your child. Watch Go Climb a Tree on the on Discovery Streaming website. (about 10 minutes)

Lesson 9:

How do people change habitats?

Read Healthy Habitats p. 32-35

8/1/2013 Revised

Read and discuss The Cedar Club Forest Detectives, chapter 3 and 4. Go for a forest walk. Bring along a field identification guide such as Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Pojar and Mackinnon. Make a list of the organisms that you found. Also discuss places where development has made changes to animal habitats. Watch Creature Features: Changes to Environment (about 5 minutes) on on Discovery Streaming website..

Lesson 10: How does an addition or loss of a species affect a habitat?

Read and discuss The Cedar Club Forest Detectives, chapter 5 Research either the Garry Oak tree or the Vancouver Island Marmot. What efforts are being made to protect these organisms? Why is it important to save these organisms? OR research the presence of the Himalayan Blackberry or Scotch Broom on Vancouver Island (or another non-native species invading your area). What efforts are being made to rid the area of these species? Why is it important to keep them from spreading?

Lesson 11: How can people preserve habitats?

Read Healthy Habitats p. 40 Continue research on the topic chosen in the previous lesson. Organize the information into three paragraphs that tell: What is this organism? o Tell what this organism looks like o Tell where it is found o Tell whether it is native to the area or not. If not, how did it get here? Why is it a concern? o Tell why it is a problem. Is it taking over? Is it dying off? o Include a statistic about how ecosystems have changed because of the increase/decline of this organism.

8/1/2013 Revised

What is being done to solve the problem? Include pictures to accompany your information. The work may be completed as a Power Point presentation, a Word document, or a poster.

Ongoing Unit Activities:

Some of the activities in this unit will be ongoing over several weeks. You may want to have your child keep a habitats journal for the unit, recording change observed in the different experiments. If you have a field identification guide such as Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Pojar and Mackinnon, have it available for any nature walks or field studies. Try to schedule at least two nature walks in different habitats during the study (in the forest, by a river, at the ocean, by a pond, etc.) Bring a nature journal, digital camera, and/or field guides to help identify the plants and animals in the habitat. Encourage students to choose any interesting organism they discovered in the habitat explored on a nature walk. Based on what he/she learns, have them write a story entitled A Day (or Night) in the Life of their organism. Be aware of changes in habitats in your neighbourhood (housing developments going up, removal of invasive species in a park, etc.) Where applicable, take photos so that you can compare before and after the change takes place.

Provincial Learning Outcomes for Grade 4

Make predictions, supported by reasons and relevant to the content Use data from investigations to recognize patterns and relationships and reach conclusions Compare the structures and behaviors of local animals and plants in different habitats and communities Analyze simple food chains Demonstrate respect for the environment Determine how personal choices and actions have environmental consequences

Unit Notes:
8/1/2013 Revised

The suitability of some activities will depend on the season (such as observing critters in a pond) If you have a local ecosystem of interest other than a pond or forest, you may want to replace the focus to address that ecosystem.

Additional sites of interest: Information on the Vancouver Island Marmot: http://www.animalinfo.org/species/rodent/marmvanc.htm http://www.nature.ca/notebooks/english/vanmarm.htm
http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/species/speciesDetails_e.cfm?sid=136

Information on the Garry Oak tree:

http://www.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/GarryOakEcosystems.html http://www.goert.ca http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/documents/treebook/garryoak.htm

Information on Scotch Broom http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/weedguid/scotchbroom.htm http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/ Cytisus_scoparius.html

http://www.broombusters.org/broom.html

Information on Himalayan Blackberry http://lakewhatcom.wsu.edu/gardenkit/UnWantedPests/Blackberry.htm

http://www.bcinvasives.ca

8/1/2013 Revised

Information on Invasive Plants

http://www.bcinvasives.ca

8/1/2013 Revised