Grade: Multi Grade

28 Feb 2021

Stream Exploration and Pond Exploration

April-October

Choose an aquatic focus area: Life at the Pond or Life at the Stream. Ponds and streams are essential resources to many Ohio plants and animals, including humans.  Take time to discover our local waterways at Greenacres and make observations as we look for plants and animals that call them home.

Ohio Science Standards:

  • LS Grade K: Living things have physical traits and behaviors, which influence their survival.
  • LS Grade 1: Living things have basic needs, which are met by obtaining materials from the physical environment.  
  • LS Grade 1: Living things survive only in environments that meet their needs.
  • LS Grade 2: Living things cause changes on Earth.
  • LS Grade 3: Offspring resemble their parents and each other.
  • LS Grade 4: Changes in an organism’s environment are sometimes beneficial to survival and sometimes harmful.
  • LS Grade 5: Organisms perform a variety of roles in an ecosystem.
  • LS Grade 5: All of the processes that take place within an organism require energy.

NGSS Standards:

  • K-LS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
  • K-ESS3-3. Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
  • 1-LS3-1. Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.
  • LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
  • 2-ESS2-3. Obtain information to identify where water is found on Earth and that it can be solid or liquid.
  • 3-LS1-1: Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
  • 5-LS2-1: Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
  • MS-LS2-3: Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

Vocabulary: Observation, Fossil, Limestone, Shale, Erosion, Deposition, Clay, Invertebrate, Habitat, Adaptations, Life Cycles

Video Introduction: CLICK HERE for a pond video with a Greenacres educator

Video Introduction: CLICK HERE for stream video with a Greenacres educator

28 Feb 2021

All about Birds

August-June

Birds are perhaps the easiest wildlife to observe. Birds have many unique adaptations, which allows them to be found in many different habitats. We’ll use our observation skills to find birds of all shapes, sizes, and colors as we hike around Greenacres.

Ohio Science Standards:

  • LS Grade K: Living things have physical traits and behaviors, which influence their survival.
  • LS Grade 1: Living things have basic needs, which are met by obtaining materials from the physical environment. 
  • LS Grade 1: Living things survive only in environments that meet their needs.
  • LS Grade 2: Living things cause changes on Earth.
  • LS Grade 3: Offspring resemble their parents and each other.
  • LS Grade 4: Changes in an organism’s environment are sometimes beneficial to survival and sometimes harmful.
  • LS Grade 5: Organisms perform a variety of roles in an ecosystem.
  • LS Grade 5: All of the processes that take place within an organism require energy.
  • LS Grade 7: In any particular biome, the number, growth and survival of organisms and populations depend on biotic and abiotic factors.
  • LS Grade 8: The characteristics of an organism are a result of inherited traits received from parent(s).

NGSS Standards:

  • K-LS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
  • 1-LS3-1: Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents
  • 2-LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
  • 3-LS3-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms
  • 3-LS2-1. Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
  • 3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment
  • 4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
  • MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
  • MS-LS4-4. Construct an explanation based on evidence that describes how genetic variations of traits in a population increase some individuals’ probability of surviving and reproducing in a specific environment.
  • HS-LS2-8: Evaluate evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species’ chances to survive and reproduce.

Vocabulary: Observation, Habitat, Evidence, Adaptation, Trait, Behavior

Video Introduction: CLICK HERE for a bird video with a Greenacres educator

28 Feb 2021

Inquiry in Nature

August-June

Scientific inquiry is a way of doing science that includes making observations, forming hypotheses, designing studies, collecting data, and drawing conclusions. Students will design and conduct a simple investigation to learn about the inquiry process.

Ohio Science Standards:

  • SIPA Grade 3-5: Observe and ask questions about the world that can be answered through scientific investigations.
  • SWK Grade 3-5: Science is a way of knowing about the world around us based on evidence from experimentation and observations. 
  • SWK Grade 6-8: Science is a way of knowing about the world around us based on evidence from experimentation and observations.
  • SWK Grade 6-8: Science is a continual process and the body of scientific knowledge continues to grow and change.

NGSS Standards:

  • 3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
  • 5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
  • MS – LS2-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.

Vocabulary: Observation, Investigation, Comparative Question, Data, Analysis

Video Introduction: CLICK HERE for a Inquiry video with a Greenacres educator

26 Feb 2021

Maple Discovery (K- 3rd)

Jan 21-Feb 25, 2026

Maple sugaring is the tradition of making maple syrup from the sap gathered from maple trees in late winter. Many animals and people benefit by using the sap of maple trees. Plan to visit our sugar bush and our working evaporator at Greenacres as you use your senses to discover how maple sap is turned into syrup. (Jan 21-Feb 26, 2026)

Ohio Science Standards:

  • SIPA Grade K-2: Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses.
  • LS Grade K: Living things have specific characteristics and traits.
  • LS Grade K: Living things have physical traits and behaviors, which influence their survival.
  • ESS Grade 1: Weather changes are long-term and short-term.
  • ESS Grade 1: The sun is the principal source of energy.
  • ESS Grade 1: Water on Earth is present in many forms.
  • LS Grade 1: Living things have basic needs, which are met by obtaining materials from the physical environment.
  • LS Grade 1: Living things survive only in environments that meet their needs.
  • ESS Grade 2: Long and short term weather changes occur due to changes in energy.
  • LS Grade 2: Living things cause changes on earth.
  • LS Grade 3: Individuals of the same kind of organism differ in their inherited traits. These differences give some individuals an advantage in surviving and or reproducing.

NGSS Standards:

  • K-LS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
  • 1-ESS1-2. Make observations at different times of year to relate the amount of daylight to the time of year.
  • 2-LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
  • 3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment

    Vocabulary:

    spiles, sap, gallons, sugar shack, sugar bush, evaporation, tap, sapsucker

    Video Introduction: CLICK HERE for Maple video with a Greenacres educator

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