Grade: Multi Grade

28 Feb 2021

Nature Exploration

August – June

This program engages students in a hands-on exploration of Ohio’s natural areas.  We’ll focus on building observation skills and applying them to learning about our environment.  This is an ideal program for a first time visit to Greenacres or for students to become more comfortable in nature.

Ohio Science Standards:

  • SWK Grade K-2: The world is discovered through exploration.
  • SWK Grade K-2: Exploration leads to observation. Observation leads to questions.
  • SWK Grade K-2: Natural events happen today as they happened in the past.
  • SWK Grade K-2: Events happen in regular patterns and cycles in the natural world.
  • K.PS.1: Objects and materials can be sorted and described by their properties.
  • K.PS.2: Some objects and materials can be made to vibrate and produce sound.
  • 3.LS.2: Individuals of the same kind of organism differ in their inherited traits. These differences give some individuals an advantage in surviving and/or reproducing.
  • 4.LS.1: Changes in an organism’s environment are sometimes beneficial to its survival and sometimes harmful.
  • 5.LS.1 Organisms perform a variety of roles in an ecosystem.
  • SWK Grade 3-5: Science is a way of knowing about the world around us based on evidence from experimentation and observations.
  • SWK Grade 3-5: Science assumes that objects and events occur in consistent patterns that are understandable through measurement and observation.
  • SIPA Grade 6-8: Apply knowledge of science content to real-world challenges.

NGSS Standards:

  • K-2-ETS1-1. Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
  • 3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment
  • 5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

Ohio Social Studies Standards:

  •  SS Grade 5: Geography- Political, environmental, social and economic factors cause people, products and ideas to move from place to place in the Western Hemisphere and results in diversity.

    Vocabulary:

    observation, senses, living, nonliving, adaptations

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

    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

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