Science Learning PacketGrade 5, Week 1:

Ecosystem Restoration Suggested science learning activities for SPS students during the COVID-19 school closure.

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Due to the COVID-19 closure, teachers were asked to provide packets of home activities. This is not intended to take the place of regular classroom instruction but will help supplement student learning and provide opportunities for student learning while they are absent from school. Assignments are not required or graded. Because of the unprecedented nature of this health crisis and the District’s swift closure, some home activities may not be accessible.

If you have difficulty accessing the material or have any questions, please contact your student’s teacher.

Elementary Science Learning ActivityMaterials to accompany Lessons 1-2

Grade 5

Ecosystem Restoration: Matter and Energy in a Rain Forest

Investigation Packet

Hello Families,

We have been thinking of you and hope you and your family are well and safe during this time. Being at home is different than HAVING to be at home and we wanted to offer you instructional opportunities. If we were at school, we’d be in a 5th grade classroom beginning a study on ecosystems but since we’re all at home, you are welcome to invite family members to join you in these series of lessons. We all know learning is more fun when we share our ideas and learn from one another.

Amplify Science is the science program we have been using in some of our classroom this year. It is our officially adopted instructional material for science.

A collaboration between the science education experts at University of California Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science and the instructional technology experts at Amplify, Amplify Science was built to empower students to investigate, talk, read, write, think, and argue like real scientists and engineers through investigations of real-world problems and scientific phenomena.

While Amplify Science lessons are designed to be done in the classroom with peers, there are some activities that students can complete at home with your support. To make it as easy as possible to do these activities at home, I am providing you with the following resources:

● Lesson Overview. The activities I am sending are all part of larger lessons. The full lesson would bevery difficult to do at home, but I have provided the lesson overview so that you have some context forthe purpose of the individual activity.

● Packet for the specific activity in the lesson. This will provide step-by-step instructions if you wishto guide your students through the activity. Please note, however, that the instructions will only beincluded for the specific activity I have assigned. Not the whole lesson. Use the space provided to drawand/or write your ideas, you can also include what other family members contribute.

● Videos to use with the packet. The Seattle Public Schools’ Science Department created this packetto be used with or without the video. We created a series of videos you can access either online orthrough Seattle’s Public television programming on SPS TV (local channel 26), social media (Facebookand Instagram: @SeattlePublicSchools, Twitter: @SeaPubSchools), and our SPSTV YouTube channel.KOMONews.com will also host on-demand videos under the tab “Lesson Plan” and broadcast onchannel KOMO 4.3. These supplemental learning videos feature short segments supporting a variety ofsubjects and grade levels. All videos will be close captioned on YouTube.

Should you have the option to use the internet, these are the device requirements.

However, you can complete these lessons WITHOUT electronic devices!

● Desktops and Laptops (Windows 7+, Mac OS 10.11+) - Suggested browsers: Chrome & Safari ● Chromebooks - Suggested browser: Chrome ● iPads that support iOS11.3+ (iPad5+) - Suggested browser: Safari

Sincerely,

Ms. Benita and Seattle Public Schools Science Department

This packet has content materials for the first two lessons in Chapter 1 of Ecosystem Restoration

Chapter 1 Lesson Pages in the Packet 1.1 4-81.2 9-14

English/Spanish Glossary 18-19

If you do have a computer and internet access, here is how to obtain access to the available Amplify online resources

● For the simulation, navigate tohttps://apps.learning.amplify.com/ecosystemrestoration/#/

● For the book, navigate tohttps://learning.amplify.com/books/9781943228515/#page=1

● Select “Log In with Amplify” button● Enter teacher-provided username

and password (see below)

Username: s.seattle1@tryamplify.net

Password: SeattleSci2020

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Lesson 1.1 Introduction: Let us begin with what we know:

Use the space to write about what you already know. You can also write questions you might have about ecosystems.

What do you know about ecosystems?

This is not a test! If you are stuck on the question, then look outside and write down the things you see in the ecosystem that is what you are looking at when you look outside! And the longer you look, the more you’ll see.

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We can think of ecosystems as places where animals and plants live together in their environment. There are many different kinds of ecosystems, and different types of living things live in different ecosystems. Let’s think about a few examples.

Rain forest in Border Ranges National Park in Australia

What living things do you think we would find in a rain forest ecosystem? What might those living things need to grow?

Desert in Signal Peak, Arizona, United States

What living things do you think we would find in a desert ecosystem? What might those living things need to grow?

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In these lessons, we will gather evidence to answer this question. It’s okay if you don’t understand all the words in this question yet—you will learn about them in this unit. The question means that we will be investigating how living things in an ecosystem grow and what they need to be healthy.

Families, there is no need for your child to fully understand these ideas yet. These lessons build on each other and help your child “grow” their learning and understanding.

This unit of study includes a Simulation. A simulation is a computer program. Ecologists and other scientists often make and use simulations to study things they cannot measure directly. Simulations also allow scientists to speed up time to study outcomes, or events that happened in the past, like when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Scientists also use simulations to study our solar system and the galaxy because we cannot study these in a lab nor go out to such places like distance planets or black holes.

If you have access to a computer and the internet, then do visit the sim and think about how this sim like an ecosystem. Use this space below for your observations and questions.

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Thank you for spending time with me and thinking about ecosystems. We have covered a lot! We first thought about these two different ecosystems. You can also look out your window and ask the very same question about the ecosystem where you live. What living things do you think we would find in your ecosystem? What might those living things need to grow? We also learned about how ecologists study ecosystems and in our next lesson, we’ll take on the role of an ecologist and look at a problem happening in a Costa Rican rainforest.

Here is some space for you to write about your ecosystem.

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Lesson 1.2: Today, we will learn about a problem with the ecosystem in Costa Rica.

We can see from this map that Costa Rica is a country in Central America. Is your family from Central America? Do you know someone from Costa Rica?

These are some of the living things found in the Costa Rican rain forest.

We will take on the role of ecologists working for Natural Resources Rescue, a group that works to protect and save fragile ecosystems around the world. Let’s take a closer look at the area we are studying.

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The first photo shows the study area 10 years ago. It used to be a healthy rain forest. Then, cattle ranchers burned down the rain forest so they could use the land as grazing area for their cows. Have you heard of this happening before? What are positive and negative consequences to these actions?

The second photo shows the same area today. A few years ago, the cattle ranchers left and took the cows with them. They planted trees so the area would become a rain forest again. The plan was to reforest this area so it could become part of the ecosystem again.

Our group, the Natural Resources Rescue, worked with volunteers to replant the area. They brought in young cecropia trees and other important rain forest plants and planted them. However, the area was not recovering like we had expected it to; we looked at a nearby area to compare. Here is what we found:

Organism count in our study area 100 sq km (38.6 sq miles)

Organism count in nearby healthy area 100 sq km (38.6 sq miles)

Jaguars 1 4 Three-toed sloths 16 28 Cecropia trees 188 596

What do you notice about the information in the above table?

We learned more:

Average weight of adult animals in our study area

Average weight of adult animals in nearby healthy area

Jaguars 168 kg (370.4 lbs) 205 kg (452 lbs) Three-toed sloths 4.42 kg (9.75 lbs) 4.76 kg (10.5 lbs)

What does this information tell you about our study area and the nearby, healthier one?

Why aren’t the jaguars and sloths growing and thriving? What do they need from their ecosystem? Why are they not getting what they need? Our task will be to find out what is happening in this reforested area.

Before we do that, we need practice doing what ecologists do by observing and discussing scientific drawings of ecosystems. Observe and discuss the illustrations with an available family member. Then record your own ideas by adding labels, writing notes, or both. You can do this on your own as well.

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Pond Ecosystem

Observations:

© 2018 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Permission granted to photocopy for classroom use.

12

Desert Ecosystem

Observations:

© 2018 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Permission granted to photocopy for classroom use.

13

Rain Forest Ecosystem

Observations:

© 2018 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Permission granted to photocopy for classroom use.

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Ecosystem Restoration Glossary

argument: the use of evidence to say why one idea is the best argumento: el uso de evidencia para decir por qué una idea es la mejor

claim: a proposed answer to a question afirmación: una respuesta propuesta para una pregunta

data: observations or measurements recorded in an investigation datos: observaciones o mediciones apuntadas en una investigación

decomposer: an organism that breaks down droppings or dead organisms descomponedor: un organismo que desintegra las heces o los organismos muertos

ecologist: a scientist who studies ecosystems

ecologista: un/a científico/a que estudia los ecosistemas

ecosystem: a community of organisms together with its environment ecosistema: una comunidad de organismos junto con su ambiente

energy: the ability to make things move or change energía: la capacidad de hacer que las cosas se muevan o cambien

environment: all the living and nonliving things in an area

ambiente: todo (viviente y no viviente) lo que hay en un área

evidence: information that supports an answer to a question evidencia: información que respalda una respuesta a una pregunta

food web: a diagram that shows what eats what in an ecosystem red alimentaria: un diagrama que muestra qué come qué en un ecosistema

matter: the stuff that things are made of materia: lo que constituye las cosas

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Ecosystem Restoration Glossary (continued)

model: something scientists make to answer questions about the real world modelo: algo que los científicos crean para responder preguntas sobre el mundo real

molecule: a group of atoms joined together in a particular way molécula: un grupo de átomos unidos de una manera particular

nutrient: something taken in by plants and animals that helps them grow nutriente: algo que toman dentro las plantas y los animales y que los ayuda a crecer

observe: to use any of the five senses to gather information about something observar: usar cualquiera de los cinco sentidos para recolectar información acerca de algo

organism: a living thing, such as a plant or an animal organismo: un ser viviente, por ejemplo, una planta o un animal

restoration: the process of returning something to its original condition by fixing or repairing it restauración: el proceso de regresar algo a su estado original al arreglarlo o repararlo

soil: a mixture of rocks, water, air, parts of dead organisms, and tiny living organisms suelo: una mezcla de rocas, agua, aire, partes de organismos muertos y organismos vivientes diminutos

synthesize: to put together multiple pieces of information in order to understand something sintetizar: juntar varias piezas de información con el fin de entender algo