Science 6/7 Grade Six Grade Seven Life Science Diversity of Living Things Recognize, describe and appreciate diversity Explore related careers Examine ways human organize living things Analyze characteristics and behaviours of vertebrates Analyze characteristics and behaviours of invertebrates Examine and describe structures and behaviours for short term survival Examine and describe structures and behaviours for long term adaptation Assess effects of micro-organisms to society Assess contributions of science and technology to understanding of micro-organisms Interactions within Ecosystems Relate key aspects of indigenous knowledge to understanding of ecosystems Observe, analyze and illustrate organisms within ecosystems (food webs, populations, communities) Evaluate biogeochemical cycles as representations of energy flow and cycling of matter through ecosystems Analyze ways ecosystems change in response to natural and human influences Propose actions to reduce impact of human behaviours on ecosystems Commonalities Vocabulary – ecosystem, behaviours, characteristics, relationships, society, impact, adapt, vertebrate, invertebrate Big Question – How can diverse things be connected? Why is diversity essential to life on Earth? Essential Questions – How do humans make sense of the world around them? How is this different for different groups? How can there be more than one way to organize our thinking in science? How are organisms related? How does the behavior of one thing affect other things around it? How do organisms adapt to various conditions? How does human behavior impact the world? Concepts – structures, behaviours, cycles, technology Scientific Processes and Learning (Domain Literacy) – Safety in exploring ideas, explanations, evidence and models in science, cultural perspectives in science, decision-making, technology in science, problem-solving, inquiry, attitudes, skills and processes Fundamental ideas – constancy and change; matter and energy; similarity and diversity; systems and interactions; sustainability and stewardship Learning Experience Ideas Inquiry-based. Explore essential questions with grade sevens looking at system connections and grade six looking at organisms Give both groups a set of images – vertebrates and invertebrates – sixes classify and explore, sevens connect through food webs and explore ecosystems Graphic organizers to connect organisms/ ecosystems to humans Whole class sharing of findings when cross-overs occur. Display areas for inquiry findings – sort according to essential questions Digital integration where appropriate Shared vocabulary word wall – add grade specific vocabulary Consistently bring thinking back to domain literacy – scientific processes, data collection and classification, safety etc. Learning Plan Day One – Hooking the learners Grade sixes and sevens will work together on the first day. Students will be paired and given a pile of images of vertebrates, invertebrates and plants. Their task is to sort their images any way that makes sense to them (on the wall, using sticky tack – kinesthetic). They have to be prepared to explain their sorting rules. Reminder to students for pair work: Listen to each other’s ideas before making a decision together As students explain sorting rules, begin to record highlights of their thinking Ex. These all have fur, these are all plants. As grade sixes learn about classification, we will refer to these rules and determine how aligned we were with scientific ideas and ideas from other groups like FNMI. Ask students to re-sort their images in a different way; if they have a category with many examples in it, can they re-sort further, with more specific sorting rules? Record new thinking – This is what biologists (botanists and zoologists do) Put up the following essential questions: How are organisms related? How are they different? Which matters more when classifying? Why do people spend their lives thinking about relationships between organisms? How can there be more than one way to organize out thinking in science (isn’t there just one right way?)? These are the questions we will be exploring in the next couple of days. By the end of the unit, we will all be able to answer these Big Questions: How can diverse things be connected? Why is diversity essential to life on Earth? Look back at the sorting work. How were the decisions we made for sorting affected by similarities? How were they affected by differences? When we sort (classify), how did we make our decisions? Work as a pair to discuss these questions. Record your thinking on a piece of paper. Join with another group and share your thoughts. Discuss as a whole group. Then ask: Is there a right and wrong way to classify? Why does this matter? (We will record our ideas and save it for later). Begin to formulate a list of places where we could go for answers to our questions. Outcomes/ indicators - Grade 6 (DL6.1 f, DL 6.2 a, b, c, DL 6.3 d) Grade 7 (IE7.2 I, k, EI 7.3 c, e)