Organisms

Basic Characteristics of Living Things

Grade 1

Science and Technology for Children (STC)

Narrative Summary:

This unit provides hands-on experiences that help students develop an understanding of and sensitivity to living things. Students create and maintain a woodland habitat containing pine seedlings, moss, pill bugs, and Bess beetles or millipedes. They also set up and observe a freshwater habitat into which they introduce elodea and cabomba plants, pond snails, and guppies. With both plants and animals in each habitat, students have the opportunity to observe how these organisms coexist. Through studying the needs and characteristics of a variety of organisms, the students are able to draw conclusions about how plants and animals are similar and different. In a final lesson, students apply to humans what they have learned about organisms, exploring how human beings are similar to and different from other living things.

Glossary

Check out the 2006 "Unit Designs" -
a correlation to RI GSE's using the Understanding by Design format