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Database Provider

Maine Deptartment of Energy

Authors

MOOSE, Maine Deptartment of Energy

Grades

3rd, 4th, 5th

Subjects

Science, Social Studies, Biology, Earth and Space Sciences, History, Geography, English Language Arts, Mathematics, Climate Action

Resource Types

  • Lesson Plan
  • Presentation Slides
  • Activity - Classroom
  • Video, 3 hours, 32 minutes, 4 seconds
  • Video, 7 minutes, 35 seconds, CC, Subtitles
  • Video, 3 minutes, 6 seconds
  • Game
  • Activity - Outdoors
  • Worksheet
  • Data
  • Article
  • Video, 1 minutes, 56 seconds, CC, Subtitles
  • Video, 2 minutes, 47 seconds, CC
  • Video, 2 minutes, 2 seconds, CC
  • Video, 10 minutes, 6 seconds, CC
  • Video, 12 minutes, 16 seconds, CC
  • Video, 15 minutes, 22 seconds, CC
  • Video, 3 minutes, 37 seconds, CC, Subtitles
  • Video, 3 minutes, 41 seconds, CC
  • Video, 7 hours, 13 minutes, 34 seconds
  • Video, 6 minutes, 35 seconds, CC
  • Video, 6 minutes, 22 seconds, CC
  • Video, 4 minutes, 3 seconds, CC
  • Video, 3 minutes, 15 seconds, CC
  • Video, 5 minutes, 8 seconds, CC, Subtitles
  • Video, 2 minutes, 29 seconds, CC
  • Video, 32 minutes, 39 seconds, CC
  • Video, 7 minutes, 8 seconds, CC
  • Video, 10 minutes, 23 seconds, CC, Subtitles

Regional Focus

Global, North America, United States, USA - Northeast, Maine

Format

Google Docs, Google Slides, PDF, YouTube Video

Nature Observing for Climate Change Module

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Synopsis
  • In this multi-unit module, students will learn how to keep a nature observation journal that will be beneficial for climate science investigations.
  • This module incorporates skills such as measurement and estimation, making inferences, drawing diagrams, collecting data, and understanding the difference between facts and opinions to help students create a journal that could be useful for future climate scientists.
Teaching Tips

Positives

  • This lesson does a great job of identifying unknown words and defining them for students prior to seeing them in context.
  • This is a great lesson for students who may be anxious with the weight of being responsible for making a difference in climate change and gives students something they can do to contribute every day when they are feeling overwhelmed.

Additional Prerequisites

  • Some students, including English language learners, may need the terms observation, data, scientist, climate, botany, compact, metadata, context, and possibly other terms defined prior to starting the lesson.
  • Students should have a basic understanding of the causes of climate change and what climate change is.
  • Clicking on the video on slide 6 of the Skills You Need: Measuring slide deck will not play the video, however, the link for slide 5 on the References slide will take you to the video (the slide 6 link is a different video).
  • It may be beneficial for students to have explicitly practiced making inferences prior to doing this lesson.
  • Students should understand how to measure objects to the nearest centimeter or inch.

Differentiation

  • Most of the information presented in this lesson is done so through slides. Students have the option to read the slides or have them read to them.
  • After watching the Audubon videos, students can discuss the effect that climate change has on bird habitats and populations, then research the effects and create a public service announcement.
  • Students can discuss how one person can make a difference for the environment and brainstorm ways they can make a difference for the environment.
  • Students can discuss how to record their location, the difference between relative and absolute location, latitude and longitude, and the best method of recording the locations in their journals.
  • Language arts classes could practice letter formatting with the letter to a climate scientist activity, giving students an authentic purpose for their writing.
  • History classes can discuss the lasting impacts that figures in history mentioned in the lesson have had and can discuss why their contributions are still relevant today.
Scientist Notes
This module discusses how to take scientific observations, why observations are helpful, and how to create an observation journal. The module steps students through some notable nature observers, the different things they recorded, and why having observations over a long period of time is important. Students are also walked through different skills they need to make their own journals. This lesson is a great introduction to what types of data are useful for scientists, how scientists record their observations, and how much data is collected for climate observations. The lesson also helps students to start thinking, observing, and describing their surroundings in a scientific way. The information presented is accurate and this resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
  • Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
    • ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
      • 4-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and that their uses affect the environment.
  • College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
    • Dimension 2: Geography
      • D2.Geo.3.3-5 Use maps of different scales to describe the locations of cultural and environmental characteristics.
    • Dimension 2: History
      • D2.His.3.3-5 Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped significant historical changes and continuities.
  • Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
    • Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.7 Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.7 Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.10 By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.7 Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
    • Writing (K-12)
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.4 With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
      • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
  • Common Core Math Standards (CCSS.MATH)
    • Measurement & Data (K-5)
      • CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.B.4 Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in appropriate units— whole numbers, halves, or quarters.
      • CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.MD.A.1 Know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz.; l, ml; hr, min, sec. Within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Record measurement equivalents in a two-column table. For example, know that 1 ft is 12 times as long as 1 in. Express the length of a 4 ft snake as 48 in. Generate a conversion table for feet and inches listing the number pairs (1, 12), (2, 24), (3, 36), ...
      • CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.MD.A.1 Convert among different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system (e.g., convert 5 cm to 0.05 m), and use these conversions in solving multi-step, real world problems.
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