Anticipatory Set Directions: Fill in the chart with the examples for each of the basic life functions for both humans and plants. Try to do your best and do not peek ahead.
1. oxygen is released 2. get new school clothes because youve grown your old ones 3. covering your ears during a fire drill 4. flowers bloom 5. eat lunch so you can pay attention in your afternoon classes 6. take bathroom breaks 7. photosynthesis using sunlight to make food 8. have babies 9. seeds 10. roots grow towards a source of water 5 basic life Functions Humans Plants Grow and develop Use energy by eating or making food Reproduce Respond to the environment Get rid of wastes The Five Basic Life Functions In order to survive, animals need air, water, food, and shelter (protection from predators and the environment); plants need air, water, nutrients, and light. Every organism has its own way of making sure its basic needs are met. It is important that young children be given the opportunity to recognize these needs by observing and then describing the natural world.
What Do Animals Eat? No matter what the activity, everything an animal does requires energy. Giraffes need energy to run; monkeys need energy to climb; children need energy to play. But where does all of this energy come from? All animals acquire energy from the food they eat. Depending on the type of animal, this food may consist of plants, animals, or a combination of both. Animals that eat only plants are called herbivores. Most herbivores, including the giraffe, macaw, ground squirrel, and elephant in this video segment, eat a wide variety of plants and plant parts. Some herbivores, however, are very particular about the plant matter they eat. Wild pandas have evolved to eat nothing but bamboo plants -- a food that is plentiful where they live but not particularly nutritious for bears. Because of their inefficiency digesting plant material pandas need to eat a lot. Adult pandas spend 10 to 12 hours each day eating and consume about 40 pounds of food during that time. Animals that eat only other animals are called carnivores. Polar bears, sharks, woodpeckers, and anteaters are all carnivores. Like herbivores, however, carnivores may generalize and eat a wide variety of animals, or specialize and eat only one type. Bald eagles, for example, are not very particular about the type of meat they eat. They eat road-killed animals or the occasional rabbit plucked from a field, fish they've caught fresh or rotting fish on the bank of a river. They are even known to scavenge for food in city dumps. In contrast, anteaters are highly specialized creatures. These animals eat little else besides ants and termites, and their sticky tongue and powerful front legs (for tearing into insect mounds) are perfectly adapted for doing just that. Omnivores are the least choosy about what they eat. These animals, which include raccoons, opossums, and black and grizzly bears, eat both plants and animals, and often eat a wide variety of each. A typical grizzly bear, for example, will eat just about anything it can catch and get its mouth around. Grizzlies are known to kill their own food, including deer, but will also scavenge the carcasses of dead animals. They also eat fish, crustaceans, amphibians, small mammals, insects, berries, tree buds, and grass.
Answer Discussion Questions (TR Guide) Beaver The beaver is the largest rodent in North America. One of the most notable traits of this species, however, is not its size but its ability to transform its environment to suit itself. Most animals have at least some effect on the environment around them. Spiders weave webs to catch passing insects. Woodpeckers chip cavities in the trunks of trees to build their nests. But few animals (except for humans) have as much of an impact on their environment as the beaver does. In fact, a single family of beavers can in a matter of weeks turn a small, rushing stream into acres of deep, still, interconnected ponds, creating a wetland that would otherwise not exist. Besides humans, beavers are the only species on earth that know how to construct dams. Scientists often refer to beavers as the engineers of the animal world. But unlike humans, who must be taught how to design and build dams, beavers know instinctively how to interweave sticks to create a strong and durable structure and how to seal a dam with mud to make it impermeable to water. They are born knowing how, just as birds know how to sing songs or build nests without ever having done so. A beaver's work is critical to the survival of its family. The deep ponds that beaver dams create offer refuge from predators and from the freezing temperatures of winter. As long as a beaver dam is tall enough and the resulting pond deep enough, a family of beavers will have underwater access to food throughout the winter. Perhaps more importantly, beaver dams and ponds provide habitat that wouldn't otherwise exist for many other species. Ducks, geese, herons, turtles, and frogs are just a few of the species that benefit from the deep and wide waterways that beavers create. Unfortunately, this is where the dam-building accomplishments of beavers and humans diverge. While small ponds constructed by humans can be just as beneficial as a beaver pond, huge dams, including the Hoover Dam pictured in the video, serve more often to flood vital habitat than to create it. Dams as large as this create incredibly deep reservoirs that lack the diversity and richness of the ecosystems created by beavers.
Watch the video: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ tdc02.sci.life.colt.beaver/beavers/
Answer Discussion Questions (TR Guide) Photosynthesis It's not surprising that early scientists hypothesized that plants ate dirt. They didn't know, as we now do, how energy-rich sunlight is. Still, it seems remarkable that plants have evolved photosynthesis--the ability to harness the sun's energy to produce their own food. Photosynthesis is the process by which plants transform water and carbon dioxide (a gas that's plentiful in the air) into carbohydrates (sugars and starches), using the energy of sunlight. While sunlight provides the energy needed to drive this reaction, a chemical in the leaves of plants makes the reaction possible. That chemical is a green pigment called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is found inside the photosynthetic cells of plants, attached to the membranes of small, round structures called chloroplasts. Chlorophyll absorbs light in the red and blue-violet portions of the visible spectrum, and reflects the green portion of the spectrum; this is what gives chlorophyll its characteristic green color. As remarkable as photosynthesis is, the process is not very efficient. Studies show that prairie grasses in the western United States are some of the most efficient plants at harnessing the sun's energy, but even they capture little more than about 3 percent of the energy that reaches the prairie surface. The rest of that energy is reflected away, absorbed by humidity in the air or by the ground, or simply lost in myriad other ways before the plants can use it. One of the most critical factors influencing the efficiency of photosynthesis is the amount (intensity and duration) of light that hits a leaf. Generally, the more light that strikes a leaf, the greater the rate of photosynthesis in that leaf. For example, a leaf that is exposed to direct sunlight will photosynthesize at the highest rate, while a leaf directly beneath it and in its shadow will photosynthesize at a much lower rate. Because of this, many plants have evolved leaf and branch structures that minimize overlap and shading, and thus maximize the plant's overall rate of photosynthesis.
Watch video: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ tdc02.sci.life.stru.photosynth/photosynthesis/ Going Deeper: Photosynthesis Photosynthesis is the process by which plants and a few types of single-celled organisms use energy from the sun to transform carbon dioxide and water into a storable form of energy: glucose. One of the most important and impressive aspects of this relatively simple process is that it is responsible for feedingeither directly or indirectlynearly all life forms on Earth. Plants, of course, use some of their own stored energy to support their life processes. First and foremost, the energy from photosynthesis is used by plants for growth and reproduction. Animals, however, evolved long ago to take advantage of the energy that plants store in their tissues. The majority of animals, including humans, rely on the carbohydrates found in plant roots, stems, leaves, and fruits as their primary source of energy. Even animals that eat only meat benefit from plants indirectly. Animals also store energy in their tissues. Thus, the energy a plant-eater acquires when it consumes a plant can be transferred to an animal when it consumes the plant-eater. The starting point for this transfer of energy is photosynthesis, and the most critical factor in photosynthesis is light. Plants can't produce glucose and other carbohydrates without light, nor can most plants live for more than a few days without at least some light. Of course most plants do survive and flourish even though they undergo several hours of darkness every 24 hours. To get through the night, most plants reverse the photosynthetic process for a time and, like air-breathing animals, respire, or burn carbohydrates and oxygen while producing carbon dioxide and water. Even during the day most plants photosynthesize and respire simultaneously, although at these times the rate of photosynthesis is much higher than the rate of respiration. The carbon dioxide produced during respiration is immediately used in photosynthesis and excess oxygen is released into the environment.
* Complete the Anticipatory Set. Have them think about the five basic life functions and what they could mean. Allow the student to complete independently. They will return to correct it at the end of the lesson.
* Have the student read the text and then watch the video. Answer discussion questions.
* Discussion Questions: Have the student answer verbally and prompt or scaffold to guide the student in the right direction.
__________________________ What Do Animals Eat? What are some similarities and differences in how these animals eat? What did you find particularly interesting about how these animals eat? Which animal eats most like the way you eat?
Beaver In what ways is the beaver adapted to its environment? Beaver dams change the landscape by blocking the flow of water and creating large pools behind them. How might this help other plants and animals? How might it harm other plants and animals?
Photosynthesis Do you think that the factory is a good analogy for the process of photosynthesis in plants? Why did von Helmont think that plants got their nourishment from soil? Why did he eliminate soil as a source of nourishment and focus on water? What did he measure to find out if the willow plant got its nourishment from soil? What do you think von Helmont concluded when he measured the change in weight of the plant and the soil? _________________________
Have students bring their anticipatory worksheet to school on Wednesday to complete part II of this lesson. As well as a set of crayons or colored pencils.