Description

In order to provide young students with indepth opportunities to experience the biodiversity on Earth, they will become naturalists and study insects and plants in and out of their classroom. The anchor phenomenon for this module is the natural history of common insects and their interactions with plants. The driving question for this module is what is the natural history of some plants and animals in different habitats?

Students build on their understanding of growth and development of plants and animals from grades K–1 by observing new organisms over time. Students see the life cycles of insects unfold in real time and compare the structures and functions exhibited by each species to reveal patterns. At the same time, students grow a flowering plant in the classroom. They gain experience with the ways that plants and insects interact in feeding relationships, pollination, and seed dispersal.

Throughout the Insects and Plants Module, students engage in science and engineering practices to collect and interpret data to answer science questions, develop natural history models to communicate interactions and processes, and define problems in order to develop solutions. Students gain experiences that will contribute to understanding of crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; structure and function; and stability and change.