Earth and space. The student knows that earth materials and products made from these materials are important to everyday life.
Knowledge and Skills Statement
Demonstrated Proficiency
Read a story to students that includes situations where an animal (including humans) or a plant is using rocks, soil, and water. Ask students to stand up each time they hear an instance of use of rocks, soil, or water in the story. Pause and ask students to identify the use that they heard in the story. Provide students with a selection of books, pictures, or videos that include examples of organisms using rocks, soil, and water. Have students develop a three-layer interactive foldable. Each foldable layer focuses on a single organism—a plant, animal, or human. On each layer, students should describe, using pictures and words, how each organism uses rocks, soil, and water. Some examples students might generate include worms using soil to burrow, deer drinking water from a stream, or humans using rocks to make a fire ring.
Further Explanation
Uses for rocks: Some animals use rocks as tools, like otters breaking open shells and anemones to get to the food inside. Humans use rocks to build structures. Plants use rocks as anchors, penetrating the rocks with their roots to hold them in place.
Uses for soil: Animals use soil to hide their food (for example, squirrels burying nuts), or as burrows (rabbits and foxes), or to find or trap their food (ant lions, earthworms, moles). Humans use soil to make bricks or to garden. Plants use soil to anchor themselves and get nutrients.
Uses for water: Water is required by plants and animals for survival. Humans also use water to travel or to generate power.
Supporting Information
Research
Dickerson, Peg, and Maryellen Gamberg. “Living off the Land.” Science and Children 47, no. 6 (2010): 36–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43175250.
Summary: Students can benefit greatly from hands-on learning at the elementary level. Students explored an area near their school once inhabited by a Native American tribe living off the land. Native Americans used the earth's resources for survival. Students walked the trails, made observations, and asked questions. They could observe many other scientific concepts like decomposition, the water cycle, and plant relationships. Students could imagine how indigenous people lived off of the land, using plants and trees to make shelter and weapons and connect that to how we use natural resources today. Aside from basic survival, students learned how Native Americans in this area could thrive economically using natural resources by farming and fishing.