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Knowledge and Skills Statement

Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms undergo similar life processes and have structures that function to help them survive within their environments.

In grade 2, students looked at how plant structures helped them meet their basic needs. In grade 4, students study plant structures in context of their environment.  This is parallel to the grade 3 standard (3.13.A) about animals. In grade 5, students will analyze structures and functions to compare how organisms survive in the same environment. 
 

the circumstances, objects, or conditions that surround an organism including abiotic (climate and soil) and biotic (living organisms) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival

the reason for which an object or a process occurs in a system

something arranged in a definite pattern of organization; the arrangement of particles or parts in a substance or body; the aggregate of elements of an entity in their relationships to each other

Research

Ashbrook, Peggy. “The Early Years: Discovering Through Deconstruction.” Science and Children 53, no. 9 (Summer 2016): 22–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24721771. 

Summary: Deconstructing objects can help young students to understand how they work and the functions of their parts. In this article, students can start exploring plants in their area and examine their different parts and how they use them. Teachers can connect to how the human body uses its parts to function, similar to plant parts (humans using arms to climb a ladder). As students use their senses to explore and describe the plants, teachers should ask students what they think each part might do. Students can draw and explain their findings.