- Grade Level: ,
- Themes: ,
- Activity Type: ,
- Setting: ,
- Part of the Watershed Neighbors Watershed Experience
- Print Activity
Table of Contents
Question(s)
What questions do I need to ask, answer, and explore in order to understand a species and its role in my watershed?
Overview
Students take on the role of a scientist as they research a species of interest to them that they discovered during We’re Going on a Species Hunt or listed in What Lives Here. Research questions challenge students to think about why species live here, what resources they need to survive, and their connections to human communities. The investigation helps students better understand and appreciate species that live within their watershed, especially those that rely on the same resources that we do.
Allowing students to choose the species they will study gives them ownership of their research and helps them feel more invested in the project. It is important that teachers carefully guide students’ investigations. By carefully creating student teams, you can tailor this investigation to meet the needs of students of different skill and ability levels. The way the investigation and research questions are written, students can go in-depth with their research, or provide simple answers. Encourage students to do what they will be successful with, but also to push their comfort zone as they dig into their scientific research!
Standards (MLR)
Science & Technology
E. The Living Environment
E1. Biodiversity
3-5 Students compare living things based on their behaviors, external features, and environmental needs.
6-8 Students differentiate among organisms based on biological characteristics and identify patterns of similarity.
E2. Ecosystems
3-5 Students describe ways organisms depend upon, interact within, and change the living and non-living environment as well as ways the environment affects organisms.
6-8 Students examine how the characteristics of the physical, non-living (abiotic) environment, the types and behaviors of living (biotic) organisms, and the flow of matter and energy affect organisms and the ecosystem of which they are part.
English Language Arts
C1. Research
3-5 Students create, identify, and answer research questions by gathering information from print and non-print sources and documenting sources and communicating findings.
6-8 Students propose and revise research questions, collect information from a wide variety of primary and/or secondary sources, and follow the conventions of documentation to communicate findings.
Learning Objectives
- Students will be able to do research independently (in teams or individually)
- Students will be able to use their own experiences, observations, skills, and knowledge to answer questions
- Students will be able to use resources (online or in-library) to answer questions
Materials
- Computer access
- Internet access
- Library access
- Reference materials such as species identification guides
- Hand lens
- Cameras
- Notepaper and pencil
Time Needed
2-3 40-minute class periods
Activity Procedure
1. Revisit the list of species that students compiled from preceding activities:
2. Have students (in small teams) choose a species that interests them. Students are going to take on the role of a scientist as they use their knowledge, observations, and resources (online and in library) to investigate their species.
Note: Emphasize that students will apply the same skills they learned and tools they used during their LabVenture! program (and reinforced during My Scientific Study), or that they were introduced to during Species Sleuths.
3. Allow students the time needed (2-3 class periods) and resources to complete the worksheet below about their species. You may need to schedule time for students to go to the:
- Computer Lab
- Library
- Outside (to their species Natural Habitat)
Note: Depending upon students’ species choice, some of these questions may not be straightforward and may require students to think outside of the box. On the student worksheet, each research question is followed by guiding questions to get students thinking about different tools, methods, and approaches to answering their question. Students are not required to answer every guiding question, but to use these as a tool to help them answer the (numbered) research questions.
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Student Worksheet
Get to know your Species: Questions to get you started!
Download worksheet
Before you tackle your scientific research, form a hypothesis for each of the research questions based on your observations and prior knowledge. Below each research question are some other questions that will help to guide your thinking and research. Use these questions and your hypothesis as tools to guide your research, but your goal is to answer the 6 research questions.
Research Question #1. What does your species eat? What eats it?
Hypothesis:
Conclusion:
Guiding Questions:
- Where/what does it get its nutrients from?
- How does it eat?
- What nutrient resources are available in its habitat?
- Can you observe it eating? Can you search its habitat for evidence of food?
- What do you think eats it?
Research Question #2. Where does your species live? Describe its habitat.
Hypothesis:
Conclusion:
Guiding Questions:
- Can you observe it in its natural habitat?
- Why does it live there?
- What resources does this habitat provide it for survival?
- Does it live in the same habitat year-round?
Research Question #3. How does your species grow and change throughout its life?
Hypothesis:
Conclusion:
Guiding Questions:
- What does it look like when it’s young? As a juvenile (teenager)? As an adult?
- Can you find/see it in its natural habitat at different ages?
- Does it look the same year round?
- Does it change its looks? How?
- How does it reproduce?
Research Question #4. How is your species adapted to life in Maine?
Hypothesis:
Conclusion:
Guiding Questions:
- Does it stay in Maine for every season?
- Does its habitat change?
- Can you find it in the spring/summer/fall/winter?
- What features does it have to help it survive in Maine (or a similar environment) and not elsewhere?
- What resources does the Maine environment provide it for survival?
Research Question #5. Why is your species of interest to scientists? What questions are scientists asking about it?
Hypothesis:
Conclusion:
Guiding Questions:
- How did you learn about this species?
- Where did that information come from?
- How was that information collected?
- Is there anything that you/scientists don’t know?
- Is there anything that scientists need/want to know?
Research Question #6. How is your species connected to humans?
Hypothesis:
Conclusion:
Guiding Questions:
- What resources does it need to survive?
- What resources do you need to survive?
- Are any of these resources the same?
- Do humans use this species for anything/any purposes?
- Are you connected to this species in any other way?
- Does this species rely on humans for anything?
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Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas
Have students journal about “What was it like to be a scientist?”
- Were some questions easy to answer? Which ones?
- Were some questions hard to answer? Which ones?
- What scientific tools did you use? Which did you like best?
- Did you end up with unanswered questions? How did that make you feel?
- Did you end up with any new questions? How will you try to find the answers?
Extension Ideas
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Resources
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References
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One Comment
Using the “I Live Here Too” activity along with this activity helps kids cement the process of research and makes it more meaningful. This activity has great guiding questions to make students THINK (OMG…did I use that word!?). It also makes them think about the process of thinking.