What should our community know about the species that share our watershed with us?
Overview
Students create species cards to share what they learned about the species they investigated during their All My Watershed Neighbors Watershed Experience. Cards include key identification characteristics, food chain diagrams, critical adaptations, and interactions with other species, including humans. The resulting book of species cards can be used to help raise awareness of the watershed community’s non-human neighbors, and how they can best coexist and support one another’s space and resource needs (see Species Summit for how to share cards with the community).
Standards (MLR)
Science & Technology Standards
Grades 3-5
E1. Biodiversity. Students compare living things based on their behaviors, external features, and environmental needs.
E1b. Describe the changes in external features and behaviors of an organism during its life cycle
E2. Ecosystems. Students describe ways organisms depend upon, interact within, and change the living and non-living environment as well as ways the environment affects organisms.
E2a. Explain how changes in an organism’s habitat can influence its survival.
E2c. Describe some of the ways in which organisms depend on one another.
E2d. Explain how the food of most animals can be traced back to plants and how animals use food for energy and repair.
E2e. Explain how organisms can affect the environment in different ways.
Grades 6-8
E1. Biodiversity. Students differentiate among organisms based on biological characteristics and identify patterns of similarity.
E2 Ecosystems. Students examine how the characteristics of the physical, non-living environment, the types and behaviors of living organisms, and the flow of matter and energy affect organisms and the ecosystem of which they are part.
E2a. List various kinds of resources within different biomes for which organisms compete.
E2b. Describe ways in which two types of organisms may interact including competition and predator/prey.
Learning Objectives
Students understand and can communicate how to use unique characteristics to identify a species
Students understand and can communicate what resources a species needs from its habitat in order to survive
Students understand and can communicate predator-prey and food chain/web dynamics
Students understand and can communicate how a species grows and changes throughout its life
Students understand and can communicate how a species is adapted to find resources, grow, defend itself, and reproduce in its environment
Students understand and can communicate how scientists use various tools, processes, and habits of mind to study a species
Students understand and can communicate how a species interacts with, influences, and is influenced by human communities
Materials
Species Card Instructions Template
Paper
Scissors
Markers
Species information and data collected during the investigation
Camera (as needed to take photographs of habitat and species)
Sketching materials (as needed for creating diagrams of life stages, adaptations)
Additional materials if you’re using a digital format for Species Cards
Computer
Scanner
Time Needed
1 40-minute class period to gather and organize results
1-2 40-minute class period to create species cards
Activity Procedure
Students create their own Species Cards using paper or using computers.
1. Download the Species Card Instructions Template. This template provides visual and written instructions for how students can organize the information that they collected during their investigation. This is what the template looks like:
Note: This template is only a guide. You can use the same layout of information, or modify it to meet individual or classroom needs and interests.
Click image to open a PDF
2. Have students collect and review all of the data and information they gathered about their species during the Investigation Phase of this Watershed Experience. They should have answers to the following research questions ready to go:
What does it eat? What eats it?
Where does it live?
How does it grow and change throughout its life
How is it adapted to life in Maine?
Why is it of interest to scientists? What questions are scientists asking about it?
How is it connected to humans?
3. Before students start putting information about their species onto a card template, you may want to model for them the process of creating a Species Card:
If your class experienced the LabVenture! program, consider building a card together about lobsters (for Lobsters; Untold Tales) or Atlantic herring (for Mystery of the X-Fish) using the photographs and evidence direct from students’ personalized LabVenture! websites.
Or, use your own information, photographs, and diagrams for a species that may play nicely into your future Species Swap discussions and food web creation that come at later stages of this Watershed Experience.
4. Have students choose the written information they want to highlight on their Species Cards.
5. Students may want to create diagrams, make illustrations, take photographs, or find photographs online that support their written information. Suggested visuals include:
Food chain diagram
Habitat photograph or sketch
Life cycle diagram
Adaptations sketches
6. Once they have all of their written and visual information ready, have students start creating their Species Card. This can be done on paper or on the computer. Word, PowerPoint, and Keynote are all good choices for creating digital versions of Species Cards.
7. Once Species Cards are complete, have students Peer Review (see below) each other’s cards. Peer Review is a process the scientific community uses to check and validate scientists’ work before it is published. This is the very best way to make sure that students’ very best work is presented to their community during their upcoming Species Summit. They will also learn about other species, and build valuable editing and feedback skills in the process.
8. To kick off the Peer Review process, generate with students a list of criteria that make a great, effective Species Card. What makes great written content, photographs, and illustrations? Students use this list to guide their review and the feedback they give.
Or use or modify the Peer Review worksheet (below) to help guide students’ Peer Review process.
9. Once Species Cards are reviewed and feedback has been incorporated, print them out and/or make copies. Assemble them into books to share with others in your watershed community.
——————————————————————————————————————————–
Peer Review Worksheet
Scientists ask other scientists to review their work before they make their research andideas public. Scientists rely on each other to point out what they have done well and what parts oftheir work or ideas need to be strengthened. In general, a Peer Review Processinvolves:
Telling the scientist what you think he/she did really well
Offering ideas for the work can be improved before it gets published
Communicating what you learned from the work
Asking questions about what you are curious about
Use some or all of the following questions to guide your review and critique of another scientist’s Species Card. It may take a few rounds of communication between scientist(s) and reviewer(s) before the Species Card is ready to publish.
——————————————————————————————————————————–
Name of the scientist(s):
Name of the reviewer(s):
Overall quality of work
Is everything spelled correctly?
Are sentences well-written and easy to read?
Are illustrations, diagrams, and photographs, etc. neatly done?
What does it eat? What eats it?
Does the written information tell you what the species eats and what eats it?
Does the diagram help you understand where the species fits in the food chain?
How could you make the written or visual information better?
Where does it live?
If you wanted to go look for this species, would the written or visual information help you find it?
How does it grow and change?
Is the life cycle diagram clear and easy to understand?
Did the written information help you understand all of the stages the species goes through during its life?
How is it adapted to life in Maine?
Which adaptation do you think the scientist did the best job explaining?
Which adaptation is the hardest for you to understand?
Are drawings and diagrams clearly labeled?
What do scientists want to know about this species?
Are the questions clear?
Do you understand what scientists want to know and why they want to know it?
How is it connected to humans?
Have you interacted with this species in a way that is not listed on this card?
General Comments
What did you learn from reviewing this Species Card?
What are you still curious about? What questions do you have for the scientist?
Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas
Each student team does a Peer Review (see the Peer Review Worksheet example in the Activity Procedure above) of another team’s species card. They provide feedback on the card’s quality, correctness, completeness, creativity, engagement, and other criteria they deem important and critical to a great species card. Teams revise their own species cards to incorporate the feedback they get from the Peer Review process.
Extension Ideas
Know a great way to extend an activity like this? Tell us in the comments section below.
Resources
Do you have a great resource that supports or enhances this activity? Let us know about. Leave a comment below.
These Are the Species in My Watershed
Author(s):
Sarah Morrisseau, Vital Signs Program, Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Table of Contents
Question(s)
What should our community know about the species that share our watershed with us?
Overview
Students create species cards to share what they learned about the species they investigated during their All My Watershed Neighbors Watershed Experience. Cards include key identification characteristics, food chain diagrams, critical adaptations, and interactions with other species, including humans. The resulting book of species cards can be used to help raise awareness of the watershed community’s non-human neighbors, and how they can best coexist and support one another’s space and resource needs (see Species Summit for how to share cards with the community).
Standards (MLR)
Science & Technology Standards
Grades 3-5
E1. Biodiversity. Students compare living things based on their behaviors, external features, and environmental needs.
E1b. Describe the changes in external features and behaviors of an organism during its life cycle
E2. Ecosystems. Students describe ways organisms depend upon, interact within, and change the living and non-living environment as well as ways the environment affects organisms.
E2a. Explain how changes in an organism’s habitat can influence its survival.
E2c. Describe some of the ways in which organisms depend on one another.
E2d. Explain how the food of most animals can be traced back to plants and how animals use food for energy and repair.
E2e. Explain how organisms can affect the environment in different ways.
Grades 6-8
E1. Biodiversity. Students differentiate among organisms based on biological characteristics and identify patterns of similarity.
E2 Ecosystems. Students examine how the characteristics of the physical, non-living environment, the types and behaviors of living organisms, and the flow of matter and energy affect organisms and the ecosystem of which they are part.
E2a. List various kinds of resources within different biomes for which organisms compete.
E2b. Describe ways in which two types of organisms may interact including competition and predator/prey.
Learning Objectives
Materials
Additional materials if you’re using a digital format for Species Cards
Time Needed
Activity Procedure
Students create their own Species Cards using paper or using computers.
1. Download the Species Card Instructions Template. This template provides visual and written instructions for how students can organize the information that they collected during their investigation. This is what the template looks like:
Note: This template is only a guide. You can use the same layout of information, or modify it to meet individual or classroom needs and interests.
Click image to open a PDF
2. Have students collect and review all of the data and information they gathered about their species during the Investigation Phase of this Watershed Experience. They should have answers to the following research questions ready to go:
3. Before students start putting information about their species onto a card template, you may want to model for them the process of creating a Species Card:
4. Have students choose the written information they want to highlight on their Species Cards.
5. Students may want to create diagrams, make illustrations, take photographs, or find photographs online that support their written information. Suggested visuals include:
6. Once they have all of their written and visual information ready, have students start creating their Species Card. This can be done on paper or on the computer. Word, PowerPoint, and Keynote are all good choices for creating digital versions of Species Cards.
7. Once Species Cards are complete, have students Peer Review (see below) each other’s cards. Peer Review is a process the scientific community uses to check and validate scientists’ work before it is published. This is the very best way to make sure that students’ very best work is presented to their community during their upcoming Species Summit. They will also learn about other species, and build valuable editing and feedback skills in the process.
8. To kick off the Peer Review process, generate with students a list of criteria that make a great, effective Species Card. What makes great written content, photographs, and illustrations? Students use this list to guide their review and the feedback they give.
Or use or modify the Peer Review worksheet (below) to help guide students’ Peer Review process.
9. Once Species Cards are reviewed and feedback has been incorporated, print them out and/or make copies. Assemble them into books to share with others in your watershed community.
——————————————————————————————————————————–
Peer Review Worksheet
Scientists ask other scientists to review their work before they make their research and ideas public. Scientists rely on each other to point out what they have done well and what parts of their work or ideas need to be strengthened. In general, a Peer Review Process involves:
Use some or all of the following questions to guide your review and critique of another scientist’s Species Card. It may take a few rounds of communication between scientist(s) and reviewer(s) before the Species Card is ready to publish.
——————————————————————————————————————————–
Name of the scientist(s):
Name of the reviewer(s):
Overall quality of work
What does it eat? What eats it?
Where does it live?
How does it grow and change?
How is it adapted to life in Maine?
What do scientists want to know about this species?
How is it connected to humans?
General Comments
Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas
Each student team does a Peer Review (see the Peer Review Worksheet example in the Activity Procedure above) of another team’s species card. They provide feedback on the card’s quality, correctness, completeness, creativity, engagement, and other criteria they deem important and critical to a great species card. Teams revise their own species cards to incorporate the feedback they get from the Peer Review process.
Extension Ideas
Know a great way to extend an activity like this? Tell us in the comments section below.
Resources
Do you have a great resource that supports or enhances this activity? Let us know about. Leave a comment below.
References
References
Vital Signs Program Species Identification Cards