General Information Project Overview Curriculum Connections Resource Connections Evaluation

  General Information

  Project Overview

To help students gain a greater appreciation and respect for the animals and plants of our world they must first gather information about the more familiar animals and plants of their own community, region or province. They must then extend this knowledge to the study of animals and plants of other countries.

Through the use of field trips, resource people, libraries and the Internet, the Grade 4 students will do a study of the habitats of several Newfoundland species:

• Animals- Moose, Partridge, Cod
• Plants- Pitcher Plant, Spruce, Birch.

The students will compare these to several animals and plant species of another province or country of their choice.

Once the place has been selected, the students will than research the animal and plant life of the place and select several for comparison.

  Curriculum Connections

The activities completed in this project will address the Grade 4 Program of Studies in:

• Science - Study of animals and plant habitats.
• Language Arts - reading, writing, interviewing and communicating.
• Social Studies - Comparison of animals and plants in Newfoundland to another province or country.
• Mathematics - Population distribution and graphing.

Curriculum Plans for School:

The major focus of our school for the next year or two will be in the area of Language Arts Writing. This project will be of immense value due to the vary of writing styles needed to complete the project, interviews, data collecting, reports, letters and invitations.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

The students will be able to:

• Understand the term "habitat" as an environment in which an organism lives.
• Explore and describe a number of familiar animal and plant habitats.
• Identify the basic requirements of any habitat such as food, water, shelter and space.
• Explore the interrelationships among organisms in an ecosystem by examining food chains and food webs.
• Describe food chains and their importance in the ecosystem.
• Investigate the human impact on the environment.

ILO's of Technology Education:

1. The students will use a word processor to:

• Create a document
• Save a document
• Import graphics to a document
• Print a document

2. Students will use a computer software such as Encarta and Dangerous creatures to retrieve information.

3. Students will access the internet to:

• Conduct net searches.
• Make contacts via e-mail to resource people.
• Download and print files.

  Resource Connections

Through the use of the Stellar Schools Internet Connection students will be able to more readily attain information vital to the success of this project by:

• Conducting net searches
• Accessing web pages and retrieving information form World Wide Web sources such as Environment groups and government departments concerned with wild life.
• Make contact with resource people via e-mail.

Students will become more aware of the growing importance of computers in education.

Students will be exposed to and become familiar with the operation of high-tech computer equipment such as, modems, digital cameras,and scanners.

  Evaluation

Students will be able to:

• Define the term "habitat".

• List a number of plants indicative to Newfoundland.

• List a variety of animals that inhabitant Newfoundland.

• Identify the basic requirements of any habitat.

• Select an organism and draw a food chain for the organisms.

• Define an ecosystem.

• Describe how a food chain is important to an ecosystem.

• Formulate possible solutions to how man can best care for his environment.