Eco-Inquiry: A Guide to Ecological Learning Experiences for the Upper Elementary/Middle Grades
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Energy Conservation
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Program Overview
Designed for the upper elementary grades, the Science Technology and Reading (STAR) series consists of 8 thematic "labs" in the natural and physical sciences. Each lab focuses both on science activities and on a genre of children's literature, developing correlations between the science process and the process of reading. In addition to a teacher's guide for each of the 8 labs, the STAR program includes a mentor's guide for scientists, engineers, and others assisting in the classroom.
Teacher's Guide
Recommended grade level:
4-6.
In Ecology Lab, students become residents of a mythical town--Anytown--whose residents must decide what to do with a large tract of undeveloped land, known as Lakeland. Through a series of hands-on activities, students conduct experiments and gather data to help them decide what to do with the land. Students represent various interest groups--conservationists, recreation advocates, developers, business-growth advocates, and so on--at a town meeting. Then they vote on the plans offered. Students draw up a site plan using the school grounds as the plot of land to be developed. They test air quality and soil permeability and percolation rate, learn about water filtration, conduct a population study and a recreation survey, and use mathematics to interpret employment data for Anytown.
Ecology Lab includes ideas for cross-curricular integration, from writing an "eco haiku" to making a relief map of Lakeland. It also includes a list of resources, including books, computer software, and audiovisual materials. Reproducible pages for students, such as lab procedures, data sheets, and information handouts, are also provided.
Key to Content Standards: 5-8 (see app. C)
UNIFYING CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES: Systems, order, and organization; evidence, models, and explanation; change, constancy, and measurement.
SCIENCE AS INQUIRY: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry; understandings about scientific inquiry.
LIFE SCIENCE: Populations and ecosystems.
EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE: Structure of the earth system.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Abilities of technological design.
SCIENCE IN PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES: Personal health; populations, resources, and environments; natural hazards; risks and benefits.
HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE: Nature of science.
Prices:
Teacher's guide (ISBN 0-7872-1456-6), $21.90. Mentor's guide, $3.90.
Publisher/supplier:
Kendall/Hunt.
Materials:
Available locally.
