Description

This module provides grade 2 students with life science core ideas dealing with organisms, their interactions, and the diversity of habitats where they live. In order to provide young students with in-depth opportunities to experience biodiversity, they will become naturalists and study insects and plants in and out of their classroom.

Students investigate three phenomena:

• Anchor phenomenon 1—Different insects in the park
• Anchor phenomenon 2—Plants growing in sidewalk cracks
• Anchor phenomenon 3—Bees and butterflies visiting flowers

Students ask questions to find out about organisms based on firsthand observations with several organisms they observe over time in the classroom while using media to compare the organisms that live in different habitats. They plan and carry out investigations with beetles and butterflies to analyze and interpret data about an animal’s needs in their habitat during different stages in their life. They grow a flowering plant in the classroom and use a simulation to test conditions needed for plant growth. They gain experience with the ways plants and insects interact in feeding relationships and pollination and how animals facilitate seed dispersal.

Throughout the Insects and Plants Module, students develop and use models, plan and carry out investigations, and analyze data to answer questions and construct explanations. Students gain experiences that contribute to their understanding of the crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; systems and system models; and structure and function.