5-ESS3-1

SCUSD NGSS Curriculum Guide ====**5-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment. **====

Science Background for the Teacher:
Everything we do impacts the Earth's resources & environment. While humans cannot eliminate natural hazards, they can take steps to reduce their impacts.

Key Vocabulary:

 * Agriculture || runoff || Sewage || energy ||
 * Industry || Pollution || renewable resources ||  ||
 * Natural Resource || fossil fuel || emission ||  ||

Possible Assessments (formative and/or summative):
Make a claim about a solution to reduce the impact of humans on one aspect of the environment
 * Poster
 * Oral Presentation
 * PowerPoint
 * Essay

Key Student Activities:
Research information on what is happening to the Earth; how humans are damaging the living & nonliving environment and how humans do clean up of the environment
 * Pollution of water and waterways
 * Overuse of resources (strip mining, ocean/Arctic drilling, clear cutting, over population)
 * Chemical pesticides (runoff)
 * Treatment of sewage
 * Global Climate Change because of the burning of fossil fuels and agriculture

Key Teacher Demos/Activities:

 * Leading discussions on historical & current events
 * Teacher read-alouds: Wump World by Bill Peet, The Lorax by Dr Seuss, Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg

Common Student Misconceptions:
Students do not understand that everything impacts the future. They often think that the solution is to just stop factories or farming when really the focus needs to be on changing practices to be more responsible.

Things to Avoid/Correct:
Many of these topics are very political and the focus should be on reducing human impact not eliminating things all together. Focus on evidence not opinion.

====Other Resources (text, video, simulations, activities, models, etc..): ====
 * The Story of Stuff - animated videos on the total resource costs for consumer goods - []
 * Field trip to Santa Clara Valley Water District (or they can send someone to your classroom)
 * Oil spill clean up (use cooking oils or dispose of all materials as hazardous waste)
 * Mining the Cookie (FOSS 4th grade Rocks & Minerals)- removing the chocolate chips from a cookie using a toothpick to simulate mining