Kindergarten - Grade 4 Science

Some of the following Next Generation Science Standards can be supported with the use of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Trading Cards Sets 1 through 6. Please see suggested standards and basic instructions for use. Feel free to adapt or modify these ideas.

K-LS1-1.
Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
Have the students look at all the cards. Ask them to tell you which photographs represent living things and which photographs represent nonliving things. Now look at the photographs of the living things. Tell the students to look for similarities in the living things. Discuss how these similar traits may be necessary for survival. What else may be needed for survival that cannot be seen in the cards?

1-LS1-1.
Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
Select several cards that show obvious plant and/or animal adaptations (turtle shell, mammal fur, bird beak, fish scales, colorful flowers, etc.). Have the students name these adaptations and discuss how they are used by the organisms to help them survive, grow or meet their needs. For example, turtles have a shell that covers their body. In most turtle species it is hard, but in two of the species in Illinois, the shell is flexible and leathery. The shell helps the turtle protect itself. Ask the students how they would benefit if they had a shell like that of a turtle? Talk about the positive and negative aspects of having a shell. Is there a way that a shell could help humans survive without having the problems that would occur if it was just like a turtle’s shell? Talk about other adaptations in the same manner. Then turn the issue around. Ask the students what additional adaptations could help them survive as a human and let them see if they can find photographs of plants and animals in the cards that have such structures.

2-LS2-2.
Develop a simple model that mimics the function of an animal in dispersing seeds or pollinating plants.
Select cards that show pollinators (butterflies, bees, flies, hummingbird, wasps) and some that show flowers. Use the images of the pollinators to discuss what pollination is and what it accomplishes for plants. Show the students why these animals can move pollen easily. Not all the plants pictured on the cards are pollinated by animals, but many of them are. See if the students can determine by looking at the flowers which ones might be attractive to bees. Now have the students draw, build or in other ways model a flower and the perfect pollinator for it.

Show the students the mammal species in the cards. What do the mammals have in common? One of the traits they have in common is fur. Seeds can get attached to the mammal’s fur and move away from the parent plant as the animal moves. The seeds can then be pulled off and dropped by the mammal or fall off as it moves. This process helps the plant to spread its seeds so that the new plants do not compete with the established plants for water, soil/minerals, space and light. What would a plant seed need to be able to attach to fur? Have the students develop a model of a seed that would attach easily to fur. Use a sock turned inside out to represent fur and test the models. Seeds can be moved by animals in other ways, too. Find photos of squirrels (Sets 3 and 4) and birds, like the northern mockingbird Mimus polyglottos (Set 5) and American robin Turdus migratorius (Set 5), that eat fruits. These animals disperse seeds, too. How do they do it?

2-LS4-1.
Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
Have the students sort the cards into the three habitat classifications: prairie; woodland; and aquatic. Use the icon on the card to help you determine the habitat type: butterfly for prairie; pine cone for woodland; and water/fish for aquatic. Ask them to look for differences in organisms within the same habitats. What are they? Ask them to look for similarities in organisms within the same habitats. What are they? Even though only one habitat option is provided per card, some of these species can live in all three habitats. Which species do the students think are generalists that can live in all the habitats? Why do they think so? Have them do some research to see if they are correct.

3-LS4-3.
Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
Have the students sort the cards into the three habitat classifications: prairie; woodland; and aquatic. Use the icon on the card to help you determine the habitat type: butterfly for prairie; pine cone for woodland; and water/fish for aquatic. Have the students discuss the differences between the three habitat types. What are they? Ask them to look for differences in organisms within each of the habitats. What are they? Give the students an example of similar organisms living within the same habitat type but being unable to survive as well or at all, in the each other’s niche within the habitat.

Have the students find examples in the cards of organisms that could survive in one of the habitats shown but not the other two habitats. Have the students discuss why the organisms could survive well, less well, or not at all in each other’s habitat. Have the students look for species that they think could survive in all three habitats. Let them do some research to see if they are correct.

4-LS1-1.
Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
Have the students separate the cards into categories of your choosing. Now have the students look for noticeable external structures. Have the students discuss if the external structures are necessary for survival, growth, behavior or reproduction.