Rainforest

Standards to Align to Rainforest: Elementary K-4 : General Plants: 1.1b Plants require air, water, nutrients, and light in order to live and thrive. 2.2a Plants and animals closely resemble their parents and other individuals in their species. 2.2b Plants and animals can transfer specific traits to their offspring when they reproduce. 3.1c In order to survive in their environment, plants and animals must be adapted to that environment. • seeds disperse by a plant’s own mechanism and/or in a variety of ways that can include wind, water, and animals • leaf, flower, stem, and root adaptations may include variations in size, shape, thickness, color, smell, and texture 4.1c The length of time from beginning of development to death of the plant is called its life span. 4.1d Life cycles of some plants include changes from seed to mature plant. 6.1a Green plants are producers because they provide the basic food supply for themselves and animals. 6.1b All animals depend on plants. Some animals (predators) eat other animals (prey).

Rainforest: 5.2a Plants respond to changes in their environment. For example, the leaves of some green plants change position as the direction of light changes; the parts of some plants undergo seasonal changes that enable the plant to grow; seeds germinate, and leaves form and grow.

6.2a Plants manufacture food by utilizing air, water, and energy from the Sun. 6.2b The Sun’s energy is transferred on Earth from plants to animals through the food 6.2c Heat energy from the Sun powers the water cycle (see Physical Science Key Idea 2). 7.1a Humans depend on their natural and constructed environments. 7.1b Over time humans have changed their environment by cultivating crops and raising animals, creating shelter, using energy, manufacturing goods, developing means of transportation, changing populations, and carrying out other activities. 7.1c Humans, as individuals or communities, change environments in ways that can be either helpful or harmful for themselves and other organisms.

Intermediate 5-8: General Plants:  1.1f Many plants have roots, stems, leaves, and reproductive structures. These organized groups of tissues are responsible for a plantÕs life activities. 5.1d The methods for obtaining nutrients vary among organisms. Producers, such as green plants, use light energy to make their food. Consumers, such as animals, take in energy-rich foods.  6.2a Photosynthesis is carried on by green plants and other organisms containing chlorophyll. In this process, the SunÕs energy is converted into and stored as chemical energy in the form of a sugar. The quantity of sugar molecules increases in green plants during photosynthesis in the presence of sunlight. 6.2b The major source of atmospheric oxygen is photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and oxygen is released during photosynthesis. 6.2c Green plants are the producers of food which is used directly or indirectly by consumers.

Rainforest:  3.1b Changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of individual organisms with a particular trait. Small differences between parents and offspring can accumulate in successive generations so that descendants are very different from their ancestors. Individual organisms with certain traits are more likely to survive and have offspring than individuals without those traits.  3.2a In all environments, organisms with similar needs may compete with one another for resources.

 3.2b Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the adaptive characteristics of a species are insufficient to permit its survival. Extinction of species is common. Fossils are evidence that a great variety of species existed in the past.

 4.1a Some organisms reproduce asexually. Other organisms reproduce sexually. Some organisms can reproduce both sexually and asexually.

 5.1a Animals and plants have a great variety of body plans and internal structures that contribute to their ability to maintain a balanced condition.  6.1a Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, usually from the Sun, through producers to consumers and then to decomposers. This process may be visualized with food chains or energy pyramids. 6.1b Food webs identify feeding relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem. 6.1c Matter is transferred from one organism to another and between organisms and their physical environment. Water, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen are examples of substances cycled between the living and nonliving environment.  7.1c In all environments, organisms interact with one another in many ways. Relationships among organisms may be competitive, harmful, or beneficial. Some species have adapted to be dependent upon each other with the result that neither could survive without the other. 7.2a In ecosystems, balance is the result of interactions between community members and their environment.

7.2b The environment may be altered through the activities of organisms. Alterations are sometimes abrupt. Some species may replace others over time, resulting in longterm gradual changes (ecological succession).

7.2c Overpopulation by any species impacts the environment due to the increased use of resources. Human activities can bring about environmental degradation through resource acquisition, urban growth, land-use decisions, waste disposal, etc.

7.2d Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have resulted in major pollution of air, water, and soil. Pollution has cumulative ecological effects such as acid rain, global warming, or ozone depletion. The survival of living things on our planet depends on the conservation and protection of EarthÕs resources.

Commencement:

 6.1b The atoms and molecules on the Earth cycle among the living and nonliving components of the biosphere. For example, carbon dioxide and water molecules used in photosynthesis to form energy-rich organic compounds are returned to the environment when the energy in these compounds is eventually released by cells. Continual input of energy from sunlight keeps the process going. This concept may be illustrated with an energy pyramid.

6.1c The chemical elements, such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, that make up the molecules of living things pass through food webs and are combined and recombined in different ways. At each link in a food web, some energy is stored in newly made structures but much is dissipated into the environment as heat.

6.1d The number of organisms any habitat can support (carrying capacity) is limited by the available energy, water, oxygen, and minerals, and by the ability of ecosystems to recycle the residue of dead organisms through the activities of bacteria and fungi.

6.1e In any particular environment, the growth and survival of organisms depend on the physical conditions including light intensity, temperature range, mineral availability, soil/rock type, and relative acidity (pH).  6.1f Living organisms have the capacity to produce populations of unlimited size, but environments and resources are finite. This has profound effects on the interactions among organisms. 6.1g Relationships between organisms may be negative, neutral, or positive. Some organisms may interact with one another in several ways. They may be in a producer/consumer, predator/prey, or parasite/host relationship; or one organism may cause disease in, scavenge, or decompose another.  6.2a As a result of evolutionary processes, there is a diversity of organisms and roles in ecosystems. This diversity of species increases the chance that at least some will survive in the face of large environmental changes. Biodiversity increases the stability of the ecosystem. 6.2b Biodiversity also ensures the availability of a rich variety of genetic material that may lead to future agricultural or medical discoveries with significant value to humankind. As diversity is lost, potential sources of these materials may be lost with it. <span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman+2;"> 6.3a The interrelationships and interdependencies of organisms affect the development of stable ecosystems. 6.3b Through ecological succession, all ecosystems progress through a sequence of changes during which one ecological community modifies the environment, making it more suitable for another community. These long-term gradual changes result in thecommunity reaching a point of stability that can last for hundreds or thousands of years. 6.3c A stable ecosystem can be altered, either rapidly or slowly, through the activities of organisms (including humans), or through climatic changes or natural disasters. The altered ecosystem can usually recover through gradual changes back to a point of longterm stability. <span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman+2;"> 7.1a The Earth has finite resources; increasing human consumption of resources places stress on the natural processes that renew some resources and deplete those resources that cannot be renewed. 7.1b Natural ecosystems provide an array of basic processes that affect humans. Those processes include but are not limited to: maintenance of the quality of the atmosphere, generation of soils, control of the water cycle, removal of wastes, energy flow, and recycling of nutrients. Humans are changing many of these basic processes and the changes may be detrimental. 7.1c Human beings are part of the EarthÕs ecosystems. Human activities can, deliberately or inadvertently, alter the equilibrium in ecosystems. Humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, consumption, and technology. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems may be irreversibly affected. 7.2a Human activities that degrade ecosystems result in a loss of diversity of the living and nonliving environment. For example, the influence of humans on other organisms occurs through land use and pollution. Land use decreases the space and resources available to other species, and pollution changes the chemical composition of air, soil, and water. 7.2b When humans alter ecosystems either by adding or removing specific organisms, serious consequences may result. For example, planting large expanses of one crop reduces the biodiversity of the area. 7.2c Industrialization brings an increased demand for and use of energy and other resources including fossil and nuclear fuels. This usage can have positive and negative effects on humans and ecosystems. <span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman+2;">7.3a Societies must decide on proposals which involve the introduction of new technologies. Individuals need to make decisions which will assess risks, costs, benefits, and trade-offs. 7.3b The decisions of one generation both provide and limit the range of possibilities open to the next generation.

<span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman+2;"> 1.1b An ecosystem is shaped by the nonliving environment as well as its interacting species. The world contains a wide diversity of physical conditions, which creates a variety of environments. <span style="font-family: Palatino-Roman+2;"> 1.1c In all environments, organisms compete for vital resources. The linked and changing interactions of populations and the environment compose the total ecosystem.

1.1d The interdependence of organisms in an established ecosystem often results in approximate stability over hundreds and thousands of years. For example, as one population increases, it is held in check by one or more environmental factors or another species.

1.1e Ecosystems, like many other complex systems, tend to show cyclic changes around a state of approximate equilibrium.

1.1f Every population is linked, directly or indirectly, with many others in an ecosystem. Disruptions in the numbers and types of species and environmental changes can upset ecosystem stability.