Man Versus Elephant!

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

Science

Grade(s)

3

Overview

Read like a detective and solve a BIG problem on the island of Sumatra where man and Asian elephants struggle to live together and get along. The elephants are destroying all the farmland. This self-paced lesson is interesting for all ages (and the BIG solution at the end may surprise you.)

Science (2015) Grade(s): 3

SC15.3.12

Evaluate engineered solutions to a problem created by environmental changes and any resulting impacts on the types and density of plant and animal populations living in the environment (e.g., replanting of sea oats in coastal areas due to destruction by hurricanes, creating property development restrictions in vacation areas to reduce displacement and loss of native animal populations).*

UP:SC15.3.12

Vocabulary

  • Problems/solutions
  • Effects
  • Claim
  • Merit
  • Engineered solutions
  • Environmental changes
  • Density of plant and animal populations
  • Environmental impacts
  • Habitats
  • Organisms
  • Transform
  • Create
  • Ask
  • Imagine
  • Improve
  • Plan
  • Engineering design process

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Engineers design solutions to solve problems created by environmental changes.
  • Changes in the environment may affect the physical characteristic, temperature, or availability of resources in a place.
  • Changes in the environment affect some organisms' ability to survive and reproduce, cause others to move to new locations, yet others to move into the transformed environment, and cause some to die.
  • Populations live in a variety of habitats, and change in those habitats affect the plants and animals living there.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify problem created by environmental changes.
  • Make a claim about an engineered solution to a problem created by environmental changes.
  • Identify the effects of solutions to a problem created by environmental changes that impact the plants and animals living in the environment.
  • Communicate evidence to support the claim about an engineered solution to a problem created by environmental changes.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • That plants and animals within an environment make up a system, and changes to one part of the system impacts other parts.
  • Engineers design solutions to problems created by environmental changes that sometimes impact the plant and animal populations found there.

Scientific and Engineering Practices

Engaging in Argument from Evidence

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect; Systems and System Models

CR Resource Type

Interactive/Game

Resource Provider

PBS

License Type

Custom

Accessibility

Text Resources: Content is organized under headings and subheadings
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