Format
The program is interactive and participatory. Students engage our staff and each other in conversation and make predictions, observations, and draw conclusions about experiments.
Classroom, home, and hybrid options are available. The classroom version requires individual computers (with headphones) or a computer and projector/smart-board. Home versions require each student to have their own computer or tablet. All programs use Zoom software. We will provide a passcode-protected link to share with students.
Objectives
Enduring Understanding: Ecosystems change over time due to natural causes and human activity.
Essential Question: How do the everyday activities of people affect the health of a river and its ecosystem?
Standards Alignment
National Standards
Modeling in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to developing, using, and revising models to describe, test, and predict more abstract phenomena and design systems.
Planning and carrying out investigations in 6-8 builds on K-5 experiences and progresses to include
investigations that use multiple variables and provide evidence to support explanations or solutions
State Standards
Massachusetts STEM Framework
Grade 5
ESS2-1. Use a model to describe the cycling of water through a watershed through evaporation, precipitation, absorption, surface runoff, and condensation.
ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways communities reduce human impact on the Earth’s resources and environment by changing an agricultural, industrial, or community practice or process.
ESS3-2. Test a simple system designed to filter particulates out of water and propose one change to the design to improve it.