Kristen A. Borsari
The fourth grade is when students learn about the regions of the United States, primarily the current geography, habitats, resources and culture of the different regions. This is a year long process with about four to six weeks spent on each of seven regions: New England, Middle Atlantic, South East, Midwest, West, North West and South West. This unit is aimed at integrating this geographical approach to teaching the regions with a scientific understanding of the habitats within these regions and the plants and animals of these habitats. It is important to teach science and social studies hand-in-hand because neither exist in isolation; bringing this to the attention of the students will enable them to think critically and globally. Before writing this unit, the essential question, which is a timeless, universal theme, had to emerge. The essential question should be present in one way or another in every objective, lesson and activity of the unit and can be used throughout the year while studying the various regions. The purpose of an essential question is so that the unit is written to reflect a timeless and universal theme as well as to ensure higher order thinking as opposed to fact based learning; also, this question is one that remains with the children so they can keep reevaluating their world according to this question. The essential question for this unit: The world is made up of many interconnected habitats, and each habitat has its own food chain. How have these food chains affected the way humans live and how have humans affected the food chains of the habitats in which they live?
This unit will begin with background knowledge about food webs, habitats and regions of the United States of America. Following this portion, there will be a case study of each region and an animal that resides within that region. Each study will take into account the characteristics of the region, the habitat in which the animal lives, their placement in the food web of that habitat, and how their habitat and food availability have changed due to human interactions with the local ecosystem.
The different regions studied are defined by the text book we use in the fourth grade, Regions and Resources, published in 1997 by Silver Burdett Ginn Inc. The students will be using this text as a backbone for the rest of the unit because it is a good resource available and there are enough for each child to have one. The book is a good resource because it includes a section of map skills; there are many well drawn and labeled pictures, photographs and diagrams; each section includes a passage from a piece of literature that relates to that particular region; each region has a separate chapter that talks about its links to places around the world.
Objectives:
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Students will learn about the geography and habitats of the regions of the Untied States.
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Students will learn about the animals, in terms of food chains, of different habitats found in The United States.
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Students will learn about the relationship between living organisms and habitat.
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Students will learn to define and look ahead to consequences.
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Students will use text books, resource books and internet resources for research.
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Students will use maps to understand the climate of different regions and habitats. Maps will also be used to understand the dispersal of different animal species across the United States.
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Students will make predictions based on current scientific information.
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Students will practice writing about their opinion, expository and persuasive writing.
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Students will create bar and line graphs as well as pie charts to represent scientific data.
The objectives here all work within and towards the essential question and incorporate all of the disciplines taught in school: literacy, writing, math, science, social studies and social development. Learning across the disciplines will further help the children to see how nothing occurs in isolation, even though we have 'math time' and 'reading group' which seem to segment the day.
