How organisms shape habitats
Construct an argument supported by evidence for how plants and animals can change the environment to meet their needs
What a learner can do afterwards
- Give at least three examples of living things changing their surroundings, such as beavers building dams, birds building nests, and tree roots widening rock cracks
- Explain why organisms change their environment (to meet needs for shelter, food, water)
- Construct an argument with evidence showing how a specific organism changes its environment
1 · Read
Plants and animals can change places where they live. Animals need food, water, air, and shelter. Plants need water, light, air, and suitable warmth. Wind can move things too, but wind is not alive. Look for who or what made a change.
A beaver cuts wood with its teeth. It piles branches, logs, and mud across a stream to make a dam. The dam slows the flow. Water gathers behind it and can form a pond. Deeper water around the beaver's lodge helps protect its home. Some water still flows past the dam.
Many birds gather twigs to build nests for their eggs and chicks. Tree roots take up water and need space to grow. A root is part of a tree, not a whole tree. Roots can grow into rock cracks. As roots grow thicker, they can widen cracks and break rock apart.
Explain the change, the need it helps meet, and an observed clue. For example: 'A beaver made deeper water to protect its home. I saw it add logs to the dam.' A pond alone does not show who made it.
Some desert foxes dig burrows. A burrow gives a fox a place to hide from danger and rest away from heat. This is shelter. The fox changes the ground by digging. Explain both the change and the need it helps meet.
Living things can change their surroundings. Describe the change, explain the need it helps meet, and give an observation that supports your explanation.
This lesson, its questions, and its flashcards were written for this dataset.
The readings were written for this dataset.
More to read
Look for changes
A habitat is a place where a living thing lives. Plants and animals can change that place. A bird carries twigs to a nest. A beaver piles wood across a stream. A tree root grows thicker inside a crack. Describe what changed and what made the change. Roots are parts of the tree. Wind and rain can change places too, so look carefully before deciding what happened.
Support your explanation
A pile of twigs in a tree may be a nest. Seeing a bird carry twigs to that place supports this idea. It connects the bird's action to the change. Watch from a distance with an adult. Do not touch a nest or disturb the birds. Explain what you observed. You do not need to guess what the bird was thinking.
Watch a growing plant
Ask an adult to help you grow a seed in a plant pot with drainage holes. Follow the seed packet's directions for water and light. Draw the plant on different dates. Its roots take up water and grow through spaces in the soil. Leave the plant in its pot while you observe it. Do not trap animals in a container. Wash your hands after handling soil.
2 · Watch
En anglaisTake it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
This opens up
Nothing builds on it yet.
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.