This series of 5 high-quality, standards-aligned, inquiry-based lessons have been field-tested by the 4K students of Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science, their teacher and educational assistant. These lessons encourage students to use natural areas around their school as they improve their science and engineering skills as part of a unit on observing changes. Created as a part of a WISELearn OER Innovation project, Connect, Explore, and Engage: Using the Environment as the Context for Science Learning was a collaboration of the Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science and the Wisconsin Green Schools Network. One of the goals of the project was to create standards-aligned lessons that utilize the outdoor spaces of the school . These lessons were created to take place during late winter.

This is a field investigation where students observe plants in a school forest setting. Students then compare adaptations of plants from different parts of the forest.

Students will compare and contrast adult plants and seedlings/young plants using pictures, journaling, growing plants in the classroom and comparing experimental plant growth with natural plant growth to learn why plants survive and where.

Summative Assessment for Ecology Unit
Essential Outcomes:
1. Describe the concept of adaptation through the process of Natural Selection
2. How do adaptations enhance the survival of a particular species?
3. What is the carrying capacity of an ecosystem and what factors limit the size of a population?
4. How do short-term changes in the biotic/abiotic factors of an ecosystem influence population of a particular species? What happens if the species cannot adapt to these short-term. changes?

In this lesson, students learn how adaptations, limiting factors, and predator prey relationships all affect the survival of plants and animals. Predator-prey relationships are simulated in two games, where students record their experiences and display data in story and chart/graph form, and explore the adaptations of animals in terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Extension activities include habitat investigations in natural areas.