DL Home | In Your Classroom | At The Nature Center | Request Program | Evaluation
OHIO'S WILDLIFE
On This Page:
OHIO’S WILDLIFE - K – 2nd Grade
EARTH & SPACE SCIENCES
Benchmark B. Explain that living things cause changes on Earth.
KINDERGARTEN
2. Explore that animals and plants cause changes to their surroundings.
1ST GRADE
3. Explain that all organisms cause changes in the environment where they live; the changes can be very noticeable or slightly noticeable, fast or slow (e.g., spread of grass cover slowing soil erosion, tree roots slowly breaking sidewalks).
LIFE SCIENCES
Benchmark A. Discover that there are living things, non-living things and pretend things, and describe the basic needs of living things (organisms).
Benchmark B. Explain how organisms function and interact with their physical environment.
Benchmark C. Describe the similarities and differences that exist among individuals of the same kind of plants and animals.
KINDERGARTEN
1. Explore differences between living and non-living things (e.g., plant-rock).
2. Discover that stories (e.g., cartoons, movies, comics) sometimes give plants and animals characteristics they really do not have (e.g., talking flowers).
3. Describe how plants and animals usually resemble their parents.
4. Investigate variations that exist among individuals of the same kind of plant or animal.
5. Investigate observable features of plants and animals that help them live in different kinds of places.
6. Investigate the habitats of many different kinds of local plants and animals and some of the ways in which animals depend on plants and each other in our community.
1ST GRADE
1. Explore that organisms, including people, have basic needs which include air, water, food, living space and shelter.
2. Explain that food comes from sources other than grocery stores (e.g., farm crops, farm animals, oceans, lakes and forests).
3. Explore that humans and other animals have body parts that help to seek, find and take in food when they are hungry (e.g., sharp teeth, flat teeth, good nose and sharp vision).
4. Investigate that animals eat plants and/or other animals for food and may also use plants or other animals for shelter and nesting.
5. Recognize that seasonal changes can influence the health, survival or activities of organisms.
2ND GRADE
1. Explain that animals, including people, need air, water, food, living space and shelter; plants need air, water, nutrients (e.g., minerals), living space and light to survive.
2. Identify that there are many distinct environments that support different kinds of organisms.
3. Explain why organisms can survive only in environments that meet their needs (e.g., organisms that once lived on Earth have disappeared for different reasons such as natural forces or human-caused effects).
4. Compare similarities and differences among individuals of the same kind of plants and animals, including people.
5. Explain that food is a basic need of plants and animals (e.g., plants need sunlight to make food and to grow, animals eat plants and/or other animals for food, food chain) and is important because it is a source of energy (e.g., energy used to play, ride bicycles, read, etc.).
6. Investigate the different structures of plants and animals that help them live in different environments (e.g., lungs, gills, leaves and roots).
7. Compare the habitats of many different kinds of Ohio plants and animals and some of the ways animals depend on plants and each other.
SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
Benchmark A. Ask a testable question.
Benchmark B. Design and conduct a simple investigation to explore a question.
Benchmark C. Gather and communicate information from careful observations and simple investigation through a variety of methods.
KINDERGARTEN
1. Ask "what if" questions.
2. Explore and pursue student-generated "what if" questions.
4. Use the five senses to make observations about the natural world.
6. Recognize that numbers can be used to count a collection of things.
10. Make new observations when people give different descriptions for the same thing.
1ST GRADE
1. Ask "what happens when" questions.
2. Explore and pursue student-generated "what happens when" questions.
2ND GRADE
1. Ask "how can I/we" questions.
2. Ask "how do you know" questions (not "why" questions) in appropriate situations and attempt to give reasonable answers when others ask questions.
3. Explore and pursue student-generated "how" questions.
SCIENTIFIC WAYS OF KNOWING
Benchmark B. Recognize the importance of respect for all living things.
KINDERGARTEN
1. Recognize that scientific investigations involve asking open-ended questions. (How? What if?)
2. Recognize that people are more likely to accept your ideas if you can give good reasons for them.
3. Interact with living things and the environment in ways that promote respect.
4. Demonstrate ways science is practiced by people everyday (children and adults).
To TopOHIO'S WILDLIFE - 3rd – 5th Grade
LIFE SCIENCES
Benchmark A. Differentiate between the life cycles of different plants and animals.
Benchmark B. Analyze plant and animal structures and functions needed for survival and describe the flow of energy through a system that all organisms use to survive.
Benchmark C. Compare changes in an organism's ecosystem/habitat that affect its survival.
3RD GRADE
1. Compare the life cycles of different animals including birth to adulthood, reproduction and death (e.g., egg-tadpole-frog, egg-caterpillar-chrysalis-butterfly).
2. Relate animal structures to their specific survival functions (e.g., obtaining food, escaping or hiding from enemies).
3. Classify animals according to their characteristics (e.g., body coverings and body structure).
4. Use examples to explain that extinct organisms may resemble organisms that are alive today.
6. Describe how changes in an organism's habitat are sometimes beneficial and sometimes harmful.
4TH GRADE
5. Describe how organisms interact with one another in various ways (e.g., many plants depend on animals for carrying pollen or dispersing seeds).
5TH GRADE
1. Describe the role of producers in the transfer of energy entering ecosystems as sunlight to chemical energy through photosynthesis.
2. Explain how almost all kinds of animals' food can be traced back to plants.
3. Trace the organization of simple food chains and food webs (e.g., producers, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and decomposers).
4. Summarize that organisms can survive only in ecosystems in which their needs can be met (e.g., food, water, shelter, air, carrying capacity and waste disposal). The world has different ecosystems and distinct ecosystems support the lives of different types of organisms.
5. Support how an organism's patterns of behavior are related to the nature of that organism's ecosystem, including the kinds and numbers of other organisms present, the availability of food and resources, and the changing physical characteristics of the ecosystem.
To TopOHIO'S WILDLIFE - 6th – 8th Grade
LIFE SCIENCES
Benchmark A. Explain that the basic functions of organisms are carried out in cells and groups of specialized cells form tissues and organs; the combination of these cells make up multicellular organisms that have a variety of body plans and internal structures.
Benchmark B. Describe the characteristics of an organism in terms of a combination of inherited traits and recognize reproduction as a characteristic of living organisms essential to the continuation of the species.
Benchmark C. Explain how energy entering the ecosystems as sunlight supports the life of organisms through photosynthesis and the transfer of energy through the interactions of organisms and the environment.
Benchmark D. Explain how extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and its adaptive characteristics are insufficient to allow survival (as seen in evidence of the fossil record).
6TH GRADE
4. Recognize that an individual organism does not live forever; therefore reproduction is necessary for the continuation of every species and traits are passed on to the next generation through reproduction.
7. Recognize that likenesses between parents and offspring (e.g., eye color, flower color) are inherited. Other likenesses, such as table manners are learned.
8. Describe how organisms may interact with one another.
7TH GRADE
1. Investigate the great variety of body plans and internal structures found in multicellular organisms.
2. Investigate how organisms or populations may interact with one another through symbiotic relationships and how some species have become so adapted to each other that neither could survive without the other (e.g., predator-prey, parasitism, mutualism and commensalism).
3. Explain how the number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on adequate biotic (living) resources (e.g., plants, animals) and abiotic (non-living) resources (e.g., light, water and soil).
4. Investigate how overpopulation impacts an ecosystem.
7. Explain that photosynthetic cells convert solar energy into chemical energy that is used to carry on life functions or is transferred to consumers and used to carry on their life functions.
8. Investigate the great diversity among organisms.
8TH GRADE
1. Describe that asexual reproduction limits the spread of detrimental characteristics through a species and allows for genetic continuity.
2. Recognize that in sexual reproduction new combinations of traits are produced which may increase or decrease an organism's chances for survival.
3. Explain how variations in structure, behavior or physiology allow some organisms to enhance their reproductive success and survival in a particular environment.
4. Explain that diversity of species is developed through gradual processes over many generations (e.g., fossil record).
5. Investigate how an organism adapted to a particular environment may become extinct if the environment, as shown by the fossil record, changes.
To Top