Survive and Thrive

A Life Science Unit for High-Ability Learners in Grades K-1

College of William & Mary's Centre for Gifted Children

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000503685
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Survive and Thrive, a life science unit for grades K-1, provides students an opportunity to study animals, their characteristics, and their natural environments. The overarching concept of change guides students as they use webcams to distinguish the features of animals, determine their basic needs to survive, and observe animals in their habitats. Survive and Thrive was developed by the Center for Gifted Education at The College of William and Mary to offer advanced curriculum supported by years of research. The Center's materials have received national recognition from the United States Department of Education and the National Association for Gifted Children, and they are widely used both nationally and internationally.Each of the books in this series offers curriculum that focuses on advanced content and higher level processes. The science units contain simulations of real-world problems, and students experience the work of real science by using data-handling skills, analyzing information, and evaluating results. The mathematics units provide sophisticated ideas and concepts, challenging extensions, higher order thinking skills, and opportunities for student exploration based on interest. These materials are a must for any teacher seeking to challenge and engage learners and increase achievement.Grades K-1

Part I:

Unit Overview

Introduction to the Clarion Units

DOI: 10.4324/9781003238386-2

The Project Clarion Science Units for Primary Grades introduce young students to science concepts, science reasoning, and scientific investigation processes. Macroconcepts, such as systems or change, help students connect understanding of science content and processes. The units use a hands-on, constructivist approach that allows children to build their knowledge base and their skills as they explore science topics through play and planned investigations. Students are engaged in creative and critical thinking, problem finding and solving, process skill development, and communication opportunities. Conceptual understanding is reinforced as units strengthen basic language and mathematical concepts, including quantity, direction, position, comparison, colors, letter identification, numbers, counting, size, social awareness, texture, material, shape, time, and sequence.

Introduction to the Survive and Thrive Unit

Survive and Thrive, a kindergarten and first-grade life science unit, engages students in a study of animals, their characteristics, and their natural environments. Students learn how to distinguish features and life needs of animals and observe animals in their habitats via webcams. Students learn to classify animals according to whether they are tame or wild and live on land or in water. Students raise mealworms in the classroom and observe their life cycle. Focusing on the macroconcept of change, Survive and Thrive deepens students’ understanding of the scientific concepts in the unit.

Curriculum Framework

The curriculum framework (see Table 1) developed for the Project Clarion science units is based on the Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM), which posits the relatively equal importance of teaching to high-level content, higher order processes and resultant products, and important concepts and issues. The model represents a research-based set of differentiated curricular and instructional approaches found appropriate for high-ability learners (VanTassel-Baska, 1986; VanTassel-Baska & Little, 2003). The framework serves several important functions:

1. The curriculum framework provides scaffolding for the central concept of change, the scientific research process, and the content of the units.
2. The curriculum framework also provides representative statements of advanced, complex, and sophisticated learner outcomes. It demonstrates how a single set of outcomes for all can be translated appropriately for high-ability learners yet can remain accessible to other learners.
3. The curriculum framework provides a way for readers to get a snapshot view of the key emphases of the curriculum in direct relation to each other. The model also provides a way to traverse the elements individually through the continuum of grade levels.

Moreover, the framework may be used to implement the William and Mary units and to aid in new curriculum development based on science reform recommendations.

Table 1 Project Clarion Curriculum Framework for Science Units

Goal	Student Outcomes The student will be able to:
1. Develop concepts related to understanding the world of science.	Provide examples and salient features of various concepts. Classify various concepts. Identify counterexamples of various concepts. Create definitions or generalizations about various concepts.
2. Develop an understanding of the macroconcept of change as applied to science content goals.	Understand that change is everywhere. Demonstrate the impact of time on change. Articulate the nature of natural versus manmade change. Evaluate the nature of change (predictable or random) in selected phenomena.
3. Develop knowledge of selected content topics in the life sciences.	Determine that all plants and animals undergo changes in their life cycle. Investigate that as animals and plants grow they get larger according to a pattern. Conclude that animals are similar to their parents. State the basic needs of plants and animals. Articulate that animals need a suitable place to live. Articulate that plants need a place to grow. Conclude that thriving plants are plants that are doing very well in their environment. Understand that different animals have different body coverings. Understand that different animals have different appendages. Identify the different ways animals move. Classify animals.
4. Develop interrelated science process skills.	Make observations. Ask questions. Learn more. Design and conduct the experiment. Create meaning. Tell others what was found.
5. Develop critical thinking skills.	Describe problematic situations or issues. Define relevant concepts. Identify different points of view in situations or issues. Describe evidence or data supporting a scientific question. Draw conclusions based on data (making inferences). Predict consequences.
6. Develop creative thinking skills.	Develop fluency when naming objects and ideas, based on a stimulus. Develop flexible thinking. Elaborate on ideas presented in oral or written form. Create novel products.
7. Develop curiosity and interest in the world of science.	Express reactions about discrepant events. Ask meaningful questions about science topics. Articulate ideas of interest about science. Demonstrate persistence in completing science tasks.

Standards Alignment

Each lesson was aligned to the appropriate National Science Education Standards (NSES), Content Standards: K–4 (Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education [CSMEE], 1996). Table 2 presents detailed information on the alignment between the NSES Content Standards and fundamental concepts within the unit lessons.

Table 2 Survive and Thrive Alignment to National Science Education Standards

Standard	Fundamental Concepts	Unit Lesson
Content Standard A: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry	Ask a question about objects, organisms, and events in the environment. Plan and conduct a simple investigation. Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses. Use data to construct a reasonable explanation. Communicate investigations and explanations.	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Content Standard A: Understanding about scientific inquiry	Scientific investigations involve asking and answering a question and comparing the answer with what scientists already know about the world. Scientists use different kinds of investigations depending on the questions they are trying to answer. Types of investigations include: describing objects, events, and organisms; classifying them; and doing a fair test (experimenting). Simple instruments, such as magnifiers, thermometers, and rulers, provide more information than scientists obtain using only their senses. Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and what they already know about the world (scientific knowledge). Good explanations are based on evidence from investigations. Scientists make the results of their investigations public; they describe the investigation in ways that enable others to repeat the investigation. Scientists review and ask questions about the results of other scientists’work.	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Content Standard C:The characteristics of organisms	Organisms have basic needs. For example, animals need air, water, and food; plants require air, water, nutrients, and light. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met. The world has many different environments, and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms. Each plant or animal has different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. For example, humans have distinct body structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking. The behavior of individual organisms is influenced by internal cues (such as hunger) and by external cues (such as change in the environment). Humans and other organisms have senses that help them detect internal and external cues.	6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12
Content Standard C: Life cycles of organisms	Plants and animals have life cycles that include being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying. The details of this life cycle are different for different organisms. Plants and animals closely resemble their parents. Many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the parents of the organism, but other characteristics result from an individual's interactions with the environment. Inherited characteristics include the color of flowers and number of limbs of an animal. Other features, such as the ability to ride a bicycle, are learned through interactios with the environment and cannot be passed on to the next generation.	5, 6, 12
Content Standard C: Organisms and environments	All animals depend on plants. Some animals eat plants for food. Other animals eat animals that eat the plants. An organism’s pattern...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Part I: Unit Overview
• Part II: Lesson Plans
• Appendix A: Concept Paper on Change
• Appendix B: Teaching Models
• Appendix C: Basic Concepts in Early Childhood
• Appendix D: Materials List
• References
• Next Generation Science Standards Alignment