This Changing Habitats 5E Science Unit Plan is an inquiry-based unit where students study how when an environment changes the types of plants and animals may change too. Throughout the unit, students look at biodiversity and human impact on habitats. They explore how populations live in a variety of habitats and how environmental changes affect the physical characteristics, temperature or availability of resources forcing organisms to either adapt, move or die. The unit includes three parts for each of the 5E’s (Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, and Evaluate) and more.

FREE UPGRADE TO GOOGLE DIGITAL VERSIONS:

• Google Slides Teacher Presentation that supports the student resources
• Google Slides Student Resources for a paperless option
• Google Form Exit Cards

Included in this Changing Habitats Science Resource

• Teacher Notes that provide an overview of the resource and explanation of the NGSS standard for Changing Habitats 3-LS4-4
• Common Misconceptions about the Changing Habitats
• Teaching Timeline available with four different options, including a correlation with the Third Grade Science Stations
• Vocabulary Cards to reinforce key terms of adaptations throughout the unit. These are the same vocabulary cards available in the Third Grade Science Stations
• Big Idea Posters that illustrate the main concepts students will learn
• Exit Tickets in three formats: short answer, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple choice
• Google Slides Teacher Presentation that supports the student resources
• Google Slides Student Resources for a paperless option
• Google Form Exit Cards

What is the 5E Instructional Model?

The 5E Model is student-led, with the teacher acting mainly as the facilitator. Through open-ended questions, real-life experiences, guided investigations, and research, the students gain a deep understanding of the scientific topics that are covered in the lessons. Each stage of the model serves as a foundation to the next, creating a coherent model that frames lessons, activities, and units.

Find out more about the 5E Unit Plans in this blog post.

The 3-LS4 standards are part of the Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity standards in the NGSS Framework.

• 3-LS4-1 covers fossils and the evidence that we have of species and environments from long ago.
• 3-LS4-2 covers variation within and between species as the result of natural selection.
• 3-LS4-3 covers adaptations that enable organisms to survive in an environment, reproduce, and pass their traits to their offspring.
• 3-LS4-4 covers changing habitats, and how new environmental conditions trigger adaptations in organisms.
• 3-LS4-2, 3, and 4 are similar topics. In fact, in higher level life science instruction, they are often taught simultaneously. Adaptations are the result of natural selection, and natural selection drives new adaptations to arise in organisms when habitats change. NGSS has chosen to break these topics into separate standards, with distinct Disciplinary Core Ideas, Performance Expectations, Science and Engineering Practices, and Crosscutting Concepts. For this reason, we have created three separate 5E Unit Plans in order to thoroughly cover each of these standards.

Objectives and Timeline for Each Section of the 5E Changing Habitat Unit

Engage

Objectives:

• Students will access their prior knowledge about how habitats change and the effects those have on organisms.
• Student interest in habitat change will be elicited.
• The teacher will be able to identify student misconceptions about habitat change and how it affects adaptations.

Parts and Duration:

• Part 1 (What Is This?): 15 minutes
• Part 2 (My Experiences): 15 minutes
• Part 3 (Introducing): 15 minutes

Explore

Objectives:

• Students will work together to investigate what happens as habitats change. They will do this by observing different changes in habitats and how this affects the organisms in those habitats.
• Students will gather general information about changing habitats.
• Students will begin to think about how species are adapted to their habitats, and how changes in those habitats may make species unable to survive there.

Parts and Duration:

• Part 1 (Check It Out): 20 minutes
• Part 2 (Watch and Read This): 15 minutes
• Part 3 (You Try It): 20 minutes

Explain

Objectives:

• Students will work collaboratively to observe and discover how changes in habitats affect the organisms that live there.
• Students will listen to the teacher’s explanation about what happens when habitats change.
• Students will use the new information to revise their explanations about changing habitats and how these changes might affect the organisms that live there.

Parts and Duration:

• Part 1 (What Does It Mean?): 20 minutes
• Part 2 (What Happens When Habitats Change?): 20 minutes
• Part 3 (Putting It All Together): 20 minutes

Extend

Objectives:

• Students will apply what they have learned about changing habitats to a new situation.
• Students will deepen their understanding of how changes in habitats affect the organisms living in them, gaining a more generalized knowledge of this specific scientific concept.
• The teacher will resolve all persisting student misconceptions about how changing habitats may affect the organisms living in them.

Parts and Duration:

• Part 1 (Where Are Habitats Changing?): 20 minutes
• Part 2 (Show What You Know): 20 minutes
• Part 3 (Have Fun With It): 20 minutes

Evaluate

Objectives:

• Students will evaluate their own understanding of habitat change.
• Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the concepts and vocabulary.
• The teacher will encourage students to ask questions that could lead to future investigations.

Parts and Duration:

• Part 1 (What I Know): 15 minutes
• Part 2 (Showing Changing Habitats): 15 minutes
• Part 3 (Going Forward): 15 minutes