Content Notes
Living Systems 2.5 SOL:
The student will investigate and understand that living things are part of a system. Key concepts include:
a) Living organisms are interdependent with their living and nonliving surroundings;
b) an animal's habitat includes adequate food, water, shelter or cover, and space;
c) habitats change over time due to many influences; and
d) fossils provide information about living systems that were on Earth years ago.
Overview- Curriculum Framework:
In K.6 students are introduced to the concept of living and nonliving.
Students are introduced to living systems in 2.5 and investigate and understand
that living organisms interact with other living organisms and their
surroundings. The formal word system is introduced in this standard. The
expectation is that students understand the concept in terms of the interactions
between living and nonliving things. It is intended that students will actively
develop and utilize scientific investigation, reasoning, and logic skills (2.1)
in the context of the key concepts presented in this standard.
Understanding the Standard
(Background Information for Instructor Use Only)
-Living organisms are dependent on other living organisms and their nonliving
surroundings for survival.
-All of the interactions between and among living organisms and their
nonliving surroundings are referred to as a system.
-Shelter may be living (coral, tree) or nonliving (caves, houses).
-The habitat of an animal includes adequate food, water, shelter or cover, and
space. If any of the basic elements of an animal’s habitat are absent, the
animal’s survival is threatened. The animal may adapt or leave the area.
-The habitats of living organisms, such as forests, grasslands, rivers, and
streams, change due to many human or natural influences (e.g., forest fires,
hurricanes, and droughts). Habitats change from season to season.
-Fossils found provide scientists with information about plants and animals
that lived on Earth many years ago. (e.g., The rise and fall of sea level is
recorded in the richly fossiliferous rocks of Virginia’s coastal plain. An
abundance of marine fossils – fossil clams, snails, sand dollars, shark’s teeth,
and whalebones – can be found in Virginia’s coastal plains.)
-Virginia’s state fossil, Chesapecten jeffersonius, is a large extinct species
of scallop that dates to approximately 4.5 million years ago. It was the first
fossil ever described in North America and is named after Thomas Jefferson, one
of our founding fathers, and an amateur paleontologist.
Essential Knowledge, Skills, and Processes
In order to meet this standard, it is expected that students will
-classify objects as to whether they are living or nonliving.
-describe the basic components of an animal habitat (food, water, shelter or
cover, and space).
-classify the parts of an animal’s habitat as living or nonliving.
-construct and interpret simple models of different kinds of habitats,
including a forest and a stream.
-predict and describe seasonal changes in habitat and their effects on plants
and animals, for example, how trees change through the seasons and how animals
respond to changes in the seasons.
-describe how animals are dependent on their surroundings, for example, how
squirrels and other animals are affected by the loss of forest habitat.
-describe how scientists use the study of fossils to show past weather/climate
conditions and environmental characteristics.
Vocabulary
-Classify
-Dependent
-Surroundings
-System
-Habitat
-Living
-Nonliving
-Fossils
-Migrage
-Adapt
-Pollute
The student will investigate and understand that living things are part of a system. Key concepts include:
a) Living organisms are interdependent with their living and nonliving surroundings;
b) an animal's habitat includes adequate food, water, shelter or cover, and space;
c) habitats change over time due to many influences; and
d) fossils provide information about living systems that were on Earth years ago.
Overview- Curriculum Framework:
In K.6 students are introduced to the concept of living and nonliving.
Students are introduced to living systems in 2.5 and investigate and understand
that living organisms interact with other living organisms and their
surroundings. The formal word system is introduced in this standard. The
expectation is that students understand the concept in terms of the interactions
between living and nonliving things. It is intended that students will actively
develop and utilize scientific investigation, reasoning, and logic skills (2.1)
in the context of the key concepts presented in this standard.
Understanding the Standard
(Background Information for Instructor Use Only)
-Living organisms are dependent on other living organisms and their nonliving
surroundings for survival.
-All of the interactions between and among living organisms and their
nonliving surroundings are referred to as a system.
-Shelter may be living (coral, tree) or nonliving (caves, houses).
-The habitat of an animal includes adequate food, water, shelter or cover, and
space. If any of the basic elements of an animal’s habitat are absent, the
animal’s survival is threatened. The animal may adapt or leave the area.
-The habitats of living organisms, such as forests, grasslands, rivers, and
streams, change due to many human or natural influences (e.g., forest fires,
hurricanes, and droughts). Habitats change from season to season.
-Fossils found provide scientists with information about plants and animals
that lived on Earth many years ago. (e.g., The rise and fall of sea level is
recorded in the richly fossiliferous rocks of Virginia’s coastal plain. An
abundance of marine fossils – fossil clams, snails, sand dollars, shark’s teeth,
and whalebones – can be found in Virginia’s coastal plains.)
-Virginia’s state fossil, Chesapecten jeffersonius, is a large extinct species
of scallop that dates to approximately 4.5 million years ago. It was the first
fossil ever described in North America and is named after Thomas Jefferson, one
of our founding fathers, and an amateur paleontologist.
Essential Knowledge, Skills, and Processes
In order to meet this standard, it is expected that students will
-classify objects as to whether they are living or nonliving.
-describe the basic components of an animal habitat (food, water, shelter or
cover, and space).
-classify the parts of an animal’s habitat as living or nonliving.
-construct and interpret simple models of different kinds of habitats,
including a forest and a stream.
-predict and describe seasonal changes in habitat and their effects on plants
and animals, for example, how trees change through the seasons and how animals
respond to changes in the seasons.
-describe how animals are dependent on their surroundings, for example, how
squirrels and other animals are affected by the loss of forest habitat.
-describe how scientists use the study of fossils to show past weather/climate
conditions and environmental characteristics.
Vocabulary
-Classify
-Dependent
-Surroundings
-System
-Habitat
-Living
-Nonliving
-Fossils
-Migrage
-Adapt
-Pollute