CL Unit Title – Colorado Forest Ecosystem Subject/Grade Level – Grade 4
Length of Unit – 3 weeks
Fire Ecology Unit PlannerWhat do I want students to learn?
Resources and
Templates
Standards and BenchmarksColorado State Science Standards
Cherry Creek Schools Science Standards
Common Core Standards
Colorado State Science Standards
•
All living things share similar characteristics, but they also have differences that can be
described and classified;
•
There is interaction and interdependence between and among living and nonliving
components of ecosystems;
• Each plant or animal has different structures or behaviors that serve different
functions;
• Organisms interact with each other and their environment in various ways that create a
flow of energy and cycling of matter in an ecosystem;
• Changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of individual organisms,
populations, and entire species;
• Weather and the changing seasons impact the environment and organisms such as
humans, plants, and other animals.
Students will:
•Know: (Content and
Vocabulary)
•Do: (Skills, Strategies,
Processes and Literacy)
VOCABULARY: Abiotic, adaptation, bark, biodiversity, biome, biotic, cambrium, canopy, carbon cycle,
classification, climate, conifer, crown, DBH, decomposer, dendrochronology, ecology, ecosystem, erosion,
forest floor, forestry, forest management, fire, ground fire, habitiat, hardwood, heartwood, humus, interaction,
invasive species, ladder fuels, life cycle, microhabitat, montane zone, native species, natural resources, nonnative
species, nutrient, old growth forests, organic matter, organism, pioneer species, precipitation, prescribed
burning, pulp, recyce, reforestation, regeneration, relative humidity, sapling, sapwood, selective cutting,
selective harvesting, shelterwood cutting, shrub, slash, snag, species diversity, stand, succession, suppression,
surface, temperature, topography, tree, tundra, understory, wind, woodlands, xylem
Students will read about, investigate, record, analyze, and draw conclusions on the following:
• Demonstrate understanding of how tree age is determined
• Measure and anayzle Cherry Creek State Park forest health (Small section of the trred park)
• Influence of beetles on forest health
• Practice of fire suppression in our forests and its effects
• Identify the various types of trees native to Colorado and the parts of a tree
• Create homemade paper
• Compare practices of forest fire suppression to forest management
• Identify and debate wildfire fire fighting (pros and cons) as a career (or part time postion for young adults)
• Illustrate understanding of habitat and interactions of plants and animals in Colorado forests
• Defend a position on whether fire is good or bad
• Predict and then analyze forest density and other conditions on fire propensity
Enduring Understandings (Big Ideas)
For example… principles, themes, generalizations or
macro-concepts
• Healthy forests are in a constant state of change; sometimes that change happens suddenly, and sometimes that
change happens over an extended period of time.
• Disturbances such as fire, flooding, climate, humans, and insects (pine, spruce.ips beetles) often strongly
influence the change happening in our forests.
• Fire is neither good nor bad, it simply is!
• Scientists organize and classify to make sense and communicate in a common language. Our forests can be
organized/classified, and so can our climate, weather conditions, and wildfire. We use this information to make
decisions on how to manage our forests and wildfires.
• Studying trees/forests in a systematic way can help us understand, identify, describe, and compare tree/forest
health.
Essential QuestionsGuiding, driving questions which lead to enduring
understandings
What makes a forest healthy?
Is fire good or bad?
Are wildfires helpful to our forests?
How do beetles affect our forests?
Why are trees important in my life, to animals, and to our state?
How do scientists classify trees?
As a Coloradan, what should I know about our state’s forests?
Assessments
Pre-assessments (including data review if appropriate)Formative assessments
Summative assessments
Assessments provided with the various activities included in the PLT preK-8 Environmental Education Activity
Guide.
Formative assessments using my SMART Board and SMART Response (Interactive clickers with the
SMARTBoard)
Summative Assessment: Completion and evaluation of student science notebook investigations, I Learned
Statements, based on to be developed rubric.
Process
Learning Environment, Instructional Strategies,Instructional Groupings, Calendar and Timelines
This unit is quite hands on with an emphasis on the scientific process of inquiry. We will use our science
notebooks to observe, collect data, create charts and graphs to help us understand the data, analyze, and draw
conclusions. I will use two periods a day for this unit as it will be interdisciplinary, bringing together my science
and language arts slots to provide students ample time to get out to the Cherry Creek Reservoir to conduct
numerous investigations, read non-fiction articles on topics such as the pine beetle, forestry, wildfires in
Colorado, and read fictious stories such as The Lorax. Students will be grouped within a scientific team for the
duration of this three week unit with whom they will confer, discuss, debate, and share their thinking, results,
and conclusions.
Teaching ResourcesPrint resources, technological, people, etc.
Project Learning Tree Environmental Education Activity Guide
Colorado Newspaper Articles from around the state
Cherry Creek Reservoir State Park
Colorado Forest Service
Project Learning Tree Trunks
My website videos from the class (Which will be uploaded to the site soon!)
Photos from FEI Ecology Class participants posted online
Parent Volunteers
Bruce Ward: Choose Outdoors
Other online resources frovided by PLT and the FEI Blog
PLT Staff
ScienceClass
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Week 1 Activity 8:
Forest of S.T.
Shrew (50 Min)
Activity 9:
Planet Diversity
(2-50 Min)
Activity 68: Name
that Tree Part A
(50 Min)
Activity 68: Name
that Tree Part B
(50 Min)
Activity 21:
Adopt a Tree
(50 Min)
Week 2
Prep for the following activities at the reservoir
on following day:
Activity 23:The Fallen Log
(Share samples
of spruce and
pine beetle bark
and read
articles on
Colorado pine
beetles
Activity 27:
Every Tree for
Itself (Describe
activity and put
students into
teams and prep
them on their
various teams’
roles
Full Day Field Trip to Cherry Creek Reservoir
(Guest Expert:CC State Park
Forester)
Activity 12:
Invasive
Species
(50 Min)
Activity 22:
Trees as
Habitats
(50 Min)
Activity 23: The
Fallen Log
(50 Min)
Activity 27:
Every Tree for
Itself
(50 Min)
Activity 77:
Trees in Trouble
Location:
Cherry Creek
Reservoir)
Activity:
Identification of
Colorado Native
Trees
(50 Min)
Activity 76: Tree
Cookies (50 Min)
Activity 67:
How Big Is
Your Tree?
(50 Min)
Week 3 Activity 26:
Dynamic Duos
Activity 80:
Nothing
Succeeds Like
Succession Part
B (50 Min)
Activity 81: Living
With Fire (2-50 Min)
Activity 81:
Living With Fire
(2-50 Min)
Activity 34:
Who Works
in this
Forest? (50
Min)
Language
Arts
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Week 1 Activity 19:
Viewpoints on
the Line
(50 Min)
Activity 9:
Planet Diversity
(2-50 Min)
Activity 11: Can It
Be Real? Part A
Activity 11: Can It
Be Real? Part B
Week 1 Catch
Up/Closure/Review
Week 2
Prep for the following activities at the reservoir
on following day:
Activity 22:
Trees as
Habitats
(prep and read
aloud of
Goodnight OwlSee above
science section
for today’s
learning
activities
Location:
Cherry Creek
Reservoir)
Writing Activity:
Follow Up to Field
Trip on Tuesday
Activity: Colorado
Wildfire Non-
Fiction Reading
Lesson
Activity: Wildfire
Fire Fighters? Who
are they and what
do they do? Lesson
Week 3 Activity: Pine
Beetles in
Colorado Non-
Fiction
Reading
Lesson
Activity 80:
Nothing
Succeeds Like
Succession Part
A (50 Min)
Activity 89: Trees for
Many Reasons
Reading Fables
Lesson
Activity 51: Make
Your Own Paper
(2-50 Min)
Activity 51: Make
Your Own Paper
(2-50 Min
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