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Grade 1. This unit introduces students to structure and function in plants and animals and the ties that exist between parents and their offspring. Lessons are structured in 30-minute class sessions to fit science easily into your day. The Exploring Organisms 1-Use Unit Kit with Literacy Set includes teacher's guide, 24 student readers, license to access online resources, and enough supplies and apparatus to teach the unit once to a class of up to 24 students.

Grade 1. In 5 lessons spanning 14 class sessions, the Building Blocks of Science® 3D unit Exploring Organisms introduces students to structure and function in plants and animals and the ties that exist between parents and their offspring. Building Blocks of Science® 3D lessons are structured in 30-minute class sessions, making it easy to fit science into your day. The Exploring Organisms 1-Use Unit Kit with Literacy Set includes a teacher's guide (item #515742), 18 on-grade student readers (item #515703), 6 below-grade student readers (item #515403BGR), a license for the teacher and students to access online digital resources, and enough supplies and apparatus to teach the unit once to a class of up to 24 students.

Along with hands-on learning, this Building Blocks of Science® 3D unit also provides digital resources to enhance the classroom experience. These components offer an additional method of delivering content, particularly for classrooms with consistent access to computers or tablets. Digital components include digital teacher's guide, simulations, digital literacy reader, interactive whiteboard activities, interactive student investigation sheets, and assessment. All digital resources for Building Blocks of Science® 3D are accessible at CarolinaScienceOnline.com.

Unit Summary
Our world is composed of living and nonliving things that are in constant interaction. All living organisms have the same basic needs for survival: air, food, water, and shelter (space). How organisms access resources to meet these needs differs greatly. Plants and animals have specific structures to suit their specific needs and environments. Some organisms receive care from their parents that helps them reach adulthood. The hands-on, inquiry-based investigations of Exploring Organisms focus on phenomena that support concepts related to the growth, survival, and reproduction of organisms. Through a series of five lessons, students identify structures that are unique to different organisms, explain life cycles and parent-offspring relationships, and draw conclusions about the characteristics, or traits, of organisms and how those traits indicate family relationships. Students make comparisons between all these concepts and their own human abilities and needs.

Next Generation Science Standards*
The Building Blocks of Science® 3D unit Exploring Organisms (©2019) integrates process skills as defined by the Next Generation Science Standards.

Performance Expectations

• 1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/ or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
• 1-LS1-2: Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.
• 1-LS3-1: Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.
• K-2-ETS1-2: Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• LS1.A: Structure and Function
• LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms
• LS1.D: Information Processing
• LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits
• LS3.B: Variation of Traits
• ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions

Science and Engineering Practices

• Developing and Using Models
• Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
• Engaging in Argument from Evidence
• Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Crosscutting Concepts

• Patterns
• Structure and Function

Common Core State Standards
Language Arts

• RI.1.1: Key Ideas and Details
• RI.1.2: Key Ideas and Details
• RI.1.3: Key Ideas and Details
• RI.1.4: Craft and Structure
• RI.1.7: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
• SL.1.1: Comprehension and Collaboration
• SL.1.2: Comprehension and Collaboration
• SL.1.4: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
• SL.1.5: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

Mathematics

• 1.MD.A.1: Measure lengths indirectly and by iterating length units.
• 1.MD.C.4: Represent and interpret data.
• 1.OA.D.8: Work with addition and subtraction equations.

Lesson Overviews
Lesson 1
In this first lesson, students begin with a pre-unit assessment in which they categorize living and nonliving things by defining their characteristics. Students think about plants as living things by making predictions about the growth of bean seeds, which will be observed and explored throughout the unit. The lesson focus then shifts to differences between plants and animals. Students identify structures that promote the survival of an organism in its environment. They also begin thinking about the structures they use to meet their own needs. In the next lesson, students will further explore animal structures by comparing them to their own. Students will define "adaptation" and think about how organisms differ based on their environments.
Lesson 2
In the previous lesson, students identified the difference between living and nonliving things by describing the common requirements for growth and survival. Students made connections between the structures that organisms have and the resources they need. This concept is further explored in this lesson as students distinguish between different types of animal structures that are used to meet similar needs. Students make comparisons to human structures by mimicking animal structures. In the next lesson, students will examine the relationship between baby organisms and their parents. This concept is related to the ability of organisms to meet their needs for survival, growth, and reproduction.
Lesson 3
In the previous lessons, students gathered knowledge about organisms, their needs for survival, and the structures they use to meet those needs. Students have applied their knowledge about organisms and their environment to identify adaptations that help those organisms survive. In this lesson, students consider the adaptations of baby organisms. First, students must understand that baby organisms may not be born with the structures they need to survive but do have adaptations to communicate with their parents. Students use texts to support the idea that some parents need to care for their young before they can survive on their own. In the next lesson, students will compare the appearance of organisms and their parents as they grow. This concept will be important in making connections to their human structures and behaviors.
Lesson 4
In the previous lesson, students focused on the relationships between offspring and their parents. In this lesson, students will compare the appearance of parents and their young. Students will examine photos of their own families to identify similarities and differences. They extend their ideas about parent-young relationships to plants by comparing their bean plants to a "parent" plant. Students should be able to make predictions about an organism's characteristics by examining its parents. In the next lesson, students will review what they have learned by drawing conclusions about organisms' structures and their needs for survival. They will be challenged to solve a human problem using animal or plant structures.
Lesson 5
In the previous lessons, students examined organisms, what organisms need to survive, and what structures and behaviors organisms use to meet those needs. Students also drew conclusions about organisms' development by comparing the appearances of baby organisms and their parents. Students learned that an animal's structures and abilities are dependent on its needs. In this lesson, students review what they know about plant and animal structures and then classify structures by environment and how they are used for survival. In a final investigation, students are tasked with designing equipment, clothing, or a tool that solves a human problem using inspiration from an animal or plant. The design must solve problems related to keeping human children safe from danger. By the end of the lesson, students should be able to identify similarities among all living things and describe different structures based on the needs of the organism.

*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.