Using Ecosystem Ecology as a framework for integrating science content and basic skills lessons in a 5th grade classroom

Background/Question/Methods

Many science outreach programs aim to increase student exposure to nature and the scientific process or to increase the science content taught in elementary school classrooms.  However, elementary school classroom teachers must spend a large portion of their school days focusing on important basic skills.  Science outreach and education programs which integrate science content into reading, writing, and math lessons can successfully address goals to improve basic skills and science literacy.  We developed a unit on “Minnesota Ecosystems” for fifth grade students in an inner city elementary school in Saint Paul, MN as part of the NSF GK-12 program. Many key concepts in ecology, including decomposition, competition, food webs and photosynthesis, are part of the 5^th grade science standards in Minnesota. In addition, 5^th graders are expected to understand similarities and differences between the four major ecosystem types in Minnesota (wetlands, deciduous forests, coniferous forests, and prairies). We used three field trips to the University of Minnesota’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem science reserve and a series of science writing lessons (one hour per week) to teach these science standards.

Results/Conclusions

During the science writing lessons the students practiced basic skills in reading (fact finding, drawing connections, and summarizing information), writing (note taking, researching, embedding facts in their writing, defining important information, creating paragraphs, topic sentences, and editing), math (measuring, averaging), and technology (typing, creating posters). We will present our unit as a framework for discussing how scientific content can be integrated into core subjects in an elementary school classroom as part of a science partnership between classroom teachers and scientists. The model we developed is relevant to any practicing scientists who are interested in increasing their engagement with the K-12 community in mutually-beneficial partnerships.