Habitats Classwork Name: 3 rd Grade PSI The Bog Habitat A bog is a wetland habitat where many organisms make their home. Can you find all the hidden wildlife? Circle as many as you can find. Then answer the questions.
1. Name 2 abiotic factors that are found in the bog. 2. Besides the animals, name 2 biotic factors found in the bog. 3. Describe what would happen to the fish in the bog if there was a drought. 4. Many insects lay their eggs in shallow water. Would the adult insects be affected if there was a drought? Explain.
Habitats Homework Name: 3 rd Grade PSI A habitat is where an organism lives and grows. 1. Draw your habitat below. Circle one abiotic factor and one biotic factor in your habitat drawing. My Habitat My habitat is. 2. Pretend you live in the wild! Describe what type of animal you would be. 3. Create a change in the ecosystem that would benefit your animal. (Look at your characteristics carefully: hair color, eye color, etc.)
4. The other animals in the ecosystem would have three ways to respond to the change in the ecosystem. What are these?
Adaptations Classwork Name: 3 rd Grade PSI 1. An organism s adaptations enable it to survive in its environment. A cactus lives in the hot, dry desert. It is able to absorb water that falls. The arms of a cactus expand in order to store as much water as possible. What would happen to a cactus if it were moved to a tropical rainforest? Would this adaptation help it or hurt it? 2. Variations among organisms can lead to some organisms surviving better than others. Suppose that a group of tree frogs live on the large, green leaves of a tree. Some of the frogs are green while others are light brown. Which frogs will survive? Why?
3. Many birds have adapted behaviors that attract mates. The bird who has the best performance will be chosen as a mate. These behaviors include: Singing Dancing Displays Nest-building Birds of paradise are known for their elaborate dances to attract mates. Suppose that two birds are dancing for one female. One bird completes a dance perfectly while the other stumbles and makes several mistakes. How does this variation in dancing ability lead to reproduction?
Adaptations Homework Name: 3 rd Grade PSI Think about how birds use their beaks to get food. Answer the following questions for each bird. a. Describe the shape of its beak. b. How does the shape of its beak help it get and consume its food? 1. Hawks eat small animals, like mice and squirrels. a. b. 2. Woodpeckers eat insects from inside tree trunks. a. b.
3. Hummingbirds drink nectar from inside flower petals. a. b. 4. Pelicans eat fish. They can scoop up several fish at one time into their beaks. a. b.
Fossils Classwork Name: 3 rd Grade PSI Read the descriptions of the following fossils. Decide if each one was formed as an imprint, by preservation or by mineralization. 1. A fish is buried in sediment and its entire body decomposes leaving behind empty space. 2. An entire fly is found inside hardened amber. 3. The mold of a seastar. 4. A wooly mammoth tusk is buried in mud. Then, minerals replace the molecules in the tusk. 5. The cast of a trilobite. 6. Dinosaur footprints 7. Show the difference between a cast and a mold by drawing two different shell fossils below: Cast Mold
Fossils Homework Name: 3 rd Grade PSI Decide if fossils can be found in each of the following types of rock. Then, describe why or why not. 1. Sedimentary rock Are fossils found here? Why or why not? 2. Igneous rock Are fossils found here? Why or why not? 3. Metamorphic rock Are fossils found here? Why or why not?
4. Suppose that several fossils (A, B and C) are found in this rock face in Norway. Which fossil is the oldest? Which fossil is the youngest? Explain your answer.
How Fossils are Used Classwork Name: 3 rd Grade PSI The skeleton below is a stegosaurus. Look closely at it and then answer the questions. 1. How were these fossils formed? 2. Describe three things that you know about the stegosaurus from looking at its fossil.
How Fossils are Used Homework Name: 3 rd Grade PSI While walking through a canyon, you discover several trilobite fossils. 1. Are these considered casts or molds? 2. What type of environment existed at the time that these fossils were created? Explain why. 3. Look at the other fossils below. Which fossil could also be found surrounding the trilobite fossils.
Dinosaur Extinction Worksheet Name: 3 rd Grade PSI Complete the chart below describing each theory mentioned in the video. Theory What does this theory say? How could this lead to a mass extinction? Bad Health Competition for food Asteroid/Volcanic activity
Disturbances Classwork Name: 3 rd Grade PSI Endangered Species Some disturbances destroy habitats where animals live. Other disturbances, like hunting, destroy animals themselves. These different factors can lead to an animal becoming an endangered species. An endangered species are at risk of becoming extinct. Choose one of the endangered species below. Research your species and answer the questions that follow. According to the WWF, in 2014 these are the 25 most endangered species: COMMON NAME SCIENTIFIC NAME CONSERVATION STATUS 1. Amur Leopard Panthera pardus orientalis Critically Endangered 2. Black Rhino Diceros bicornis Critically Endangered 3. Cross River Gorilla Gorilla gorilla diehli Critically Endangered 4. Hawksbill Turtle Eretmochelys imbricata Critically Endangered 5. Javan Rhino Rhinoceros sondaicus Critically Endangered 6. Leatherback Turtle Dermochelys coriacea Critically Endangered 7. Mountain Gorilla Gorilla beringei beringei Critically Endangered 8. Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis Critically Endangered 9. South China Tiger Panthera tigris amoyensis Critically Endangered 10. Sumatran Elephant Elephas maximus Critically Endangered sumatranus 11. Sumatran Orangutan Pongo abelii Critically Endangered 12. Sumatran Rhino Dicerorhinus sumatrensis Critically Endangered 13. Sumatran Tiger Panthera tigris sumatrae Critically Endangered 14. Vaquita Phocoena sinus Critically Endangered 15. Western Lowland Gorilla gorilla gorilla Critically Endangered Gorilla 16. Yangtze Finless Neophocaena asiaeorientalis Critically Endangered Porpoise ssp. asiaeorientalis 17. African Wild Dog Lycaon pictus Endangered 18. Amur Tiger Panthera tigris altaica Endangered 19. Asian Elephant Elephas maximus indicus Endangered
20. Bengal Tiger Panthera tigris tigris Endangered 21. Black Spider Ateles paniscus Endangered Monkey 22. Black-footed Ferret Mustela nigripes Endangered 23. Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus Endangered 24. Bluefin Tuna Thunnus spp Endangered 25. Bonobo Pan paniscus Endangered Answer each question in the boxes below. Remember to write down where your information comes from. 1. Species name Source: 2. Where in the world is it found? What is its habitat? Source: 3. What is its role in the food chain? Is your species a producer, herbivore, carnivore or decomposer? Source:
4. What other organisms rely on your species? Maybe it is food for other organisms. Maybe it keeps other populations in check? Source: 5. What would happen to the ecosystem if your species went extinct? Source: 6. How did this animal become endangered? Is your species hunted? Have humans destroyed the area it lives in? Source:
7. How are people trying to preserve this species? Source:
Disturbances Homework Name: 3 rd Grade PSI Storm surge is a term that describes how high water rises during a storm. Look at the beach below: If there is a bad storm that causes a storm surge of six meters, this means that the water rises to a height six meters higher than normal. 6 meters Storm surges cover areas of the land that are usually dry. They can destroy habitats and change ecosystems in important ways. This is what happened during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There was a storm surge of six meters (20 feet!) in New Orleans. Eighty percent of the city was flooded for several weeks. 1. The wind and water from the storm destroyed 217 square miles of coastal land that were important breeding grounds for marine mammals, birds, turtles and fish. If these animals are going to survive, what will
they have to do? (Hint: There are two options for survival.) 2. Flood waters extended several miles into Louisiana. This means that saltwater filled areas that normally do not have water or that only have freshwater. How do you think this affected plants that lived in these areas? 3. Hurricane Katrina caused oil spills from 44 different facilities, causing 7 million gallons of oil to be spilled into the water. Describe one biotic and one abiotic way that this would affect the ecosystem?
Answer Key Habitat Classwork 1. water, air, sunlight, rocks 2. plants, bacteria (may be difficult because microscopic) 3. Sample answer: The fish will not have enough water to live in and they may start to die. 4. The adult insects would not have enough room to lay their eggs if there is a drought. This will cause them not to have any offspring and they may go extinct! Resource: Amsel, Sheri. Hidden Pictures of World Habitats. Bog Hidden Picture. Exploring Nature Educational Resource. 2005-2014. June 7, 2014. http://exploringnature.org/db/detail.php?dbid=15&detid=672 Habitat Homework 1. Drawings will vary but should have one living and one non-living component circled. 2. Answers will vary. 3. Answers will vary. 4. Answers will vary.
Adaptations Classwork 1. A cactus would absorb too much water. This would not be a positive adaptation for this environment. The cactus would die. 2. The green tree frogs would survive the best because their coloring allows them to be camouflaged in their habitat. 3. The female would choose the male who is the best dancer. Therefore, dancing ability would lead to reproduction. Adaptations Homework 1. Hawks have a shark, curved beak. This helps them to tear small animals apart. 2. Woodpeckers have a strong, pointed beak. This helps them to make holes in tree trunks and to eat insects inside. 3. Hummingbirds have long, skinny beaks. This helps them to get the nectar from the bottom of a flower petal. 4. Pelicans have a large, scooped beak. This helps them to scoop several fish from the water at one time. Fossils Classwork 1. Imprint 2. Preservation 3. Imprint 4. Mineralization 5. Mineralization 6. Imprint 7. Answers will vary but should show the cast as the shape of an actual shell and the mold as an imprint of a shell. Fossils Homework 1. Yes. Sediment piles on top of organisms and then hardens into rock, preserving portion of the organism into fossils. 2. No. If magma flows over organisms, the heat will disintegrate the entire organisms preventing the formation of fossils. 3. No. Metamorphic rock forms underneath the Earth and so never come into contact with organisms on the Earth s surface. 4. C is the oldest fossil and A is the youngest fossil. Sedimentary rock forms as layers of sediment flow on top of each other. The lowest section of sedimentary rock formed first with earlier formations on top. How Fossils are Used Classwork 1. Mineralization 2. Answers will vary. How Fossils are Used Homework 1. Casts
2. The area was covered in an ocean because trilobites are marine organisms. 3. The crab, crinoid and fish fossils could have also been found surrounding the trilobite fossils. Dinosaur Extinction Worksheet What does this theory Theory say? Global warming and increased UV light could have caused Bad Health blindness. The dinosaurs suffered from slipped discs and arthritis. An increase in the caterpillar population could have led to Competition for caterpillars eating all of the food leaves. Asteroid/Volcanic activity An asteroid and/or volcanic activity would increase dust and gas in the atmosphere. This would have decreased temperatures, decreased sunlight and caused acid rain. How could this lead to a mass extinction? Blind dinosaurs would have fallen over the sides of cliffs. Dinosaurs with arthritis would not be able to forage for food or mate. With all leaves gone, the herbivores would have no food and would starve. Then, the carnivores would have no food and would starve. Under these conditions, plants would die. With no food, herbivores would starve. Then, the carnivores would have no food and would starve. Disturbances Classwork Answers will vary. Disturbances Homework 1. In order to survive, the animals would have to adapt or move to a new location. 2. The plants are not adapted to be covered in salt water. Most of the plants would die as they would not have time to adapt to the change. 3. Answers will vary.