Science and Technology/Engineering
17 Grade 1
Lauren Weiss and Margaret Krone
Describing Patterns
In grade 1, students have more fluency with language, number sense, and inquiry skills. This allows them to describe patterns of motion between the Sun, Moon, and stars in relation to the Earth. From this understanding they can identify seasonal patterns from sunrise and sunset data that will allow them to predict future patterns. Building from their experiences in pre-K and kindergarten observing and describing daily weather, they can now examine seasonal data on temperature and rainfall to describe patterns over time. Grade 1 students investigate sound and light through various materials. They describe patterns in how light passes through and sounds differ from different types of materials and use this to design and build a device to send a signal. Students compare the ways different animals and plants use their body parts and senses to do the things they need to do to grow and survive, including typical ways parents keep their young safe so they will survive to adulthood. They notice that though there are differences between plants or animals of the same type, the similarities of behavior and appearance are what allow us to identify them as belonging to a group. Grade 1 students begin to understand the power of patterns to predict future events in the natural and designed world.[1] [2]
LS1. From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- 1-LS1-1. Use evidence to explain that (a) different animals use their body parts and senses in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water, and air, and (b) plants have roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits that are used to take in water, air, and other nutrients, and produce food for the plant.
Falcon Curriculum Core Categories
Anatomy and Life Cycle
Falcon Curriculum Essential Question
How do falcons use their body parts and senses?
Materials
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Sample Plan
Review the five senses. Watch the Falcon Curriculum: Basic Information videos. Talk about how falcons use their five senses and how they are similar/different to humans.
Do the Five Senses Activity:
- Sight: Talk about how a falcon’s vision is 8 times better than humans. Have students use the binoculars/telescope as examples of how much better a falcon’s vision is than theirs.
- Hearing: Play the various falcon audio clips and see if students can hear the differences between them. Have them try to imitate the different sounds.
- Smell: Falcons have a basic sense of smell. Humans do not. Have the students close their eyes or blindfold them and see if they can identify various smells.
- Taste: Falcons have a basic sense of taste. Humans do not. Have students close their eyes or blindfold them; then have them hold their nose and see if they can identify the different tastes. Then have them not hold their nose and do it again to experience the difference.
- Touch: Falcons use their sense of touch quite a bit. Have students do a “Tonight Show”-style mystery box, where they reach into a box that they cannot see inside and try to guess what is inside based on how it feels. You can also have students try and experience touch like a falcon by asking them to try and pick up an object using only their feet/toes.
Falcon Curriculum Core Categories
Anatomy and Life Cycle
Animal Behavior
Falcon Curriculum Essential Question
How do falcon parents take care of their offspring? How are falcon families similar/different to human families?
Materials
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Sample Plan
Ask students about specific ways that their parents/guardians take care of them. Once you come up with a few examples as a class, have each student jot down their own and illustrate it. Come back together as a class and talk about some of their examples.
Introduce or review the Venn diagram. Do one side for human families and one side for falcon families.
Watch the Falcon Curriculum: Life Cycle videos. Fill out the Venn diagram with the examples they came up with (some might be in the middle section) and new ones they learned from the videos.
If possible, this lesson should be taught during March-June when the falcon cam livestream is up, so students can observe firsthand how falcon parents care for their chicks.
LS3. Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
- 1-LS3-1. Use information from observations (first hand and from media) to identify similarities and difference among individual plants or animals of the same kind.
Falcon Curriculum Core Categories
Anatomy and Life Cycle
Falcon Curriculum Essential Question
How are falcons similar to and different from each other?
Materials
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Sample Plan
Talk about how plants and animals of the same kind are both similar to and different from each other. Ask students for examples (i.e. all tigers have stripes, but each tiger has its own individual stripe pattern; roosters and hens look different; roses come in a variety of colors).
Watch the Falcon Curriculum: Basic Info videos. Look at the falcon photos. Ask students what similarities there are between male and female peregrine falcons. Ask about the main difference: size. Ask them why they think male falcons are smaller than females; use the About Falcons: Appearance section to explain.
Have students color and cut out the actual size falcon silhouettes.
ETS1. Engineering Design
- 1.K-2-ETS1-1. Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change that can be solved by developing or improving an object or tool.
- 1.K-2-ETS1-2. Generate multiple solutions to a design problem and make a drawing (plan) to represent one or more of the solutions.
Falcon Curriculum Core Categories
Conservation and Policy
Falcon Curriculum Essential Question
How can humans help falcons by building places for them to nest?
Materials
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Sample Plan
Watch the Falcon Curriculum: Habitat videos. Look at photos and talk about the different nest sites falcons use, both in the wild and in urban settings. Discuss the challenges of building a nest in an urban area (need a high place, some sort of gravel/material to lay eggs in where they can be safe, etc.). Look at the old Du Bois nest box and the new one. What is the same? What is different? Why is the new one more covered? (Weather protection for the falcons as more snow, etc. occurs in the early weeks of nesting.)
Ask students to design their own nest boxes that would protect and provide for the falcons and their eggs: first in a drawing/plan, and then as a shoebox diorama.
Media Attributions
- Nest Box Diorama © Lauren Weiss is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license
- Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (2022). SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY / ENGINEERING Grades Pre-Kindergarten to 12 Massachusetts Curriculum Framework. https://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/current.html ↵
- Falcon Curriculum Common Core Standards mapping by Margaret Krone. Falcon Curriculum Lesson Plans by Lauren Weiss. © 2022 CC BY 4.0 ↵
