Looking at Vegetative Growth and Elevation
Grade Level: 6-8
Lesson Background:
In this series of lessons, students will explore explanations for why treeline occurs on mountains. Students may explore a data-based approach, comparing temperature and precipitation data for two locations at different elevations. Students may investigate different life zones and how plants have adapted to life in these varied environmental conditions. Students may also investigate how climate change impacts alpine environments and what that means for the future of mountain plant communities.
Lesson Resources:
Possible Guiding Questions:
Why is there a treeline? How can certain areas have similar climate but very different vegetation? How have different plants adapted to different elevations? How might climate change impact vegetation patterns on mountains?
Possible Instructional Uses:
You may use this phenomenon to explore the relationship between environmental conditions and elevation, life zones, adaptations to different ecosystems, and climate change’s impact on vegetation.
Performance Expectation Connections:
MS-LS1-4. Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.
MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
Image: faungg - licensed under the CC Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
Science and Engineering Practices
- Engaging in Argument From Evidence
- Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Crosscutting Concepts
- Cause and Effect
- Patterns
Disciplinary Core Ideas
- Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
- Ecosystem Dynamics, Function, and Resilience
- Biodiversity and Humans
- Adaptation
Contributors:
Martha Inouye, Clare Gunshanen, Sienna Wessel, and Matthew Bisk