ALEX | Alabama Learning Exchange

Holy Cow!

Classroom Resource Information

Title:

Holy Cow!

URL:

https://www.readworks.org/article/Holy-Cow!/6fe16b38-f829-4bb1-ae5b-fa8bb0e9e9b1#!articleTab:content/

Content Source:

Other
ReadWorks.org

Type:

Learning Activity

Overview:

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. Students will interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can introduce students to the concept of how human activities and resource consumption affect Earth's climate, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson.

Content Standard(s):

Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 6
Earth and Space Science

15 ) Analyze evidence (e.g., databases on human populations, rates of consumption of food and other natural resources) to explain how changes in human population, per capita consumption of natural resources, and other human activities (e.g., land use, resource development, water and air pollution, urbanization) affect Earth's systems.

NAEP Framework

NAEP Statement::
E8.15a: Human activities, such as reducing the amount of forest cover, increasing the amount and variety of chemicals released into the atmosphere, and intensive farming, have changed Earth's land, oceans, and atmosphere.

NAEP Statement::
E8.15b: Studies of plant and animal populations have shown that such activities can reduce the number and variety of wild plants and animals and sometimes result in the extinction of species.

Unpacked Content

Scientific And Engineering Practices:

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect

Disciplinary Core Idea: Earth and Human Activity

Evidence Of Student Attainment:

Students:

Analyze evidence regarding how changes in human population, per capita consumption of natural resources, and other human activities affect Earth's systems.
Explain how changes in human population, per capita consumption of natural resources, and other human activities affect Earth's systems.

Teacher Vocabulary:

Population
Per capita
Consumption
Natural resource
Environment
Earth's systems
Consequences

Knowledge:

Students know:

Increases in the size of the human population or in the per capita consumption of a given population cause increases in the consumption of natural resources.
Natural resources are any naturally occurring substances or features of the environment that, while not created by human effort, can be exploited by humans to satisfy their needs or wants.
Per capita consumption is the average use per person within a population.
Natural resource consumption causes changes in Earth systems.
Engineered solutions alter the effects of human populations on Earth systems by changing the rate of natural resource consumption or reducing the effects of changes in Earth systems.
All human activity draws on natural resources and has both short and long-term consequences, positive as well as negative, for the health of people and the natural environment.
The consequences of increases in human populations and consumption of natural resources are described by science, but science does not make the decisions for the actions society takes.

Skills:

Students are able to:

Organize given evidence regarding changes in human population, changes in per capita consumption of natural resources, human activities, and Earth's systems to allow for analysis and interpretation.
Analyze the data to identify possible causal relationships between changes in human population, changes in per capita consumption of natural resources, human activities, and Earth's systems.
Interpret patterns observed from the data to provide causal accounts for events and make predictions for events by constructing explanations.

Understanding:

Students understand that:

Human population growth affects natural resource consumption and natural resource consumption has an effect on Earth systems; therefore, changes in human populations have a causal role in changing Earth systems.
Typically as human populations and per-capita consumption of natural resources increase, so do the negative impacts on Earth unless the activities and technologies involved are engineered otherwise.

AMSTI Resources:

AMSTI Module:
Exploring Planetary Systems
Understanding Weather and Climate

Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards

AAS Standard:
SCI.AAS.6.15- Compare the relationship between human population and food consumption, water use, and land use.

Tags:

carbon dioxide, Earths systems, global warming, human activities, methane, natural resources

License Type:

Custom Permission Type
See Terms: https://about.readworks.org/terms-of-use.html
For full descriptions of license types and a guide to usage, visit :
https://creativecommons.org/licenses

Accessibility

Audio resources: includes a transcript or subtitles
Text Resources: Content is organized under headings and subheadings

Comments

ReadWorks is a website that provides K-12 teachers with free literacy resources (About ReadWorks). ReadWorks has literary and informational texts on a variety of subjects and reading skills. You may narrow your search using grade level or Lexile level, making this website a wonderful tool for differentiation. Students will complete their work digitally, and you will provide their score and feedback digitally. This makes it easy to go paperless for this activity.

Prior to implementing this activity, you will need to sign up for an Educator Account on ReadWorks. After setting up an account, create a class from the Class Admin tab, this will provide you with a Class Code to give to students. Next, use the Find Content tab to search for the informational article that will be used during this activity, "Holy Cow!" After navigating to the article, click on the blue Assign button to assign it to your class.

Each student will need access to a digital device, such as a tablet or laptop. The first time students enter the website they will need to enter the Class Code that is listed on your Class Admin page. Alternatively, you can print the article and corresponding questions for students, if digital devices are not available.

This resource provided by:

Author:

Hannah Bradley

ALEX Classroom Resource

Holy Cow!