IOWA 4-9 SCIENCE PROJECT

TEACHER'S GUIDE for: Connections Rollin Bannow
ECOLOGY.590 Grades 5-9

CONCEPT OBJECTIVE:
The concepts developed are the interaction and
interdependence of living things with their environment.

PROCESS OBJECTIVE:
Thinking skills developed in this cycle are inferring and
predicting.

MATERIALS:
Transparencies #1, 2, and 3 (Among the many cartoons
in chapter 11, Rube Goldberg His life and Times, Peter C.
Marzio, Harper and Row, 1973)
Drawing paper
Colored pencils if desired

EXPLORATION:
On an overhead projector, show and discuss the Rube Goldberg
drawings, stressing that seemingly unrelated events can
often be connected through chains of cause and effect
actions. Then allow the students to construct their own
Rube Goldberg-type of creations using objects of their own
choosing. Share the student creations by projecting with an
opaque projector.

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT:
Draw a spider web on the chalkboard or overhead projector.
Write the name of a common object, such as a pencil in the
center, and then listing its components, graphite, clay,
wood, paint aluminum (eraser holder), and rubber (eraser),
on the strands radiating away from it. On succeeding rings
of radiating strands list associated facts and sources for
each component. For example, for the wooden part of the
pencil, associated strands may include trees, logging,
erosion, reforestation, trucking, sawmill, and depending the
direction of the discussion, uses of forest land such as
recreation or wildlife habitat. Assign individuals or small
groups to construct their own webs around other common
objects. Disposable, or at least consumable, objects
provide for more dramatic discussions of the consequences of
using these objects.

APPLICATION:
1. As a class, hold a discussion which could be entitled
"How our city is like a Rube Goldberg cartoon." Make a
large scale drawing to display in the room.
3. Assign an observational homework assignment in which
students try to chronicle the interactions between a common
local wild animal, e.g. a bird, squirrel, chipmunk, etc. and
its environment. This can done either for a single
observation or periodically if the animal is a resident of
their yard or neighborhood.

4. Have the students plan a survival experience in a
remote area. They should attempt to live off the land as
much as possible.

5. Arrange with a local contractor to see an
environmental impact statement prepared for a local project.
Invite the person responsible for the report to class to
discuss it.