An Example of Science and Social Studies Standards Taught at Middleton Farms
While at Middleton Farms students will:
- Investigate the
resulting motion of objects when forces of different strengths and directions
act upon them (e.g., object being pushed, object being pulled, two objects
colliding.) (See saws and swings)
- Use
observations and data from investigations to determine if a design solution
(e.g., designing a ramp to increase the speed of an object in order to move a
stationary object) solves the problem of using force to change the speed or
direction of an object.* (Hand
pump water and duck races)
- Distinguish between living and nonliving things
and verify what living things need to survive (e.g., animals needing food,
water, and air; plants needing nutrients, water, sunlight, and air). (Garden, greenhouse, calf
feeding, milking demonstration, provided)
- Gather evidence to support how plants and
animals provide for their needs by altering their environment (e.g., tree roots
breaking a sidewalk to provide space, red fox burrowing to create a den to
raise young, humans growing gardens for food and building roads for transportation).
(Garden, greenhouse, calf
feeding)
- Identify and plan
possible solutions (e.g., reducing, reusing, recycling) to lessen the human
impact on the local environment.* (Garden, greenhouse)
- Observe and describe the
effects of sunlight on Earth's surface (e.g., heat from the sun causing
evaporation of water or increased temperature of soil, rocks, sand, and water).
(Garden, greenhouse)
- Observe, record, and
share findings of local weather patterns over a period of time (e.g., increase
in daily temperature from morning to afternoon, typical rain and storm patterns
from season to season). (Garden,
greenhouse)
Social Studies Objectives:
2.) Compare families of today with families of the past in relation to work, home, and school.
Examples:
- present-one or both parents working outside the home, families sharing household responsibilities, students having choices of transportation;
- -past-parents working together on family-owned farms, family responsibilities assigned by gender, students walking to school
4.) Identify personal use of goods and services.
- Demonstrating ways money is used in everyday life
Examples: saving money in piggy banks, using money to buy pencils at the school supply store
- Identifying various community helpers and their roles in the community
Examples: farmers providing food, firefighters putting out fires, health care professionals giving vaccinations, police officers protecting citizens
Grade 1
- Conduct experiments to
provide evidence that vibrations of matter can create sound (e.g., striking a
tuning fork, plucking a guitar string) and sound can make matter vibrate (e.g.,
holding a piece of paper near a sound system speaker, touching your throat
while speaking). (Playground)
- Investigate materials to
determine which types allow light to pass through (e.g., transparent materials
such as clear plastic wrap), allow only partial light to pass through (e.g.,
translucent materials such as wax paper), block light (e.g., opaque materials
such as construction paper), or reflect light (e.g., shiny materials such as
aluminum foil). (Greenhouse)
- Design and construct a
device that uses light or sound to send a communication signal over a distance
(e.g., using a flashlight and a piece of cardboard to simulate a signal lamp
for sending a coded message to a classmate, using a paper cup and string to
simulate a telephone for talking to a classmate). (Playground)
- Design a solution to a
human problem by using materials to imitate how plants and/or animals use their
external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs (e.g.,
outerwear imitating animal furs for insulation, gear mimicking tree bark or
shells for protection). Life cycle, Greenhouse
- Obtain information to
provide evidence that parents and their offspring engage in patterns of
behavior that help the offspring survive (e.g., crying of offspring indicating
need for feeding, quacking or barking by parents indicating protection of young).
Life cycle, Milking Demonstration
- Make observations to
identify the similarities and differences of offspring to their parents and to
other members of the same species (e.g., flowers from the same kind of plant
being the same shape, but differing in size; dog being same breed as parent,
but differing in fur color or pattern). Life cycle, Milking Demonstration
Social Studies:
1.) Identify past and present modes of air, land, and water transportation.
Examples: airplane, spacecraft; horse and buggy, subway
• Identifying past and present forms of communication
Examples: past-letter, radio, rotary-dial telephone;
• Identifying past and present types of technology (Station: farming in the past or present-horse and plow, today-GPS guided equipment/tractors)
4.) Describe the role of money in everyday life.
Examples: using money to purchase goods such as groceries (farmers purchase feed, fertilizer, seed, consumer purchases finished products: milk, butter, ice cream, cheese), using money to pay for services such as babysitting
• Explaining differences between wants and needs
• Explaining differences between buyers and sellers
Grade 2
1.) Conduct experiments to provide evidence that vibrations of matter can create sound (e.g., striking a tuning fork, plucking a guitar string) and sound can make matter vibrate (e.g., holding a piece of paper near a sound system speaker, touching your throat while speaking). (Playground-Moosic Wall)
3.) Investigate materials to determine which types allow light to pass through (e.g., transparent materials such as clear plastic wrap), allow only partial light to pass through (e.g., translucent materials such as wax paper), block light (e.g., opaque materials such as construction paper), or reflect light (e.g., shiny materials such as aluminum foil). (Greenhouse)
4.) Design and construct a device that uses light or sound to send a communication signal over a distance (e.g., using a flashlight and a piece of cardboard to simulate a signal lamp for sending a coded message to a classmate, using a paper cup and string to simulate a telephone for talking to a classmate).* (Playground-Moosic Wall)
5.) Design a solution to a human problem by using materials to imitate how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs (e.g., outerwear imitating animal furs for insulation, gear mimicking tree bark or shells for protection).* (See and feel animal skin at calf feeding station, observe plants in garden and greenhouse)
6.) Obtain information to provide evidence that parents and their offspring engage in patterns of behavior that help the offspring survive (e.g., crying of offspring indicating need for feeding, quacking or barking by parents indicating protection of young). (Calf feeding, milking demonstration)
7.) Make observations to identify the similarities and differences of offspring to their parents and to other members of the same species (e.g., flowers from the same kind of plant being the same shape, but differing in size; dog being same breed as parent, but differing in fur color or pattern). (Calf feeding, milking demonstration)
Social Studies
1.) Compare features of modern-day living to those of the past. (Station: farming past/present)
Examples: past-shopping in general stores, attending frontier schools in one-room buildings;
- present-shopping in national chain superstores, attending contemporary schools with multiple classrooms
• Using vocabulary to describe segments of time
Examples: year, decade, century
5.) Explain the relationship between the production and distribution processes. (Live Milking Demonstration and presentation)
Examples: tracing milk supply from production on the farm to grocery stores and to consumers, tracing the manufacturing of technological components in other countries to consumers in the United States
• Discussing the impact of consumer choices and decisions
Example: cost of buying and caring for a pet
• Making informed decisions about borrowing and saving
