Take a walk on the boardwalk trail and use your five senses to learn about our wetland habitat. Look for wildlife tracks, smell flowers, and feel different textures in the environment. Think about how animals use these same senses to find what they need to survive in this habitat. How do animals in the Everglades find food, water, shelter, and air? Could they still find what they need to survive if humans changed the habitat? 

Relevant Standards:

1st Grade

SC.1.E.6.1 Recognize that water, rocks, soil, and living organisms are found on Earth's surface.

SC.1.E.6.2 Describe the need for water and how to be safe around water.

SC.1.L.14.1 Make observations of living things and their environment using the five senses.

SC.1.L.17.1 Through observation, recognize that all plants and animals, including humans, need the basic necessities of air, water, food, and space.

2nd  Grade

SC.2.L.17.1 Compare and contrast the basic needs that all living things, including humans, have for survival.

SC.2.L.17.2 Recognize and explain that living things are found all over Earth, but each is only able to live in habitats that meet its basic needs. 

Learn what lives beneath the shallow waters of the Everglades.  We will collect and observe the tiny marsh creatures that survive buried in our muck and suspended in our water.  Learn the different methods each has developed to survive in this wetland habitat, and discuss how the creatures interact in their shared environment.  Predict how each animal would be affected by impacts to their habitat, like pollution or changes in water level.

Relevant Standards: 

1st Grade

SC.1.E.6.2 Describe the need for water and how to be safe around water.

SC.1.L.17.1 Through observation, recognize that all plants and animals, including humans, need the basic necessities of air, water, food, and space.
 

2nd  Grade

SC.2.L.16.1 Observe and describe major stages in the life cycles of plants and animals.

SC.2.L.17.1 Compare and contrast the basic needs that all living things, including humans, have for survival

SC.2.L.17.2 Recognize and explain that living things are found all over Earth, but each is only able to live in habitats that meet its basic needs.
 

3rd  Grade

SC.3.L.15.1 Classify animals into major groups (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, arthropods, vertebrates and invertebrates, those having live births and those which lay eggs) according to their physical characteristics and behaviors.

SC.3.L.17.1 Describe how animals and plants respond to changing seasons.
 

4th  Grade

SC.4.L.16.4 Compare and contrast the major stages in the life cycles of Florida plants and animals, such as those that undergo incomplete and complete metamorphosis, and flowering and nonflowering seed-bearing plants.

SC.4.L.17.3 Trace the flow of energy from the Sun as it is transferred along the food chain through the producers to the consumers.

SC.4.L.17.4 Recognize ways plants and animals, including humans, can impact the environment.
 

5th  Grade

 SC.5.L.14.2 Compare and contrast the function of organs and other physical structures of plants and animals, including humans, for example: some animals have skeletons for support -- some with internal skeletons others with exoskeletons -- while some plants have stems for support.

SC.5.L.17.1 Compare and contrast adaptations displayed by animals and plants that enable them to survive in different environments such as life cycles variations, animal behaviors and physical characteristics.
 

6th  Grade

SC.6.E.7.4 Differentiate and show interactions among the geosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.
 

7th  Grade

SC.7.E.6.6 Identify the impact that humans have had on Earth, such as deforestation, urbanization, desertification, erosion, air and water quality, changing the flow of water.

SC.7.L.17.3 Describe and investigate various limiting factors in the local ecosystem and their impact on native populations, including food, shelter, water, space, disease, parasitism, predation, and nesting sites.

SC.7.L.17.1 Explain and illustrate the roles of and relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in the process of energy transfer in a food web.
 

High School

SC.912.L.17.2 Explain the general distribution of life in aquatic systems as a function of chemistry, geography, light, depth, salinity, and temperature

SC.912.L.17.8 Recognize the consequences of the losses of biodiversity due to catastrophic events, climate changes, human activity, and the introduction of invasive, non-native species.

SC.912.L.17.9 Use a food web to identify and distinguish producers, consumers, and decomposers. Explain the pathway of energy transfer through trophic levels and the reduction of available energy at successive trophic levels.

Get your feet wet on an off-boardwalk hike through the Everglades! Pretend you are a member of a Florida Native American tribe as you slog through the swamp.  Learn how plants have adapted to live in this habitat, and which species you could use for food, medicine, and to build a shelter. What would happen if all those resources were used up?

Relevant Standards: 

3rd  Grade

SC.3.P.9.1 Describe the changes water undergoes when it changes state through heating and cooling by using familiar scientific terms such as melting, freezing, boiling, evaporation, and condensation.

SC.3.L.14.1 Describe structures in plants and their roles in food production, support, water and nutrient transport, and reproduction.

SC.3.L.17.1 Describe how animals and plants respond to changing seasons.

4th  Grade

SC.4.E.6.3 Recognize that humans need resources found on Earth and that these are either renewable or nonrenewable.

SC.4.L.17.4 Recognize ways plants and animals, including humans, can impact the environment.

5th  Grade

SC.5.L.14.2 Compare and contrast the function of organs and other physical structures of plants and animals, including humans, for example: some animals have skeletons for support -- some with internal skeletons others with exoskeletons -- while some plants have stems for support.

SC.5.L.17.1 Compare and contrast adaptations displayed by animals and plants that enable them to survive in different environments such as life cycles variations, animal behaviors and physical characteristics.

6th  Grade

 SC.6.E.6.1 Describe and give examples of ways in which Earth's surface is built up and torn down by physical and chemical weathering, erosion, and deposition.

 SC.6.E.6.2 Recognize that there are a variety of different landforms on Earth's surface such as coastlines, dunes, rivers, mountains, glaciers, deltas, and lakes and relate these landforms as they apply to Florida

 SC.6.E.7.4 Differentiate and show interactions among the geosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.

7th  Grade

SC.7.E.6.6 Identify the impact that humans have had on Earth, such as deforestation, urbanization, desertification, erosion, air and water quality, changing the flow of water.

SC.7.L.17.3 Describe and investigate various limiting factors in the local ecosystem and their impact on native populations, including food, shelter, water, space, disease, parasitism, predation, and nesting sites.

SC.7.L.17.2 Compare and contrast the relationships among organisms such as mutualism, predation, parasitism, competition, and commensalism

8th  Grade

SC.8.L.18.1 Describe and investigate the process of photosynthesis, such as the roles of light, carbon dioxide, water and chlorophyll; production of food; release of oxygen.

SC.8.L.18.2 Describe and investigate how cellular respiration breaks down food to provide energy and releases carbon dioxide.

High School

SC.912.L.17.4 Describe changes in ecosystems resulting from seasonal variations, climate change and succession

SC.912.L.17.6 Compare and contrast the relationships among organisms, including predation, parasitism, competition, commensalism, and mutualism

SC.912.L.17.8 Recognize the consequences of the losses of biodiversity due to catastrophic events, climate changes, human activity, and the introduction of invasive, non-native species.

SC.912.E.6.2 Connect surface features to surface processes that are responsible for their formation.

SC.912.E.7.3 Differentiate and describe the various interactions among Earth systems, including: atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, and biosphere