Students will be able to use critical thinking and collaboration with peers through various activities. By constructing an argument, students will gain more evidence and reason to prove their idea of how structures support survival in plants and animals.

Students will gain development of problem solving skills because students will have to use prior knownledge to gain the understanding that roots absorb water and nutrients to grow. Another example of knowledge that students will gain is understanding that animals can use certain organs or body parts to detect predators and prey.

As far as reproduction, students will gain an understanding that animals can reproduce offspring by using internal structures.

A connection to math can be made by incorporating data collection skills when observing plants and animals in different scenarios or measuring plant growth over time.

A connection to ELA can be made when contructing their argument about plants and animals having structures that support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. In order to contruct and argument, the students must know how to organize the information observed and articulate it through speaking or writing. This type of writing would be informational or persuasive. This would improve communication skills as well.

Biology would be connected with this standard because students will understand how animals and plants adapt and survive with the support of their internal and external structures.

Last, real life scenarios will help students make connections between their own experiences and what they are learning in the lessons. Everyday examples might include talking about growing a garden at home or having a pet and discussing what it needs to survive. Some students families may own a farm or an aquarium that require students to have some background knowledge in order to maintain the proper environments for their pets.

-content knowledge

-investigation, evaluation, and reasoning scientifically

-connecting ideas across disciplines