Exploring the Amazing World of Lichens with Manuela Dal Forno
Description
Title: Exploring the Amazing World of Lichens with Manuela Dal Forno
Air Date: March 28, 2019
Series:Smithsonian Science How webcasts, which are designed to connect natural history science and research to upper-elementary and middle-school students.
Lichens are all around us — on trees, rocks, and even some buildings. But, what is a lichen? And what good are they? Lichen scientist Manuela Dal Forno will help students understand the special symbiotic relationship inside each lichen. She will show students the different steps she takes to study lichens: finding them in nature, looking at them under a microscope, and analyzing their DNA. She will share why we care about lichens: Understanding the life around us is important for understanding nature and how environments are changing. For instance, many lichens are indicators of air quality and others provide habitats for insects and nest material for hummingbirds.
Skills: Throughout the program, we will emphasize the basic science skills Manuela uses that students also possess: making observations in nature, identifying patterns, working on a team, asking questions, and sharing information.
Teaching Resources
Use these resources to support pre/post activities:
3-LS2-1: Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
3-LS3-1: Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
3-LS3-2: Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
4th Grade
4-LS1-1: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
5th Grade
5-LS1-1: Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
5-LS2-1: Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
6-8th Grade
MS-LS1-5: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
MS-LS1-6: Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.
MS-LS2-4: Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
