Georgia S2E3.b
The Standard
Construct an explanation of the causes and effects of a change to the environment in your community.
Georgia Standards of Excellence for Science · Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how weather, plants, animals, and humans cause changes to the environment.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify a change in their local environment and name what caused it. They explain how the change affects plants, animals, people, land, or water using observations and facts.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can describe a specific local change, such as a flooded park or removed trees. The student connects a clear cause to at least one effect and supports the explanation with evidence.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may confuse the cause with the effect or list two events without explaining their connection. They may also assume every environmental change is caused by people or is harmful.
How to Assess It
- Show a picture of litter blocking a storm drain after rain. Ask students to write the cause, one effect, and evidence from the picture.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Spray water onto bare soil and grass-covered soil in trays, then compare runoff and explain the different effects.
Discuss or write: What caused a change you noticed in a nearby park, yard, creek, or street, and what happened afterward?
Sort cause and effect cards about storms, tree cutting, animal burrows, litter, and plant growth, then defend each match.
Take a schoolyard photo walk, document one environmental change, and create a cause-and-effect caption using visible evidence.
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Related Standards
- S4L1.c
Design a scenario to demonstrate the effect of a change on an ecosystem.
- S2E3
Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how weather, plants, animals, and humans cause changes to the environment.
- S7L4.a
Construct an explanation for the patterns of interactions observed in different ecosystems in terms of the relationships among and between organisms and abiotic...
- S2E3.a
Ask questions to obtain information about major changes to the environment in your community.
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