Mississippi Science L.2.3A.2
The Standard
- L.2.3A
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the interdependence of living things and the environment in which they live.
Construct scientific arguments to explain how animals can make major changes (e.g., beaver dams obstruct streams, or large deer populations destroying crops) and minor changes to their environments (e.g., ant hills, crawfish burrows, mole tunnels). Communicate findings.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Ecology and Interdependence
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify how animals change land or water. They compare changes that affect a large area with changes in one small spot. They use what they observe to explain their thinking to others.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain that a beaver dam blocks a stream and may cause water to spread. They can explain that an ant hill changes a smaller patch of ground. They point to details in a photo or observation to support each claim.
Common Misconceptions
- Some students think only large animals make large changes, or that small changes do not count. Others name the animal without saying what changed. Some think a beaver dam creates water rather than blocking its flow.
How to Assess It
- Show photos of a beaver dam in a stream and an ant hill in a yard. Ask students to write how each animal changed its surroundings and use one visible detail to explain which change affects more space.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Pour water through a clay streambed in a foil pan, add a craft-stick dam, and sketch where water collects.
Show photos of a beaver pond and an ant hill; ask, 'Which change reaches farther, and what do you see that tells you?'
Give pairs photo cards of a beaver dam, ant hill, mole tunnel, and deer-damaged crops; sort by area affected and defend one choice.
Show a photo of a local stream or drainage ditch; have students draw where water might collect if a beaver built a dam.
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