Texas TEKS 3.12.C
The Standard
describe how natural changes to the environment such as floods and droughts cause some organisms to thrive and others to perish or move to new locations
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how floods and droughts change water, food, shelter, and space in a habitat. They identify which organisms may grow in number, die, or move away.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students connect a specific environmental change to its effects on an organism. They support each prediction with a habitat need, such as water, food, shelter, or space.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think every organism responds to a flood or drought in the same way. They may also assume organisms always adapt immediately rather than die or move.
How to Assess It
- Give students a picture of a pond before and after a drought. Ask: “What might happen to the fish and grass, and why?”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Build two tray habitats, then model a flood in one and drought in the other while students record changes to food, water, and shelter.
Ask students to write which pond organisms would thrive, die, or move after a drought, using evidence about each organism’s needs.
Play Habitat Change Sort with organism cards and flood or drought cards, sorting each organism under thrive, die, or move.
Use a local flood or drought report to predict effects on three nearby plants or animals and explain each prediction.
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Printable 3.12.C Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 3.12.C, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- 6.13.C
describe how variations within a population can be an advantage or disadvantage to the survival of a population as environments change.
- K.5.G
describe how factors or conditions can cause objects, organisms, and systems to either change or stay the same.
- 2.5.G
describe how factors or conditions can cause objects, organisms, and systems to either change or stay the same.
- 1.5.G
describe how factors or conditions can cause objects, organisms, and systems to either change or stay the same.
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