Grade 7 — Science: Food Webs, Ecological Pyramids, and Bioaccumulation

• 1.2.3 Combine Ideas - identify or invent personally meaningful ways of organizing ideas and information to clarify and extend understanding
• 2.1.2 Comprehension Strategies - use comprehension strategies [including reflecting on and assessing meaning, skimming, scanning, close reading, and identifying and relating in own words the main and supporting ideas] appropriate to the type of text and purpose; use a variety of strategies [such as concept mapping, mental rehearsal...] to remember ideas
• 2.3.5 Create Original Texts - create original texts [such as cartoon sequences, dialogues, short stories, letters, video presentations...] to communicate and demonstrate understanding of forms and techniques
• 3.2.3 Assess Sources - use pre-established criteria to evaluate the currency, usefulness, and reliability of information sources in answering inquiry or research questions
• 3.2.4 Access Information - expand and use a repertoire of skills [including visual and auditory] to access information and ideas from a variety of sources [including formal interviews, surveys, almanacs, documentaries, and broadcasts]
• 4.1.2 Choose Forms - select and compose using specific forms [such as character sketches, legends, video programs, scripts, stories, advertisements, posters.] that serve various audiences and purposes
• 4.1.3 Organize Ideas - identify and use appropriate organizational patterns [such as key idea and supporting details, cause and effect, sequence...] in own oral, written, and visual texts
• 4.4.1 Share Ideas and Information - facilitate small-group activities and short, whole-class sessions to share information on a topic using pre-established active learning strategies (such as role-plays, language games, simulations...)

• 7-0-2A Access information using a variety of sources.
• 7-0-2B Evaluated the usefulness, currency, and reliability of information using pre-determined criteria.
• 7-0-2C Make notes using headings and subheadings or graphic organizers appropriate to a topic and reference sources.
• 7-0-5F Record, compile and display observations and data using an appropriate format.
• 7-0-7G Communicate methods, results, conclusions, and new knowledge in a variety of ways.
• 7-1-09 Analyze food webs, using ecological pyramids, to show energy gained or lost at various consumer levels.
• 7-1-10 Analyze, using ecological pyramids, the implications of the loss of producers and consumers to the transfer of energy within an ecosystem.
• 7-1-11 Explain, using ecological pyramids, the potential for bioaccumulation within an ecosystem.

Teachers should note that Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum Developmental Continuum does not contain outcomes. Rather it is framed with Big Ideas. Since the developmental continuum is an assessment tool, teachers should not target individual descriptors within the Big Ideas but rather target Big Ideas and observe student’s behavior to determine which of the descriptors, contained within each of the targeted Big Ideas, each student is demonstrating.

Students begin to show the behaviours outlined in the following Big Idea(s):

• Gather and Make Sense
• Produce to Show Understanding
• Communicate
• Reflect
• Collaboration