Curriculum Unit
Merry Ostheimer
Native Plants in Backyard Gardens
Title Author
KEY LEARNING, ENDURING UNDERSTANDING, ETC.
Study the local ecosystems and investigate how to influence its health by focusing on planting native plants with wildlife values that grow in the local Mid-Atlantic and Middle States Region.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S) for the UNIT
What plants would we grow to satisfy all the elements of a healthy food web? How can we keep healthy ecosystems that consist of native plants interacting with animal population in balance?
CONCEPT A CONCEPT B CONCEPT C
Study food webs and native plants for the region. Plan a virtual garden.
Investigate local region with GIS mapping tools
Explore geography using GIS and imagery
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS A ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS B ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS C
What host trees are already present near your school? What caterpillars and moths do they host? What other plants can you grow to attract more caterpillars and moths?
Where do you live? What is your zipcode? What region of the USA do you live in?
What is GIS and how is it different from looking at a map?
VOCABULARY A VOCABULARY A VOCABULARY A
Diversity, native, non-native, invasive, butterfly species, moth species, flowers, tree, shrubs, grasses
Zipcode, region, topography, imagery, survey, data, collection, ecosystem
Basemap, direction, geographic layer, GIS, map layer, pan, zoom in, zoom out, pop-up
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/MATERIAL/TEXT/FILM/RESOURCES
Native Plant Finder: https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder/
ArcGIS Web Mapping Tool: https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=88685ec7d1ae44a0b2b9e05395491090&extent=-133.921,11.2053,-55.7862,52.6063
Google Earth: https://www.google.com/earth/