Lesson 4: People Change the Environment
Activities
Activity 1: Changing the Land
Materials: crayons or colored pencils
On the sheet called "Changing the Land," your child will look at before and after pictures of the environment. The second picture is the same environment; it just looks very different because the land has been changed.
Let your child analyze each picture closely and describe what changed from the first picture to the second. Let her circle things in the second picture that are different from the first picture. Then ask her to think about what caused each change. She can color the pictures so that the environments are more realistic.
After she has analyzed and colored each picture, encourage her to write a sentence that describes something positive that came from the change. Review how changes can have positive or negative effects. Some changes can actually cause both positive and negative effects.
Let your child analyze each picture closely and describe what changed from the first picture to the second. Let her circle things in the second picture that are different from the first picture. Then ask her to think about what caused each change. She can color the pictures so that the environments are more realistic.
After she has analyzed and colored each picture, encourage her to write a sentence that describes something positive that came from the change. Review how changes can have positive or negative effects. Some changes can actually cause both positive and negative effects.
Student Activity Page
Activity 2: Before and After Diorama
Materials: 2 shoeboxes, crayons or colored pencils, glue or tape, scissors
Discuss that when people move into new areas, they must clear the land for homes, shops, and other buildings. New neighborhoods provide homes for people, but the neighborhoods can cause animals to lose their habitat and food sources.
For this activity, give your child one or two shoeboxes similar in size and then decide which option is more appropriate for your child. Option 1 only requires one shoebox, but Option 2 requires two shoeboxes.
For this activity, give your child one or two shoeboxes similar in size and then decide which option is more appropriate for your child. Option 1 only requires one shoebox, but Option 2 requires two shoeboxes.
Option 1
This option gives two simple environment pictures. Your child will color and cut out the scene on the "Before and After Diorama" (Option 1, Page 1) page. Encourage her to add more details to the forest environment, including plants and animals. Then let her add more details to the changed environment (Option 1, Page 2) where a neighborhood has been developed. Explain that this page should look like developed community. When she completes her pictures, she can cut them out and tape or glue them to the bottom of the shoebox. Then she can set the shoebox up so that the pictures have a 3-D effect. She can put cars, people, trees, and animals that could be found in the environment.
Student Activity Page
Student Activity Page
Option 2
Ask your child to trace the bottom of each shoebox on a blank sheet of paper. In the first box, ask her to draw a picture of a forest environment including trees, a stream, animals, and plants. Then in the second sheet she traced, ask her to pretend that the environment in the first box has now been developed and a new neighborhood has been built. Let her draw this new neighborhood, leaving some evidence that it is the same environment as in the first box.
When she completes her pictures, she can cut them out and tape or glue them to the bottom of the shoebox. Then she can set the shoebox up so that the pictures have a 3-D effect. Within the box she can put cars, people, trees, and animals that could be found in the environment.
When she completes her pictures, she can cut them out and tape or glue them to the bottom of the shoebox. Then she can set the shoebox up so that the pictures have a 3-D effect. Within the box she can put cars, people, trees, and animals that could be found in the environment.
Activity 3: Resources and Environmental Change
Describe that when humans harvest natural resources, this changes the environment. Every time a tree is cut down, the environment is changed. When trees are cut down in large numbers we call it logging. It is not wrong to cut trees down, but care should be taken to replant and to not harvest too many trees at one time.
Review that some natural resources, such as coal, come from beneath the earth's surface. People use coal in a variety of ways. Coal is burned by power plants to make electricity and is used to make both plastic and steel. Ask your child to locate objects around the home that are steel or plastic.
Coal mining is when people go beneath the earth's surface to get the coal. This is a dangerous job because the ground could collapse and coal miners' lungs can be damaged from breathing the fumes.
Farming also changes the environment. Land must be cleared to create flat and open surfaces for planting fields. Pesticides have also changed the environment. Pesticides are chemicals sprayed on crops to keep bugs from damaging the plants. The pesticides help farmers grow more crops and help protect the crops from sickness. These pesticides, in large quantities, can be dangerous to animals and humans. Often airplanes called crop dusters will deposit the chemicals.
Irrigation is another way that farmers change the environment. Irrigation is when farmers take water from a source such as a river, lake, or well and direct it to their crops. Sometimes ditches or canals are dug and pipes are put in place so that the water reaches the crops. Irrigation allows farmers to grow crops in dryer parts of the country, but over-irrigation may waste water.
Review the idea that care must be taken when humans change the environment. Give your child the sheet called "Resources and Environmental Change" and ask her to label each picture (mining, logging, digging irrigation ditches, and using pesticides). Then she will write a benefit of changing the environment in this way and a possible negative effect.
Review that some natural resources, such as coal, come from beneath the earth's surface. People use coal in a variety of ways. Coal is burned by power plants to make electricity and is used to make both plastic and steel. Ask your child to locate objects around the home that are steel or plastic.
Coal mining is when people go beneath the earth's surface to get the coal. This is a dangerous job because the ground could collapse and coal miners' lungs can be damaged from breathing the fumes.
Farming also changes the environment. Land must be cleared to create flat and open surfaces for planting fields. Pesticides have also changed the environment. Pesticides are chemicals sprayed on crops to keep bugs from damaging the plants. The pesticides help farmers grow more crops and help protect the crops from sickness. These pesticides, in large quantities, can be dangerous to animals and humans. Often airplanes called crop dusters will deposit the chemicals.
Irrigation is another way that farmers change the environment. Irrigation is when farmers take water from a source such as a river, lake, or well and direct it to their crops. Sometimes ditches or canals are dug and pipes are put in place so that the water reaches the crops. Irrigation allows farmers to grow crops in dryer parts of the country, but over-irrigation may waste water.
Review the idea that care must be taken when humans change the environment. Give your child the sheet called "Resources and Environmental Change" and ask her to label each picture (mining, logging, digging irrigation ditches, and using pesticides). Then she will write a benefit of changing the environment in this way and a possible negative effect.
Student Activity Page