Learning Links
Multicultural / Politics / Computers / Cities / Government / Transportation / Manufacturing / Communication / Climate / Stock Market / Agriculture / Machines / Conservation
Related Concepts
Contexts for Systems and Interactions: Biological (e.g., ecosystems) / Physical (e.g., electrical) / Social (e.g., manufacturing)
Demonstrators should be read from bottom to top, but need not be demonstrated sequentially.
Elementary Demonstrators
• Recognize things that work together.
• Identify components of a system.
• Communicate functions of a system.
• Classify systems based on functions or properties.
• Distinguish between systems and subsystems and describe interactions between them.
• Analyze how the properties of the components of a system affect their function within the system Investigate system feedback and self-regulation.
• Create a system.
Middle School Demonstrators
• Investigate and illustrate a system; identify its components and interrelationships with other systems.
• Demonstrate how a single system can have multiple functions and applications.
• Investigate the role of energy flow in systems.
• Evaluate the effects of subsystems and their components on a system.
• Design a new system or modify an existing one.
High School Demonstrators
• Analyze the effects and limitations.
• Analyze the role of effective communication and feedback within and among systems.
• Differentiate between cause and effect in a malfunctioning system.
• Design and implement a series of systems with multiple subsystems to achieve an outcome.
Sample Teaching/Assessment Strategies
Community-Based Instruction: Field Studies, Service Learning / Continuous Progress Assessment: Portfolio Development, Performance Events/Exhibitions / Problem Solving: Inquiry, Investigation, Experimentation, Simulation, Formulating Models, Research / Technology/Tools: / Whole Language Approach / Writing Process
These sample strategies offer ideas and are not meant to limit teacher resourcefulness. More strategies are found in the resource section.
Ideas for Incorporating Community Resources
• With the help of local officials study road, sewer, water, transportation, and telephone systems that serve your area.
• Invite local computer technology experts to present various computer systems. Ask a biologist, farmer, chemist, physicist, artist, or wildlife biologist to come to class to demonstrate and discuss interactions between humankind and nature.
• Ask a local city/county planner and an environmentalist to discuss the impact of development on the local environment.
Core Concept - Systems and Interactions
Sample Elementary Activities
• Using a variety of objects, design and construct a machine which can be used to elevate a box of books from the floor to a table. PE, P
• Identify subsystems in a habitat (e.g., pond, forest, aquarium) and investigate their interactions. PE, OE, P
• Complete an electrical circuit, identify its components, and describe evidence of their interactions. PE, OE, P
• Investigate the relationship among physical activity, breathing, and pulse rate. Use computer software to generate a 3-variable graph. PE, P
• Choreograph the movement and revolution of the earth to demonstrate the reasons why seasons change. PE, P
Applications Across the Curriculum
Variations on a theme: The Aquarium
Language Arts
• Build a class aquarium and keep a journal with daily observations. Describe evidence of interactions of subsystems within the aquarium. P
Mathematics
• Develop strategies to determine the amount of water in an aquarium. Consider the rocks, plants, and other matter in the aquarium. OE
Social Studies
• Design a flowchart illustrating a production/consumption chain for the class aquarium. PE, OE
Arts and Humanities
• Listen to the song "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." Rewrite to illustrate the interacting subsystems in the class aquarium. P
• Design and conduct an investigation to measure the effect of color, shape, and texture on fish behavior in the aquarium. PE, OE, P
Practical Living
• Develop a chart illustrating costs of purchasing and maintaining various aquaria. PE, OE
Vocational Education
• Invent a tool to help clean the aquarium more effectively or quickly. P
Sample Middle School Activities
• Modify a circuit to do something different (e.g., ring a bell, flash a light). PE, OE
• Examine a system (e.g., machine, body system) which is malfunctioning. Speculate and infer the source of the problem, and suggest corrections and/or solutions. PE, P
• Evaluate and illustrate the relationship of human body systems by comparing them to the operations of a city. PE, OE, P
• Create/design an emergency alert system for the school to use during a power failure. Describe its strengths and limitations. Present the design to the principal and/or maintenance supervisor. P
• Investigate the impact of zebra mussels on fresh water aquatic ecosystems in the United States. Access research information through CD-ROM and/or telecommunications. P
• Invent a system to feed and water a pet while the family is on vacation. PE, P
• Design and build a telescope or microscope from common lenses and tubing. Determine limitations of the instrument when it is used in investigations. PE
Applications Across the Curriculum
Language Arts
• Design a brochure to persuade people to protect a local endangered species. Present data to support its niche in the biome. P
Mathematics
• Build models of polyhedrals while investigating crystalline structures. P
Social Studies
• Analyze the effects of geography on social or economic systems in various world countries on the same continent. OE, P
• Chart examples of social systems which are portrayed in television programs. P
Arts and Humanities
• Create a rhymed couplet to communicate body systems. PE, P
• Demonstrate the various systems of showing value (e.g., hatching, cross-hatching, pointilism, shading). P
Practical Living
• Conduct a field study at a facility involved in food production (e.g., farm, processing plant). Create models that describe the system investigated. P
Vocational Education
• Compare the engine of a car to the human body. Use schematics to show the comparisons. PE
• Make a graphic representation of the systems involved that trace a product from producer to consumer. PE
Sample High School Activities
• Analyze the facts surrounding the issue of importing foreign species into this country and the impact on the environmental system. Identify the questions that must be answered regarding the sale of exotic animals as pets. Using desktop publishing software, write a newspaper article about your findings. P
• Explain how your body systems interact to allow the assimilation, utilization, and elimination of dye used in a diagnostic procedure (e.g., radioactive dye used in diagnosing kidney stones). PE, OE, P
• Evaluate the effects of a breakdown in one component of a system or subsystem (e.g., liver in the human body) on the system as a whole and on its interaction with other systems. PE, OE, P
• Investigate the laws of physics most often employed in amusement park thrill rides. Using computer software, design a thrill ride. P
• Create a system which employs various convex and concave mirrors to increase the intensity of a beam of light. Investigate practical applications of the system. Design a tool or device, using the procedure. PE, P
Applications Across the Curriculum
Language Arts
• Change a trait of a main character in a short story and rewrite the story using the new or enhanced trait. OE, P
Mathematics
• Determine the mathematical relationships that exist among the gears, gear ratio, gear size, distance, speed, and cadence of a multi-gear bicycle. P
Social Studies
• Illustrate graphically the variety of governments that have an impact on your life. P
• Illustrate how a law could be created through the local legal system. PE, P
Arts and Humanities
• Critique a professional performance (live or video) and identify the components (e.g., lighting, beat patterns of musical score, tonality of performers, design of the set) that created the holistic effect. Speculate how the mood or effect would change if components and their interactions had been designed differently. P
• Correlate a dance troupe's performing a ballet to a system, its components, and interactions. OE, P
Practical Living
• Research and track the health effects on humans of selected changes in the environment (e.g., a decrease in the ozone layer, herbicides that enter ground water). OE, P
• Illustrate the effects of smoking, drugs, and alcohol on prenatal development. OE, P
Vocational Education
• Design a warning label to be attached to a portable, multipurpose gasoline engine. PE, P
• For one month, record your blood pressure daily at the same hour. Also record your emotional state at that time (e.g., sad, happy, angry). Draw correlations between your emotional state and your blood pressure. P