Orchards As Teaching Tools

What's the purpose of an community orchard like this? People of all ages deserve spaces like this to learn from and enjoy. They are our community's places of destination!  We aren't the only ones saying this! If you look below, you'll see the educational standards that apply to outdoor and environmental education.  

Indiana Science and Environmental Science Standards

First Grade

1.LS.1 Develop representations to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

1.LS.2 Develop a model mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.  Explore how those external parts could solve a human problem.

1.LS.3 Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.

1.LS.4 Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live.

Environmental Science

Env.1.2 Understand and explain that human beings are part of Earth’s ecosystems and give examples of how human activities can, deliberately or inadvertently, alter ecosystems.

Env.1.3 Recognize and describe the difference between systems in equilibrium and systems in disequilibrium.  Describe how steady state is achieved through negative and positive feedback loops.

Env.1.6 Describe the difference between weather and climate.  Locate, identify, and describe the major Earth biomes.  Explain how biomes are determined by climate (temperature and precipitation patterns) that support specific kinds of plants.

Second Grade

2.LS.2 Compare and contrast details of body plans and structures within the life cycles of plants and animals.

Third Grade

3.LS.1 Analyze evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.

3.LS.2 Plan and conduct an investigation to determine the basic needs of plants to grow, develop, and reproduce.

3.LS.3 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Fourth Grade

4.ESS.4 Develop solutions that could be implemented to reduce the impact of humans on the natural environment and the natural environment on humans.

4.LS.1 Observe, analyze, and interpret how offspring are very much, but not exactly, like their parents or one another. Describe how these differences in physical characteristics among individuals in a population may be advantageous for survival and reproduction.

4.LS.2 Use evidence to support the explanation that a change in the environment may result in a plant or animal will survive and reproduce, move to a new location, or die.

4.LS.3 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction in a different ecosystems.

Fifth Grade

5.LS.1 Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

5.LS.2 Observe and classify common Indiana organisms as producers, consumers, decomposers, or predator and prey based on their relationships and interactions with other organisms in their ecosystem.

Seventh Grade

Env.7.3 Compare and contrast the effects of environmental stressors (i.e. herbicides, pesticides) on plants and animals.  Give examples of secondary effects on other environmental components.

Eighth Grade

8.LS.9 Examine traits of individuals within a species that may give them an advantage or disadvantage to survive and reproduce in stable or changing environment.

Env.8.4 Describe how agricultural technology requires trade-offs between increased production and environmental harm and between efficient production and social values.