4.7 Threatened, Endangered and Extinct Species
Date: 21 Aug 2006
Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Environment and Ecology
4.7: Threatened, Endangered and Extinct Species
This page contains the criteria for teaching Threatened, Endangered and Extinct Speciesthat were developed in the PA Academic Standards. Clicking on a grade levelbelow will skip directly to the criteria for educators teaching at or belowthat grade. Clicking on the criteria will lead to all the teaching resourcesrelated to it.
Fourth Grade |Seventh Grade |Tenth Grade |Twelfth Grade
| Grade 4 : Threatened, Endangered and Extinct Species (4.7.4) |
| Fourth Grade: 4.7A |
Fourth Grade: 4.7B |
Fourth Grade: 4.7C |
Identify differences in living things.
- Explain why plants and animals are different colors, shapes and sizes and how these differences relate to their survival.
- Identify characteristics that living things inherit from their parents.
- Explain why each of the four elements in a habitat is essential for survival.
- Identify local plants or animals and describe their habitat.
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Know that adaptations are important for survival.
- Explain how specific adaptations can help a living organism to survive.
- Explain what happens to a living thing when its food, water, shelter or space is changed.
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Define and understand extinction.
- Identify plants and animals that are extinct.
- Explain why some plants and animals are extinct.
- Know that there are local and state laws regarding plants and animals.
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| Grade 7 : Threatened, Endangered and Extinct Species (4.7.7) |
| Seventh Grade: 4.7A |
Seventh Grade: 4.7B |
Seventh Grade: 4.7C |
| Describe diversity of plants and animals in ecosystems.
Select an ecosystem and describe different plants and animals that live there.
Identify adaptations in plants and animals.
Recognize that adaptations are developed over long periods of time and are passed on from one generation to the next.
Understand levels of ecosystem organization (e.g., individuals, populations, species).
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Explain how species of living organisms adapt to their environment.
- Explain the role of individual variations in natural selection.
- Explain how an adaptation is an inherited structure or behavior that helps an organism survive and reproduce.
- Describe how a particular trait may be selected over time and account for a species' adaptation.
- Compare and contrast animals and plants that have very specific survival requirements with those that have more general requirements for survival for survival.
- Explain how living things respond to changes in their environment.
- Explain how one species may survive an environmental change while another might not.
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Explain natural or human actions in relation to the loss of species.
- Identify natural or human impacts that cause habitat loss.
- Explain how habitat loss can affect the interaction among species and the population of a species.
- Analyze and explain the changes in an animal population over time.
- Explain how a habitat management practice affects a population.
- Explain the differences among threatened, endangered and extinct species.
- Identify Pennsylvania plants and animals that are on the threatened or endangered list.
- Describe state laws passed regarding threatened and endangered species in Pennsylvania.
- Explain why one species may be more susceptible to becoming endangered than another species.
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| Grade 10 : Threatened, Endangered and Extinct Species (4.7.10) |
| Tenth Grade: 4.7A |
Tenth Grade: 4.7B |
Tenth Grade: 4.7C |
Explain the significance of diversity in ecosystems.
- Explain the role that specific organisms have in their ecosystem.
- Identify a species and explain what effects its increase or decline might have on the ecosystem.
- Identify a species and explain how its adaptations are related to its niche in the environment.
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Explain how structure, function and behavior of plants and animals affect their ability to survive.
- Describe an organism's adaptations for survival in its habitat.
- Compare adaptations among species.
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Identify and explain why adaptations can lead to specialization.
- Explain factors that could lead to a species' increase or decrease.
- Explain how management practices may influence the success of specific species.
- Identify and explain criteria used by scientists for categorizing organisms as threatened, endangered or extinct.
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| Grade 12 : Threatened, Endangered and Extinct Species (4.7.12) |
| Twelfth Grade: 4.7A |
Twelfth Grade: 4.7B |
Twelfth Grade: 4.7C |
Analyze biological diversity as it relates to the stability of an ecosystem.
- Examine and explain what happens to an ecosystem as biological diversity changes.
- Explain the relationship between species' loss and bio-diversity.
- Examine and explain how a specialized interaction between two species may affect the survival of both species.
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Examine the effects of extinction, both natural and human caused, on the environment.
- Predict how human or natural action can produce change to which organisms cannot adapt.
- Identify species that became extinct through natural causes and explain how that occurred.
- Identify a species that became extinct due to human actions and explain what occurred.
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Analyze the effects of threatened, endangered or extinct species on human and natural systems.
- Identify and explain how a species' increase, decline or elimination affects the ecosystem and/or human social, cultural and economic structures.
- Explain why natural populations do not remain constant.
- Analyze management strategies regarding threatened or endangered species.
- Identify laws, agreements or treaties at national or international levels regarding threatened or endangered species.
- Analyze the role of zoos and wildlife preserves on species that have been identified as threatened or endangered.
- Examine the influence of wildlife management in preserving different species in Pennsylvania (e.g., bobcat, elk, bald eagle).
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