GRADE 7
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Life Systems: Grade 7 – Interactions Within Ecosystems
APPLICABLE EXPECTATIONS:
By the end of Grade 7, students will:
- identify living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) elements in an ecosystem;
- identify populations of organisms within an ecosystem and the factors that
contribute to their survival in that ecosystem;
- explain the importance of micro-organisms in recycling organic matter (e.g.,
as decomposers);
- investigate ways in which natural communities within ecosystems can change,
and explain how such changes can affect animal how such changes can affect
animal and plant populations (e.g., changes affecting their life span, their
gestation periods, or their ability to compete successfully);
- investigate the impact of the use of technology on the environment (e.g.,
the “greenhouse effect”; redirection of water flow for human needs;
use of pesticides);
- investigate the bio-economical costs and benefits of the recycling and waste-disposal
industries;
- explain the importance of plants as sources of energy (e.g. food, fossil
fuels), as producers of carbohydrates and oxygen (e.g., phytoplankton), and
as habitats for wildlife;
- describe the conditions in an ecosystem that are essential to the growth
and reproduction of plants and micro-organisms, and show the connection between
these conditions and various aspects of the food supply for humans;
- identify the importance of plants in the Canadian economy (e.g., in farming,
forestry, drug manufacturing, the nursery industry) and describe the impact
of the industrial use of plants on the environment;
- explain the long-term effects of the loss of natural habitats and the extinction
of species (e.g., loss of diversity of genetic material, both plant and animal);
- identify and explain economic, environmental and social factors that should
be considered in the management and preservation of habitats (e.g., the need
for recycling; the need for people to have employment)
The following vignettes address these expectations:
Species
at Risk
Rare Trees
of the Sydenham River
The Drooping
Trillium
The Sydenham
Has a Lot of “Mussel!”
River
Bottom Critters
The Great
Enniskillen Swamp
Amazing
Maize
The American
Badger
Vanishing
Tall Grass Prairies
The Eastern
Spiny Softshell Turtle
Bounce
on a Bog
Carolinian
Canada
Nature’s
Highway
The Changing
Landscape
Earth and Space Systems: Grade 7 - The Earth’s Crust
APPLICABLE EXPECTATIONS
By the End of Grade 7, students will:
- describe the composition of the earth’s crust;
- classify rocks and minerals, using their observations, according to their
characteristics and method of formation;
- analyze, through observation, evidence of geological change (e.g., fossils,
strata)
- investigate some of the ways in which humans have altered the landscape
to meet their needs (e.g., farming, urban development, roads) and assess the
environmental and economic consequences;
- identify earth resources used by humans to manufacture products and discuss
what happens to the products when they are no longer useful
- explain how the characteristics of soil determine its use
- recognize and explain the importance of knowledge of the different types
and characteristics of soil in determining its suitability for specific uses
- assess the importance of soil conservation
- describe how humans are affected by natural events and how technology has
helped humans adapt to the events
- identify past and present day applications of technologies that have contributed
to the study of geology
The following vignettes address these expectations:
Amazing
Maize
Tobacco
Farming
The McKeough
Floodplain
Glaciers,
Dirt and the Sydenham River
Groundwater;
isn’t it grand?
Ontario’s
Glass Company
Bounce
on a Bog
The Changing
Landscape
The Great
Enniskillen Swamp
Black
Gold! The Beginnings of the Oil Industry
Rocky
Teapots