This year in science, we’ll be learning about the ecology of our wonderful state, Kentucky. You might be thinking, “What exactly is ecology?” Ecology is a type of science that studies the relationships between living organisms in an environment, which you can think of as the natural world around us. So, before we go any further, we need to think about what living things are in our environment. Some things are easy to identify as living: us, the people around us, our dogs, our cats, even our pet fish. But what are some other things that may not immediately come to mind? Let’s think about some things in our environment that are living, but maybe don’t live exactly how we do.
First, we should think about things that don’t live in our house, but definitely are living. Birds, raccoons, animals at the zoo, even insects. But what about living things that don’t walk or make noise – yep, you’ve got it! We also need to study plants!
It’s kind of weird to think about plants and people having a relationship with one another. After all, most people aren’t friends with plants! But, we need to think about relationships in a bit of a different way. Instead of a friendship, a relationship in science means how things relate, or connect, to one another.
Plants and people and animals all connect. People grow plants, that’s one connection. People also eat plants. Animals eat plants. What are some other connections you can think of?
Let’s think about the state of Kentucky. Wherever we are in Kentucky, we are seeing what the ecosystem is like now in Kentucky. But do you ever wonder what it was like before people settled and made homes in Kentucky? Let’s look at the two maps and compare. The first map is a map of Kentucky’s land before people settled in large numbers in the state. The second map is after a lot more people made Kentucky their home. Even if you don’t fully understand everything on the map, what are some differences you notice?
Here are a few things that I noticed. First, the yellow areas of the map are a lot smaller after people settled in Kentucky. Those areas are called wetlands and it looks like more people living here, or a higher population, in the Kentucky area caused those to sink. We’ll learn more about wetlands and other ecoregions later, and we’ll investigate together and try to find out why these changes occurred, or happened. Another thing I noticed is that the now or the after map has a lot more categories and colors than the first one! It seems like people settling in the area has caused several more types of land cover. For example, before there were large settlements in Kentucky, there are no “mined” areas on the map. Do you know what mining is? If you don’t, this is a great time to pause and look up the definition of mining in a dictionary. Read it aloud. What kinds of things might be being mined, or were mined, in Kentucky?
This school year, we will explore the ecology of Kentucky. If that’s a new word, don’t get too intimidate. Remember, is just a word to explain the study of how living things in an environment connect to one another. As naturalists, the more we understand how living things in an environment relate to one another, the more we can help preserve nature. We want to keep the natural lands of our beautiful state safe, healthy, and help them flourish. Nature is God’s beautiful creation and we have the ability to study nature and care for it. So let’s get to studying, fellow naturalists!
Notebooking prompt: Take a short nature walk. During this time, make some observations about how living things in your environment are connecting, relating, and interacting with each other. When you’re finished, create a sketch or watercolor in your nature notebook.