Wildlife Ecology Explanation of TEKS Credits
Discover and understand ecological concepts that affect our wildlife through active games, nature discovery hikes, classroom discussions and exploration of live specimens that are native to Mo-Ranch and their habitats.
Kindergarten
| TEKS | Explanation of Credits |
| 112.11 K.2.B | Scientific investigation and reasoning. The student develops abilities to ask questions and seek answers in classroom and outdoor investigations. The student is expected to plan and conduct simple descriptive investigations. |
| 112.11 K.9.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows that plants and animals have basic needs and depend on the living and nonliving things around them for survival. The student is expected to differentiate between living and nonliving things based upon whether they have basic needs and produce offspring. |
| 112.11 K.10.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms resemble their parents and have structures and processes that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to sort plants and animals into groups based on physical characteristics such as color, size, body covering, or leaf shape. |
First Grade
| TEKS | Explanation of Credits |
| 112.12 1.9.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows that the living environment is composed of relationships between organisms and the life cycles that occur. The student is expected to sort and classify living and nonliving things based upon whether they have basic needs and produce offspring. |
| 112.12 1.9.B | Organisms and environments. The student knows that the living environment is composed of relationships between organisms and the life cycles that occur. The student is expected to analyze and record examples of interdependence found in various situations such as terrariums and aquariums or pet and caregiver. |
| 112.12 1.9.C | Organisms and environments. The student knows that the living environment is composed of relationships between organisms and the life cycles that occur. The student is expected to gather evidence of interdependence among living organisms such as energy transfer through food chains or animals using plants for shelter. |
| 112.12 1.10.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms resemble their parents and have structures and processes that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to investigate how the external characteristics of an animal are related to where it lives, how it moves, and what it eats. |
| 112.12 1.10.B | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms resemble their parents and have structures and processes that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to identify and compare the parts of plants. |
| 112.12 1.10.C | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms resemble their parents and have structures and processes that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to compare ways that young animals resemble their parents. |
| 112.12 1.10.D | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms resemble their parents and have structures and processes that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to observe and record life cycles of animals such as a chicken, frog, or fish. |
Second Grade
| TEKS | Explanation of Credits |
| 112.13 2.2.A | Scientific investigation and reasoning. The student develops abilities to ask questions and see answers in classroom and outdoor investigations. The student is expected to ask questions about organisms, objects and during observations and investigations. |
| 112.13 2.9.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows that living organisms have basic needs that must be met for them to survive within their environment. The student is expected to identify the basic needs of plants and animals. |
| 112.13 2.9.B | Organisms and environments. The student knows that living organisms have basic needs that must be met for them to survive within their environment. The student is expected to identify factors in the environment, including temperature and precipitation, that affect growth and behavior such as migration, hibernation, and dormancy of living things. |
| 112.13 2.9.C | Organisms and environments. The student knows that living organisms have basic needs that must be met for them to survive within their environment. The student is expected to compare the ways living organisms depend on each other and on their environments such as through food chains. |
| 112.13 2.10.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms resemble their parents and have structures and processes that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to observe, record and compare how the physical characteristics of animals help them meet their basic needs. |
| 112.13 2.10.C | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms resemble their parents and have structures and processes that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to investigate and record some of the unique stages that insects such as grasshoppers and butterflies undergo during their life cycle. |
Third Grade
| TEKS | Explanation of Credits |
| 112.14 3.9.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows and can describe patterns, cycles, systems, and relationships within the environments. The student is expected to observe and describe the physical characteristics of environments and how they support populations and communities of plants and animals within an ecosystem. |
| 112.14 3.9.B | Organisms and environments. The student knows and can describe patterns, cycles, systems, and relationships within the environments. The student is expected to identify and describe the flow of energy in a food chain and predict how changes in a food chain affect the ecosystem such as removal of frogs from a pond or bees from a field. |
| 112.14 3.9.C | Organisms and environments. The student knows and can describe patterns, cycles, systems, and relationships within the environments. The student is expected to describe environmental changes such as floods and droughts where some organisms thrive and others perish or move to new locations. |
| 112.14 3.10.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms undergo similar life processes and have structures that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to explore how structures and functions of plants and animals allow them to survive in a particular environment. |
| 112.14 3.10.B | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms undergo similar life processes and have structures that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to investigate and compare how animals and plants undergo a series of orderly changes in their diverse life cycles such as tomato plants, frogs and lady beetles. |
Fourth Grade
| TEKS | Explanation of Credits |
| 112.15 4.9.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows and understands that living organisms within an ecosystem interact with one another and with their environment. The student is expected to investigate that most producers need sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make their own food, while consumes are dependent on other organisms for food. |
| 112.15 4.9.B | Organisms and environments. The student knows and understands that living organisms within an ecosystem interact with one another and with their environment. The student is expected to describe the flow of energy through food webs, beginning with the Sun, and predict how changes in the ecosystem affect the food web. |
| 112.15 4.10.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms undergo similar life processes and have structures and behaviors that help them survive within their environment. The student is expected to explore how structures and functions enable organisms to survive in their environment. |
| 112.15 4.10.B | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms undergo similar life processes and have structures and behaviors that help them survive within their environment. The student is expected to explore and describe examples of traits that are inherited from parents to offspring such as eye color and shapes of leaves and behaviors that are learned such as reading a book and a wolf pack teaching their pups to hunt effectively. |
Fifth Grade
| TEKS | Explanation of Credits |
| 112.16 5.9.B | Organisms and environments. The student knows that there are relationships, systems and cycles within environments. The student is expected to describe the flow of energy within a food web, including the roles of the Sun, producers, consumers and decomposers. |
| 112.16 5.9.C | Organisms and environments. The student knows that there are relationships, systems and cycles within environments. The student is expected to predict the effects of changes in ecosystems caused by living organisms, including humans, such as the overpopulation of grazers or the building of highways. |
| 112.16 5.10.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms have structures and behaviors that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to compare the structures and functions of different species that help them live and survive in a specific environment such as hooves on prairie animals or webbed feet in aquatic animals. |
| 112.16 5.10.B | Organisms and environments. The student knows that organisms have structures and behaviors that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to differentiate between inherited traits of plants and animals such as spines on a cactus or shape of a beak and learned behaviors such as an animal learning tricks or a child riding a bicycle. |
Sixth Grade
| TEKS | Explanation of Credits |
| 112.18 6.12.C | Organisms and environments. The student knows all organisms are classified into domains and kingdoms. Organisms within these taxonomic groups share similar characteristics that allow them to interact with the living and nonliving parts of their ecosystem. The student is expected to recognize that the broadest taxonomic classification of living organisms is divided into currently recognized domains. |
| 112.18 6.12.D | Organisms and environments. The student knows all organisms are classified into domains and kingdoms. Organisms within these taxonomic groups share similar characteristics that allow them to interact with the living and nonliving parts of their ecosystem. The student is expected to identify the basic characteristics of organisms, including prokaryotic or eukaryotic, unicellular or multicellular, autotrophic or heterotrophic, and mode of reproduction, that further classify them in the currently recognized kingdoms. |
| 112.18 6.12.E | Organisms and environments. The student knows all organisms are classified into domains and kingdoms. Organisms within these taxonomic groups share similar characteristics that allow them to interact with the living and nonliving parts of their ecosystem. The student is expected to describe biotic and abiotic parts of an ecosystem in which organisms interact. |
| 112.18 6.12.F | Organisms and environments. The student knows all organisms are classified into domains and kingdoms. Organisms within these taxonomic groups share similar characteristics that allow them to interact with the living and nonliving parts of their ecosystem. The student is expected to diagram the levels of organization within an ecosystem, including organism, population, community and ecosystem. |
Seventh Grade
| TEKS | Explanation of Credits |
| 112.19 7.5.B | Matter and energy. The student knows that interactions occur between matter and energy. The student is expected to diagram the flow of energy through living systems, including food chains, food webs and energy pyramids. |
| 112.19 7.10.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows that there is a relationship between organisms and the environment. The student is expected to observe and describe how different environments, including microhabitats in schoolyards and biomes, support different varieties of organisms. |
| 112.19 7.10.B | Organisms and environments. The student knows that there is a relationship between organisms and the environment. The student is expected to describe how biodiversity contributes to the sustainability of an ecosystem. |
| 112.19 7.11.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows that populations and species demonstrate variation and inherit many of their unique traits through gradual processes over many generations. The student is expected to examine organisms or their structures such as insects or leaves and use dichotomous keys for identification. |
Eighth Grade
| TEKS | Explanation of Credits |
| 112.20 8.11.A | Organisms and environments. The student knows interdependence occurs among living systems and the environment and that human activities can affect these systems. The student is expected to investigate how organisms and populations in an ecosystem depend on and may compete for biotic factors such as food and abiotic factors such as quantity of light, water, range or temperatures or soil composition. |
| 112.20 8.11.B | Organisms and environments. The student knows interdependence occurs among living systems and the environment and that human activities can affect these systems. The student is expected to explore how short- and long-term environmental changes affect organisms and traits in subsequent populations. |
