Colorado State Model Content Standards addressed:
STANDARD 1: Students understand the processes of scientific investigation and design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such investigations.
STANDARD 3: Life Science: Students know and understand the characteristics and structure of living things, the processes of life, and how living things interact with each other and their environment.
Objectives: Students should be able to:
- Describe what is meant by the terms “community’ and “ecosystem” in an ecological sense.
- Describe some of the common interactions that might occur between organisms in a community: Predator-prey, mutualism, parasitism, symbiosis, competition, commensalism
- Describe characteristics of communities as a whole: Richness, diversity, stability
- Predict how disturbance will alter the structure of a community
- Describe how energy flows and matter cycles through ecosystems:
- Critically evaluate the possible impact of human activity on communities and ecosystems
Dates: April 8 – 17 Total Possible points: 200 Instructor(s): Messier
DAY ONE – April 8
Homework due:
Exploration I: “Bioblitz”– (20 points)
In-Class Activities:
Expansion I: Lecture/Discussion: “What is a community?”
Application: “Predicting and measuring change in a community” (90 points)
Hands-on, collaborative investigation – introduce activity and materials, organize groups, in-class planning time
Out-of-Class Activities Assigned:
Expansion II: “Food webs” (15 points)
Application: “Predicting and measuring change in a community” – Complete experimental design and be ready to go on day two
DAY TWO – April 10
Homework due:
Expansion II: “Food Webs”
In-Class Activities:
Expansion III: “Energy flow” – (10 points)
Expansion IV: Lecture/Discussion: “Ecosystems, the flow of energy”
Application: “Predicting and measuring change in a community”
Hands-on, collaborative investigation – collect baseline data, set-up experiment
Recommended reading
http://www.ultranet.com/~jkimball/BiologyPages/F/FoodChains.html
http://www.ultranet.com/~jkimball/BiologyPages/C/CarbonCycle.html
DAY THREE – April 15
In-Class Activities:
Expansion V: “The Nitrogen cycle” (50 points)
Recommended reading
http://www.ultranet.com/~jkimball/BiologyPages/N/NitrogenCycle.html
DAY FOUR – April 17
In-Class Activities:
Application: “Predicting and measuring change in a community” – collect data, analyze and report
Guided reflection (15 points)
Out-of-Class Activities Assigned:
Complete written reports on Application: “Predicting and measuring change in a community”