Ecology Lesson 5

Title of Lesson: Invisible Animals (Ecology Lesson 5)

Situation: 9^th grade Biology 1, 35 high school students of mixed gender

Time: 85 minute block schedule

Concept or conceptual understanding (listed as a sentence or 2):

Students will be introduced to how organisms interact as individuals, populations and communities. Students will be introduced to the idea that every organism has a habitat and niche. Students will solidify their understanding of interconnectedness and be introduced to and calculate some metrics for measuring communities (abundance, species richness, evenness and diversity). Students will collect experimental data and evaluate their hypotheses using graphs and summary statistics.

Real world connections (Relevancy):

We live in a world that is full of connections that are important to human populations as well as the natural world. If habitat is disrupted, it can affect humans in a variety of ways. For example, bears moving into neighborhoods, skunks spreading rabies, loss of an ecosystem service, etc. This lesson will introduce students to some of these ideas and the methods used by professionals.

AZ standards: (include grade level and text):

AZ Strand 1, Concept 1: Formulate predictions, questions, or hypotheses based on observations. Evaluate appropriate resources. PO 4

AZ Strand 1, Concept 2: Design and conduct controlled investigations. POs 1, 2, 5

AZ Strand 1, Concept 3: Evaluate experimental design, analyze data to explain results and propose further investigations. POs 1, 2, 4, 6

AZ Strand 1, Concept 4: Communicate results of investigations. POs 1-4

AZ Strand 4, Concept 5: Understand the organization of living systems, and the role of energy within those systems. PO 4, 5

Incorporation of inquiry: Students will collect data on the microarthropod experiment started in Lesson 4. They will quantify the number of animals and the number of types of animals and calculate species richness, evenness and diversity. Students will also calculate summary statistics and make graphs to determine if they will accept or reject their hypothesis.

Behavior objectives:

Objective 1: Students will safely and appropriately operate a dissecting microscope.

Objective 2: Students will categorize and quantify soil organisms using dissecting microscopes.

Objective 3: Students will compute community metric calculations, create graphs and interpret their data in terms of their hypothesis.

Prior knowledge necessary:

Students will require basic microscope and math skills. They will require an understanding of hypothesis testing and some concepts of ecology, including food webs. All of these concepts will have been introduced in previous lessons.

Identify possible student preconceptions:

Soil is not alive.

Only earthworms and burrowing mammals live in the soil.

Animals can live anywhere.

Human and animal environments are not connected.

Materials:

Lab notebooks, microarthropod samples, petri dishes, probes, dissecting microscopes, calculators, proxima and computer. Supporting materials: power point presentation over Ch. 14.1-14.2 worksheet for data collection, calculations and graphing, vocabulary reviw game, and lab report guidelines.

Safety:

Students will be instructed in safe use of microscopes.

Lesson Description:

• Bellwork: Students will be asked to take a few minutes to come up with an example of a habitat and niche. Pairs will share their idea with the class.
• I will briefly lecture over habitat, niche and community interactions.
• We will play a game where I will show a word or picture and the first student to call out the correct vocabulary term will get a point. The students will work in teams. The group with the most points will win a prize.
• Students will be instructed in collecting the microarthropod samples and breaking down the extractors (from Lesson 4). Students will proceed to do this with close supervision.
• I will model the methods for quantifying microarthropods and go over the calculations, graphing and worksheet.
• Students will work in their groups on lab reports with help until the end of class.

Assessment:

Objectives 1 and 2 will be assessed by observation in the classroom and by reporting their data. Objective 3 will be assessed through a written lab report.

References:

• McDougal/Littell Biology 2008 by Stephen Nowicki

Reflection:

This two part lesson was a huge success with the 9^th grade biology students; however, there was room for improvement! I would have a sample for viewing prior to sending students to quantify samples to expedite student’s ability to quantify samples. Also, we will discuss why one researcher generally quantifies all samples and more thoroughly discuss lab report before beginning data gathering.