What are the Links Between Different Organisms in the Environment?
Grade Level: 9th-10th
Learning Standards: S2, S16, S5, S6, s7, S8
Time Requirements: Approximately 90 minutes preparation time and 90 minutes class time
Topics Covered by this Lesson: Ecology, population, ecosystem, food chain, food web, succession, biosphere, autotrophic and heterotrophic nutrition
Pre-Visit:
Purpose: To explain how animals are connected to each other and non-living things within their environment.
Objectives: List the different types of symbiotic relationships and describe each of them. Describe the feeding relationships in an ecosystem in terms of competition, food chains, and food webs.
Materials Required: Large glass jar, boiled water, soil, sand, gravel, plants, plant seeds, invertebrate animals, cheesecloth, rubber band. Students will choose an ecosystem, such as a pond, forest, or field, which they would like to simulate, and then design a mini-ecosystem that will support it.
Student Learning Prerequisites: Students should have an understanding of a population, community, ecosystem, biosphere, autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms.
Visit: Students will visit the Hall of Biodiversity at the American Museum of Natural History. There they will have the task of identifying 10 autotrophs and 10 heterotrophs in the exhibit. They will then have to identify each heterotroph as herbivores, carnivores, omnivores or saprobes. The students will then include information on the environment in which each organism lives. Next the students will identify each heterotroph and autotroph as either a producer, consumer, or decomposer. The students will then attempt to draw food chains and food webs connecting these organisms in the biosphere.
Post Visit:
Assessment: Each student will be assessed by looking at the organisms they identified as heterotrophs and autotrophs, and their categorization of the heterotrophs. Also the food chain and food web of each student will be reviewed by the teacher and fellow students to see if they understand the assignment.
Extensions: This lesson will be extended into the various cycles that occur in the biosphere. Example, Nitrogen cycle, carbon and oxygen cycles.
Possible Questions that may be brought up: