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Abstract
This unit is intended to help students understand how all things,
living and non-living, are interdependent. Students will also
explore how humans have direct impacts on the eco-balance in their
environment. After engaging students in an activity that defines
biotic and abiotic elements, students begin to explore the
interconnectedness of those elements in their own environment. Next,
students extend their understanding of interconnectedness through
activities that involve food webs. Analysis of soil samples
collected from their own yards will lead students to an
understanding of the roles that soil, elemental nutrients, and
microorganisms have in our environment. Finally, students will have
an opportunity to explore a potential environmental problem in their
own community that may have an impact on soil and/or water.
Invitation/Fundamental Understandings:
Essential
Questions:
Knowledge and skills: Fundamental
Understandings:
All human actions, including the decisions we
make, impact our ecosystem.
Essential Questions:
How are we
connected to the biotic and abiotic factors that surround us?
How
do our everyday actions impact our local
environment?
Knowledge:
Know that relationships exist between
abiotic and biotic factors.
Know that human actions have an
impact on those relationships.
Understand the energy flow in a
food web.
Know the role of elements, such as nitrogen in soil.
Skills:
Computer generated representation of experimental
data.
Soil analysis
Computer generated construction of a food
web
Standards
National Standards Life Science:
Interdependence of organisms
Human beings live within the world's
ecosystems. Increasingly, humans modify ecosystems as a result of
population growth, technology, and consumption. Human destruction of
habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes,
and other factors is threatening. Current global stability, and if
not addressed, ecosystems will be irreversibly
affected.
Technology Standards:
-Technology communication
tools
-Technology research tools
-Basic operations and
concepts
Literacy Standards:
-Information literacy
-Social
responsibility
State Standards Florida: (SC.G.2.4.6)
The student knows the ways in which humans today are placing their
environment support systems at risk. Nebraska: (12.4.4) Investigate
and describe how humans modify the ecosystem as a result of
population growth, technology, and consumption.
Workforce Competencies: CREATIVE AND
CRITICAL THINKERS (3.4) COOPERATIVE WORKERS (3.8)
Unit of Practice
Relevance:
Interdependence of organisms is a central concept in biological
science; therefore, it is important that students understand the
interconnectedness of abiotic and biotic elements in ecosystems.
Since humans impact the ecosystem, it is important that students
understand that individual behaviors and choices have direct impacts
on their environments. While students may understand that organisms
are interrelated, they often fail to recognize the impact human
actions have on unseen organisms in their environment. Modification
of the ecosystem has a direct impact on student lives.
Context
Understanding of the definition of abiotic vs. biotic;
understanding of what an ecosystem is; use of the scientific method
and a lab write up.
Assessment
FORMATIVE EVALUATION:
1) Intro activity investigating the
knowledge of students in regards to abiotic and biotic
factors.
2) Student-created food web to illustrate understanding
of energy flow between organisms. (Recommend use of commercial tool,
such as Inspiration)
3) Current event assignment followed by
small group discussion to identify ways in which humans impact our
environment.
4) Lab and research assignment investigating
nutrients in soil.
5) Daily check points throughout experimental
project to determine level of understanding and project
progress.
SUMMATIVE EVALUATION: (See Project lesson plan for
details.)
Students will work in cooperative groups to propose and
investigate a potential local environmental problem that involves
soil and/or water.
The project will require students to
demonstrate their understanding of how humans impact the balance of
ecosystem relationships.
Components:
Lesson One: Abiotic/Biotic Interrelatedness This lesson deals
with both the classification and the interrelationships of abiotic
and biotic factors in an ecosystem. The students will classify
everday items as either abiotic or biotic. Once the students have
solidified these two terms, the class will explore the
interelationships of the abiotic/biotic factors in an ecosystem.
Lesson Two: Soil Food Web This lesson will allow students to explore
the interdependence of food webs. The activities will include
designing a food web and working in cooperative gorups. Students
will design a food web on the computer and explain how this web is
interdependent. Students will also search for a current event
focusing on how humans impact our envirnonment. Then, students will
work in cooperative groups sharing their current events and how
their article could be related to the food webs they discussed
earlier. Students will end this lesson with a class discussion on
their individual group findings.
Lesson Three: Soil Organisms Lab
Students investigate and identify organisms in the soil from their
own backyards. They will make connections between the biotic and
abiotic relationships as they explore the roles of organisms and
elements in the soil. Finally, students will contrast those roles to
potential environmental hazards posed by the elements in the soil.
Lesson Four: Human Impact Project This lesson will engage students
in an inquiry-based project. The project will be the summative
assessment for this unit. The students will identify a potential
local environmental problem that involves soil and/or water, form a
hypothesis, collect data, and determine the impact on the
interrelated organisms. The main goal of this project is to assess
student understanding of the interconnectedness of both living and
non-living elements and to assess their understanding of how humans
impact their environment.
Additional Resources
Main
URL:
Related Resources
Related Lessons
Copyright © 1997-2003
Career Connection to Teaching with Technology
USDOE Technology Innovation Challenge Grant
Marshall Ransom, Project Manager
All rights reserved.
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