Glencoe Science Level Red

Unit 6: Life and the Environment

Env. scientist - design ecosystem

Project Type: Model

Introduction:
Ecosystems are made up of living things and their environments. The organisms that live in ecosystems are affected by how they interact with other organisms. Sometimes these interactions cause problems for living things or other parts of the environment. It’s the job of environmentalists to find the sources of these problems and work to solve them.

Task:
Have your class brainstorm a list of plants and animals that live in your local ecosystem. Assign a specific organism from the list to each student. Guide students in the research of interactions that affect their organisms. Advise them to think like environmentalists as they discover at least 10 different interactions. Students should include all possible interactions in the ecosystem, such as food chains, predator-prey relationships, and life cycles from reproductive conception to death. Have students design large webs to illustrate their organism’s ecosystem.

Time:
1 class period to brainstorm, 1 class period to conduct research, 1 class period to design and produce web

Possible Resources:

Environmentalists & Ecosystems

http://www.ehow.com/how_14300_become-environmentalist.html

http://www.usgs.gov/science/

http://www.edquest.ca/content/view/29/

http://www.hsus.org/wildlife/issues_facing_wildlife/habitat_loss_and_fragmentation/

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0113340/main.php?section=home

http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/ecosystems.htm

Animals

http://www.animalinfo.org/country/usa.htm

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html

Plants

http://plants.usda.gov/

http://explorebiodiversity.com/problem_plants/

http://www.carnegielibrary.org/subject/gardening/nativeplants.html

Product:
Students should place their specific organisms at the center of their webs. They may wish to use different colors or materials for the branches of the web to indicate predator-prey relationships or to identify autotrophs vs. heterotrophs.

Rubric:
Click here for a rubric to help score this project. (69.0K)