Glencoe Science Level Red

Unit 6: Life and the Environment

Env. scientist - design ecosystem

Project Type: Career

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:
As a class, brainstorm a list of plants and animals that live in your local ecosystem. You will be assigned an organism from this list. What kinds of interactions affect your organism? Think like an environmentalist as you research and discover at least 10 different interactions. Remember to examine food chains, predator-prey relationships, and life cycles within your ecosystem. Design a large web to illustrate your 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://www.galeschools.com/environment/biomes/wetland/plant.htm

http://plants.usda.gov/

http://explorebiodiversity.com/problem_plants/

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

Product:
Place your specific organism at the center of your web. You 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.