Lesson # 1. Organisms and their environment

AUTHOR: Quratulain Hameed

DATE LESSON TO BE TAUGHT: Unknown

GRADE LEVEL: 9^th Grade

SOURCE:

Biology by Prentice Hall

www.utm.edu/departments/ed/cece/ecology/C2.shtml-

www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Science/Ecology/ECL0207.html

OBJECTIVES:

Students will be able to:

1. Distinguish between biotic and abiotic factors in the environment.
2. Demonstrate that the lack or excess of specific abiotic or biotic factors imposes limits upon organisms within any ecosystem.
3. Explain the difference between a niche and a habitat.

TEKS:

15.a, 15.b, 1.b, 1.c, 2.a, 2.c, 14.a, 14.b, 15.f. 16.a, 16.b

MATERIALS:

250 ml beaker, meter stick, balance, small plastic bag, oven

Some construction paper

{Day 1}

ENGAGEMENT: [5 minutes]

What the Teacher Will Do	Formative Assessment/ Evaluation	Student Responses
What are some ways that you adapt to your environment? These are things you do that enable you to survive in a particular environment. How do you get food? Living things are affected by physical conditions in the environment and the living things in an environment. We are going to examine factors that affect an organism in its environment.		(Turn on heat, put on a coat, eat food, go swimming) (Buy it, grow it in the garden, parents fix it)

EXPLORATION: [30 minutes]

What the Teacher Will Do	Formative Assessment/ Evaluation	Student Responses
You will perform an activity that will help you understand organisms and its habitat. I want all of the students to form a group of three for this activity. Follow the following procedure for the activity: 1. One person should keep a record of plants, another should be responsible for animals, and the third physical factors. Each person should keep a record of findings of the group. 2. Select a microhabitat for study in the school area. (under a rock, under a rotting log, or the bark at the base of a tree, in a ditch, under a refuse can) 3. Observe your microhabitat's location, its drainage, its exposure to wind and erosion, the nature of its sail, and the relative amount of sunlight it receives. Answer question one in the data section. 4. Determine the moisture content of the substrate on which organisms live in the microhabitat. Obtain a sample of the substrate--soil, rotting log, or bark of tree--and place the sample in a small plastic bag. Remember to keep the microhabitat undisturbed or you will destroy it. Determine the mass of a dry clean beaker and record in the data table. Place about 100 ml of the substrate in the beaker and weigh it again. Record. Now place the beaker and the substrate in a hot oven and leave it there until the substrate is absolutely dry. Then determine the mass of the beaker and substrate again. Record. Subtract to find the amount of water lost by heating. 5. Determine the dimensions of the microhabitat and record data. 6. Now for the next part count the number of plants in a 100 cm square area. From the number of plants in the sample area calculate or estimate the total number of plants in the microhabitat. Record. Observe the kinds of plants present--like mosses, ferns, grasses, weeds, vines, and shrubs. ) Record. 7. Observe the substrate surface for animals such as insect larvae, worms, spiders, sow bugs, or tadpoles. If you cannot name the animal, make a drawing of the animal and label it with the letter A, using consecutive letters of the alphabet.	1. Describe the microhabitat--location, exposure to wind, moisture, and sunlight. 2. Find the mass of: clean beaker beaker and unheated substrate beaker and dry substrate water lost 3. Dimensions of microhabitat 4. Number of plants estimated in microhabitat 5. Kinds of plants in microhabitat 6. Most abundant plants in microhabitat. 7. Animals in microhabitat (Number and drawings of unidentified animals) Do you think the kinds of plants and height of plants in the microhabitat are related to the environment? How do you explain the distribution of the animals found in the habitat? From what you observed, which factor was most important in determining the kind and number of plants and animals in the microhabitat--moisture, temperature, abundance of food, shelter from wind and rain, protection from enemies, or amount of sunlight? Explain you response.

{Day 2}

EXPLANATION: [20 minutes]

What the Teacher Will Do	Formative Assessment/ Evaluation	Student Responses
Ecology is the scientific study of interactions between organisms and their environment. All living organisms that inhabit an environment are called biotic factors. The nonliving parts of the environment are called the abiotic factors. The abiotic factors determine what types of organisms can live in a particular environment. One example of this is the desert where there is very little water, and the temperature can vary from very hot to cold on a daily basis. Only plants that are adapted to conditions such as these can survive in a desert. Other plants like corn, oak trees and roses cannot live under these conditions. Plants like cactus and sagebrush can survive. The other important concept that we can conclude from yesterday’s activity is the difference between niche and habitat. The place where an organism lives is called a habitat. A habitat is often thought of as the organism's address. Examples: A lion’s habitat is a savanna. A monkey’s habitat is a rain forest. A cactus’s habitat is in the desert. An organism’s way of life is called a niche. A niche is considered to be an organism’s occupation. Examples: A lion’s niche includes where and how it finds shelter and food, when and how often it reproduces, how it relates to other animals, etc	What were the biotic factors in the habitat study you performed? Who can list an abiotic factor? Can you list biotic and abiotic factors and tell the importance of each? (pause, then call on several students for responses) What kind of questions and generalizations were we able to make about the habitats based on our data collected? Give examples that would demonstrate the differences between the terms niche and habitat.	Any living organism Water, oxygen, light, temperature, soil Squirrel-habitat: forest, city park with trees; niche: to distribute seeds.

ELABORATION: [20-25minutes]

What the Teacher Will Do	Formative Assessment/ Evaluation	Student Responses
Hand out several Natural History magazines. Ask students to quickly pick out any organism from the magazine. (It can be a plant, animal, insect, reptile…). Ask the students, "What do you think this animal’s habitat is? Its Niche? Do you think it has any relationships with other organisms? If so, what kinds?" (Accept all reasonable answers.) Hand out and explain the activity of "Creating Your Own Creature”. Students will use their imaginations to create their own animal. Students need to define the animal's habitat and niche. Students also need to describe two interactions that their animal has with another organism.	Did students define the animal's habitat and niche? Did students describe two interactions the animal has with another organism?

Data Sheet

1. Describe the microhabitat--location, exposure to wind, moisture, and sunlight.

2. Find the mass of:

a. clean beaker
b. beaker and unheated substrate
c. beaker and dry substrate
d. water lost

3. Dimensions of microhabitat

4. Number of plants estimated in microhabitat

5. Kinds of plants in microhabitat

6. Most abundant plants in microhabitat.

7. Animals in microhabitat (Number and drawings of unidentified animals)

Create an animal from your own imagination that does not already exist. Define its habitat and its niche. Also, describe two interactions it has with another organism.