The Ecology of Population Tag 

Name: Dalan Tran

Length of lesson: 50 minutes

Description of the class:

                     Name of course: Biology I

                     Grade level: Ninth

                     Honors or regular: Regular

Lesson Source : Myself, Jessica Menchaca, Floyd Banks, Thuan Ha (Lesson 4 of How Does the Human Population Affect Animal Populations?); also http://www.sci.csuhayward.edu/best/Sat00-01/EcologyWorkshop/docs/deer.pdf (Link expired)

National Content Standards:

 The Interdependence Of Organisms

· Organisms both cooperate and compete in ecosystems. The interrelationships and interdependencies of these organisms may generate ecosystems that are stable for hundreds or thousands of years.

· Living organisms have the capacity to produce populations of infinite size, but environments and resources are finite. This fundamental tension has profound effects on the interactions between 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.

TEKS addressed:

Section 112.43 Biology

(2)  Scientific processes. The student uses scientific methods during field and laboratory investigations. The student is expected to:

(B)  collect data and make measurements with precision;

(C)  organize, analyze, evaluate, make inferences, and predict trends from data;

(D)  and  communicate valid conclusions.

(12)  Science concepts. The student knows that interdependence and interactions occur within an ecosystem. The student is expected to:

(B)  interpret interactions among organisms exhibiting predation, parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism;

(D)  identify and illustrate that long-term survival of species is dependent on a resource base that may be limited;

Overview

Students will investigate the components of habitats, interaction, and population changes in nature by role playing as deer, resources, or wolves.

I. Performance or learner outcomes

                Students will be able to:

1. Identify limiting factors essential for a habitat such as food, water, and shelter.

2. Express a balanced population in terms of fluctuations in number, oscillations in population.

3. Integrate the ideas of population, habitat, and food webs as ways scientists describe a community in nature.

4. Deduce other limiting factors that determine the success of survival such as disease, predation, and weather.

II. Resources, materials and supplies needed per group

· area indoors or outdoors large enough for students to run

· chalkboard, Post-It Easel, or white board

· ruler /straight edge

· markers or chalk of different colors

· name tags of resources ( food, water, shelter)

· name tags of deer, or wolf

· whistle and bowl to put nametags in

III. Safety Considerations

· This is not a tackling game; deer may be tagged by wolves but not ambushed or knocked down. Students should tap and not push or shove.

· Let students know ahead of time that this lesson will involve physical activity so as they can wear appropriate clothing, etc.

· Students unable to run or exert themselves have the opportunity to serve as recorders and help collect and graph data. Warn students to report shortness of breath or any injuries IMMEDIATELY.

IV. Teacher Prep

1. Mark two parallel lines on the ground or floor ten to twenty yards apart.

2. Review with students the concepts of habitat, community, and population if needed.

3. Assign any students unable to exert themselves as recorders. Count the other students off in fours.

4. Allow the game to run for about 15 rounds, ten without wolves and five rounds with wolves.

Engage: Teacher does: 1) Teacher shows a video clip of Animals are Beautiful People/ National Geographic /Disney clip of animals (i.e. Bambi). 2) Teacher asks students to describe the habitat of the animal(s) and the interaction of the animal (s) to the environment.

Probing Questions 1) Tell me about these animals; what are they doing? How are they able to survive together? What are the essential things all animals need in their living space? 2) What factors keep populations in balance?

Expected Student Responses/Misconceptions 1) Students will think about the essentials of all habitats. (food, water, space, shelter) 2) Students will probably restate answers for factors that check populations ( food, water, space) and then add predators. 6min.

Explore: Procedures/Directions 1) Review with students the concepts of habitat, community, and population if needed. 2) Assign any students unable to exert themselves as recorders. Count the other students off in fives. Explain to students what role each number plays during their first round: one – deer, two – food, three – water, four – shelter, five – wolves. Pass out nametags to each student and tell them to label each with their role. 3) “We are going to assume that for this activity that the deer have enough space to live. Deer (the ones) need to find food, water, and shelter. When a deer is looking for food, the person should clamp their hands to their stomach, if looking for water the hands should be clamped over the mouth, if searching for shelter the hands should be placed on top of their head. A deer can look for any three of the needs during each round, but change what it is looking for in the middle of a round.” 4) “Each group of resources will stand in a mixed line facing the deer.” 5) The activity begins with the deer turned away from the resources deciding which resource to look for. At the blow of the whistle, they turn around and try to race to one of their corresponding resource people. A deer that reaches a resource needed first survives, the resource turns into a deer in the next round. If a deer fails to reach a resource, it dies and becomes a resource. 6) The recorders count the number of surviving deer and amount of each resource for each round. They make a table and graph of the data. 7) After a few rounds of deer population fluctuation, introduce the wolves into the “environment”. Have the wolves start on the side line between the deer line and resource line. At the blow of the whistle the wolves are to spin twice and then try to tag a deer before it reaches the resource. A successful catch means the deer becomes a wolf in the next round and an unsuccessful catch means the wolf becomes a resource. 8) Allow game to go on until game has lasted 30 min total. 30 min

Probing Questions 1) What is the sign for needing food/water/shelter? 2) What is represented when a resource person turns into a deer in the next round? 3) What is representative of a deer that didn’t survive? 4) How can we show and compare this change through our data? 5) What is the role of the wolf in this activity?

Expected Student Responses/Misconceptions 1) Hands on stomach/mouth/head 2) The deer that reached it survived/the deer reproduced/the resource was used up. 3) The deer turns into a resource/the dead deer decomposes into the habitat. 4) A table or graph 5) To catch the deer/ to simulate a species interaction/ to show a more complete food web

Explain: Teacher does: 1) Teacher asks the students about other limiting factors which control the deer population. 5 min

Probing Questions 1) What are some examples of limiting factors in this activity simulation? 2) Where in the data can you see evidence of a limiting factor? 3) Are wild populations static, or do they tend to fluctuate in balance? Why?

Expected Student Responses/Misconceptions 1) Examples: food, water, shelter, and predation/ the wolves eat deer until the deer is low and then the wolves become low in population too. 2) The lack of water simulates drought, lack of shelter simulate forest clearing, the lack of food simulates winter. 3) Population number always change/ populations never balance into a perfect number/ecosystems are always changing.

Elaborate/Extend: Teacher does: 1) Teacher asks students to make connections between natural pressures and limiting factors and limitations placed on populations by humans. 5 min

Probing questions 1) Think about some other examples of humans placing pressure on ecosystems and communities. Are humans always the predator? Are predators controlling the pray or are prey controlling the predators? 2) How can non-living things like weather affect populations?

Expected Student Responses/Misconceptions 1) Students discuss ways humans change populations in the wild directly and indirectly. Humans may not always prey upon the populations they change/yes, humans prey on everything. Sometimes the habitat controls both/the prey controls the predator/predators control the prey. 2) Weather, seasons and natural disasters can effect one or all populations in a community/ weather affects every population.

Evaluate: Objective(s) Learned -> Summarize 1)Hand out worksheet to be completed by the end of the period 5 min

Probing Questions (on worksheet) 1) Name three essentials of a habitat. 2) Explain what a limiting factor is. 3) Which of the following graphs best represents a true population in the wild? Justify your answer.

Expected Student Responses/Misconceptions 1) food, water, space and shelter 2) A limiting factor is an aspect outside the population that affect the size of that population/ something that can change a population size 3) Oscillating graph because populations never are constant/ a graph that fluctuates because nature doesn’t stay still.

Name __________________________

Period__________________________

Conclusion Questions

1) Name three essentials of a habitat.

2) Explain what a limiting factor is.

3) What type of graph best represents a true population in the wild? Justify your answer.