Day 3:

Different environmental conditions will be created to see the affects on the specific ecosystems.  

Students will be randomly assigned to one of four possible conditions.

Condition #1:  Addition of salt.  This is to recreate how salt used for de-icing affects nearby organisms and in upstate New York, our reservoirs.

Condition #2:  Addition of motor oil.  This is to recreate how oil spills/ illegal dumping in our sewer systems affect aquatic organisms.

Condition #3:  Removal of light by adding sediments to the ecosystem.  This is to recreate how soil erosion leads to the clouding of nearby streams, lakes, and rivers.

Condition #4:  Addition of fertilizer.  This is to recreate how fertilizers leach into ponds and lakes and increase algae blooms.

Students will observe and record the changes that develop in their ecosystem.  The groups will discuss the changes and possibly explain them.  Each group will present their results and relate to current environmental problems that humans have introduced.

Time: 2-3 days

The class will read pages 558-565 in the textbook. If there is another textbook being used, use the chapter on ecosystems and make minor adjustments that will follow the lesson plan.

While the reading is going on, teacher will make several stops for assessment.

Students will be responsible for knowing bold vocabulary in the textbook and the ones listed in the Ecosystems lesson plan.

Habitat and niche:

Students may have a hard time differentiating habitat and niche; show them how to construct a visual table in their notebooks that will help clear any misconceptions.

Call on students to name an organism and describe its habitat and niche.

Energy roles:

Individual accountability (see rubric)

Have students work independently and list the types of organisms they have observed and classify each organism as herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, or scavenger.

Let the students share their ideas and classifications in a class discussion.

Food chains and food webs:

Have students turn to figure 6 in the textbook. If another textbook is being used, look for a figure that involves food chains and food webs.

Individual accountability (see rubric)

Challenge students to use the lists they have compiled in energy roles to draw their own food-chain diagrams.

If they did not observe enough feeding relationships to diagram a complete chain, suggest that they add other organisms based on their previous knowledge.  Have students identify each organism as producer, first-, second-; or third-level consumer, or decomposer.

Approx. Time__40_mins

Draw a table describing the habitat and niche of an organism.

What examples of herbivores, carnivores, and scavengers have you seen in your own environment?

Why do the arrows in a food chain diagram point from the organism being eaten to the organism doing the eating?

Answers will vary.

To show the flow of energy through the chain.