Big+Idea+A


 * Big Idea "A": Ecosystems are made up of the organisms living in them and the physical factors of the environment" **


 * **What you intend students to learn about this idea?** || * Ecosystems can contain organisms from across all 5 phyla
 * Ecosystems are also made up of physical factors such as rain, sunlight, and inorganic minerals
 * All these living and non-living aspects of an ecosystem interact with each other ||
 * **Why is it important for students to know this?** || * Because students themselves are part of ecosystems
 * To help students see how everything is connected and grasp the idea that one small change to one element of an ecosystem can have widespread effects ||
 * **What else do you know about this idea (that you do not expect students to know yet)?** || * There are many different kinds of ecosystems and they lay side by side and often overlap with each other ||
 * **Difficulties/Limitations connected with teaching this idea.** || * The notion of what constitues an ecosystem - where does an ecosystem begin and end?
 * The notion that everything within an ecosystem interacts with other elements of the ecosystem but the ecosystems are rarely closed off from each other ||
 * **Other factors that influence your teaching of this idea.** || * The notion of human impacts upon ecosystems - often artificial influences that don't belong ||
 * **Teaching procedures (and particular reasons for using these to engage with this idea).** || * Analysing case studies where one aspect of an ecosystem has changed and this has had follow on effects for the rest of the ecosystem ||
 * **Specific ways of ascertaining students' understanding or confusion around this idea (include likely range of responses).** || * Give students examples of ecosystems and have them predict what would happen if certain elements of that ecosystem were altered ||
 * Lesson Activity 1 for Big idea "A"**

This activity should be fairly quick and is aimed as an introduction to the different components of ecosystems. Students will be introduced to the terms “abiotic factor” and “biotic factor”. “Abiotic factors are physical and chemical factors such as temperature, light intensity, texture and pH of the soil, concentration of significant gases in water or air, and the availability of water” (Nelson Biology, 2006) “Biotic factors are to do with the presence or absence of other living things that affect an organism, such as more of their own kind, competitors, collaborators, predators, disease-causing organisms or parasites, and availability of mates” (Nelson Biology, 2006) Once students are familiar with these terms, each student in the class will be given the name of either an abiotic or a biotic factor within a certain ecosystem (i.e. "the intertidal zone", "rainforest" etc) and each student will have to place their component of the ecosystem under its relevant heading (“abiotic” or “biotic”). Hopefully at the conclusion of this activity students will have a broad understanding of the diverse components of ecosystems and it will lead them into looking at the ways in which each of these components interact with each other.




 * Lesson Activity 2 for Big idea "A" **

For this activity students will be required to create a mind map showing how different species within an ecosystem interact with each other. Students will be able to choose any ecosystem that they like and will have to list several species, abiotic and biotic factors that are present there. Using their knowledge of ecosystems and the ways in which they work, students should be able to create meaningful links between parts of the ecosystem that directly affect each other. Students will have to explain the reason behind each link that they make and why they made it.

Images from (in order):

www.racerocks.com/.../ intpho99/westshore.jpg

lifeslittletreasures.files.wordpress.com/ 2009...

wiki.beaufortccc.edu/.../ /8/82/Mindmap.jpg