Struggle in Natural Environments. What Will Survive?
This unit engages middle school students in chemistry content
and scientific inquiry practices by connecting to students' everyday experiences,
providing a variety of exciting investigations, and aligning with key learing
goals or standards.
Curriculum Unit Synopsis
The driving question for the unit is "What will survive?" Students explore aspects of survival in ecosystems in two parts. In Part I, students first investigate the impact of an invasive species on the Great Lakes environment. In Part II, they then explore the impact of an environmental stress "a drought" on a species of ground finches in the Galapagos Islands. Both of these investigations are ones in which scientists have collected real data. Therefore, students are able to learn concepts of competition, structure and function, and differential survival while analyzing actual scientific data.
This unit is divided into two parts. Part I contains four learning sets. Learning Set One is titled "What is an invasion?" and introduces the unit. It covers the concepts of invasive species and competition. Learning Set Two is titled, "What life strategies allow an organism to survive in its environment?" and covers the concepts of structure, function, and reproduction. Learning Set Three is titled, "How are organisms in an ecosystem interconnected and why is this important?" and covers the concept of food webs and competition. Learning Set Four is titled "How have sea lampreys affected the Great Lakes ecosystem and can we find a solution?" and gives students an opportunity to synthesize the major concepts they have learned to formulate a removal plan of the invasive species from the Great Lakes. Part II contains three learning sets. Learning Set One is titled "What is an environmental stress?" and introduces the idea of environmental stresses and their possible effects on populations in an ecosystem. Learning Set Two is titled "How do individuals within a species differ and how do these differences affect survival and reproduction?" and covers the concepts of variation and differential survival. Learning Set Three is titled "What is natural selection?" and gives students an opportunity to synthesize the ideas from the entire unit of competition, variation, differential survival, and environmental stress into a simplified understanding of the theory of natural selection.
In this unit, students will learn that:
- Organisms need basic things, such as food, water, shelter and ways to protect themselves to survive.
- Organisms have certain body structures that perform certain functions to aid their survival.
- Organisms have relationships with other organisms that help them obtain food, water and shelter, not all relationships are helpful.
- Individuals within the population may compete with one another for food, water and shelter.
- Within the ecosystems there are food webs
Background
This curriculum unit was initially developed in 2002 at Northwestern University in collaboration with the Chicago Public Schools, as part of the Investigating and Questioning Our World Through Science and Technology (IQWST) project. These materials have been revised based on research on classroom practice and student achievement, as well as from feedback from teachers using the materials. This unit is now used in the Detroit Public Schools, through our partnership with the developers at Northwestern University. Creation of this unit was sponsored by the National Science Foundation. This unit was developed to address the curriculum standards of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Research Council, and was adapted for use in Detroit Public Schools.