Relationships

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Relationships

• Compete, Benefit, and Everything in between

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The Big Idea Focus on Learning

• The teachers core aim enhancing student
  learning. To achieve this goal calls for a
  willingness to rethink the planning of lessons,
  together with a readiness to change the roles
  that both teacher and students play in supporting
  the learning process. Black, 2004

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• S7L4. Students will examine the dependence of
  organisms on one another and their environments.
• d. Categorize relationships between organisms
  that are competitive or mutually beneficial.
• BIG IDEAS Relationship/Interaction
• Competition
• Mutually Beneficial
• Symbiosis

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• A high level of qualification in a subject is
  less important than a thorough understanding of
  its fundamental principles, an understanding of
  the kinds of difficulties that students might
  have, and the creativity to be able to think up
  questions that stimulate productive thinking.
  Eskew, 1997

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National Science Education Standards

• Life Science Standard C
• As a result of their activities in grades 5-8,
  all students should develop understanding of
  populations and ecosystems.
• Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie
  this standard are included in pages157-158 of the
  NCES.

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Understandings

• Students will understand that
• There are different kinds of interactions that
  take place among organisms.
• In all environments organisms with similar needs
  may compete with one another for resources,
  including food, space, water, air, and shelter.
• In any particular environment, the growth and
  survival of organisms depend on the physical
  conditions.
• Organisms may interact in several ways
  producer/consumer, predator/prey, parasite/host,
  scavenger, decomposer.
• Some species have become so adapted to each other
  that neither could survive without the other.
• Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy

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What is a relationship?
Mutualism? Commensalism? Parasite/Host?
Predator/Prey? Competition?
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Essential Questions

• How can organisms become independent? Or can
  they?
• Why is mistletoe a parasite, but Spanish moss is
  not?
• Why are all roles necessary in an ecosystem?
• Do all organisms adapt or die when a change in
  the environment happens?
• What determines an organisms role in an
  ecosystem?
• How do changes in a food web affect population?
• Why cant all organisms get along with each
  other?
• Where does the energy come from that an organism
  needs to survive?

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Skills and Knowledge

• Students will know
• The roles of organisms in an ecosystem
• The relationships of organisms in various biomes.
• Use the language of science correctly when
  explaining relationships
• Recall examples of organisms in different biomes
  and their relationships in an ecosystem.

• Students will be able to
• How the roles are portrayed in a food chain
• How the roles are portrayed in a food web
• How the roles are portrayed in a pyramid
• How to draw arrows to show energy flow in a food
  chain, food web, and pyramid configuration

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Assessments are used to improve instruction.

• Teachers collect information about students
  understanding almost continuously and make
  adjustments to their teaching on the basis of
  their interpretation of that information. They
  observe critical incidents in the classroom,
  formulate hypotheses about the causes of these
  incidents, question students to test their
  hypotheses, interpret students responses, and
  adjust their teaching plans.

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G.R.A.S.P.S.

• Goal
• Role
• Audience
• Situation
• Product, Performance, and Purpose
• Standards and Criteria for Success
• Assessment Task Blueprint, Workbook page 176

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Understandings targeted through this task

• There are different kinds of interactions that
  take place among organisms.
• In all environments organisms with similar needs
  may compete with one another for resources,
  including food, space, water, air, and shelter.
• Organisms may interact in several ways
  producer/consumer, predator/prey, parasite/host,
  scavenger, decomposer.

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Task Overview

• You are a curator at an animal park. Your new
  project is to design a display depicting a major
  biome that includes how the organisms relate to
  and interact with each other.
• Your display will include
• A research narrative with facts about a minimum
  of ten organisms and their energy needs
• A food web of including all organisms from the
  narrative including arrows showing sequence of
  the transfer of food energy (See next slide)
• Examples of and explanations of sample symbiotic
  relationships including mutualism, commensalism,
  and parasitism

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• You will now finish a diagram of a food web in
  the pond. The food web shows what eats what in
  the pond system. Draw arrows in the diagram below
  from each living thing to the things that eat it.
  (The first arrow is drawn for you.)   

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Question Number 1 - 8th Grade Science
                                                  
                                                  
             Which of these populations is most
likely to increase if the number of grasshoppers
decreases?
Plant Frog Praying Mantis Owl
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Products that provide evidence of understanding

• Signs for display
• Major biome, organisms listed by kingdom
• Choose an example of an organism from each role
  in the ecosystem (predator, prey, producer,
  consumer, parasite, host, scavenger, decomposer),
  explain the role of that organism and its energy
  (food/nutrient) needs.
• Diagram of energy pyramid depicting organisms
  with arrows showing sequence of energy flow.
• Show examples of symbiotic relationships from the
  biome. (commensalism, mutualism, competition,
  parasitism)

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Sample Rubric
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Criteria used to evaluate evidence