Nutrient Cycling and Decomposers

Tuesday we played a game that models how nutrients cycle through an ecosystem. The nutrient cycle game has you model the path of an atom as it moves from one organism to another and in and out of the nonliving parts of the system. Draw cards to find out if you are eaten, eliminated or broken down by different organisms. We looked at how matter continues to be recycled and can move slowly or quickly depending on the circumstances. We went through the reading "Decay and Renewal" and added notes about the 10% rule, that says only ten percent of the energy consumed by an organism is available at the next trophic level. We looked at an identification sheet for Stream macroinvertebrates to give us a better sense of what sorts of decomposers live in a stream and to prepare us for our field trip next week. We will be going to the Johnston Mill site on New Hope Creek on Tuesday and Wednesday, during the block week schedule.
Check out this cool time lapse video of dermestid beetles (carrion beetles) eating a dead mouse and a dead sparrow: http://www.exploratorium.edu/traits/mouse.html

Tree Scavenger Hunt

Today we went outside with Field Guides to the Trees of North Carolina and identified as many trees as we could in half an hour. We took sample leaves and taped them into our Science Journals along with their common and scientific names for future reference. Some of the trees that we identified included: Loblolly Pine, Red Maple, Sweet Gum, Black Cherry, Persimmon, Eastern Hophornbeam, and Eastern Red Cedar. This is part of our ongoing effort to get to know the members of our local community or organisms. Next week during Block Schedule we will take a field trip to New Hope Creek to sample water quality by looking at the stream invertebrates. New Homework: Finish Reading Handout "Decay and Renewal" and answer Questions on Decay and Renewal. Due Thursday, September 29th. Check out this cool website that helps you identify trees by their leaves. It works on Iphone and Ipad as well. Leafsnap.

Thursday and Friday

Thursday I was at a teacher workshop. Tonie Lilley was my sub. They read articles about the parachuting cats of Borneo in the 1950's and mapped out the relationships between the organisms involved. See the article in Google Docs: Parachuting Cats. They read another story about the Lemmings of Norway and how their populations fluctuate every 4 years. They discussed these stories in small groups and answered some reflection questions. Friday when I returned we reviewed the materials and read another story about the relationship between Lynx and Hares in Northern Canada. We looked at graphs that show the fluctuations over time and how they eventually balance out every ten years.

Photosynthesis with Starbursts

We used starburst candies and toothpicks to model the chemical reaction of photosynthesis. We made 6 Carbon dioxide molecules and 6 Water molecules following the rules for chemical bonding (4 bonds for Carbon, 2 bonds for Oxygen, 1 bond for Hydrogen). Then we rearranged the atoms to make one Glucose molecule (C6H12O6) and 6 Oxygen molecules. We went over the formula for photosynthesis and used our reading as a guide for building the molecules. Check out the worksheet that we used: Photosynthesis. I will be at a teacher workshop all day Thursday and Tonie Lilley will be my sub for the day. We will be looking at population dynamics on Thursday.

Notes on Decay, Matter and Energy

Today read out loud about biodegradation: how decomposers return nutrients to the soil, water and air. We revisited our earlier reading about how energy and matter move through the food web and took notes about these topics. See the notes in Google Docs: Decay, Energy and Matter. Assigned New Homework: Read handout "Biodegradation"pages 3-9, no questions to answer. Due Friday, September 23.

Monday, September 19. Food Web Game Again.

Monday we traded our new and improved games and got to try out what other teams had created. Each team then evaluated these new versions of the game and gave feedback to the creating team. The form that we used looked like this: Food Web Game: The New Version. Each group was then able to both give and receive feedback on their modifications. The goal of the changes was to make the model of a food web more realistic and to emphasis the relative importance of each part of the web. This sort of peer review is something that we will be practicing all year.

Thursday and Friday, Sept 15 & 16

Thursday we had our quiz about food webs. Check it out on Google docs: Eco Quiz #1. We then went over some of the details in the reading and focused on how top level carnivores are fewest in number and at the greatest risk when there is a disruption to the food web. We learned about DDT use in the last century and how it increased in concentration as it moved up the food chain. This had the biggest impact on the osprey and pelicans and almost pushed them to extinction.
Friday we worked on modifying the food web game to make it better. Here is the worksheet that we used to record our changes and our evaluations of this new version: Food Web Game: Make it Better.

Food Web Connections Game

Today we played a card game that models food webs and the connections between organisms. Each student was dealt a hand of organism cards. The goal was to build a food web with 5 levels, from decomposers, to producers, to primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers. They drew from a pile of cards to add to their web and mixed in were cards that forced them to do different things, some of them beneficial and others that were not. For example they may get to take a producer from someone else's web or they may have to give away a consumer. If at any point, they lost all of their producers, then their food web would collapse and they would have to start all over. At the end of the game they mapped their food webs and discussed how well the game modeled real situations. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of using different types of models to understand how things work in the real world. Homework is due tomorrow and there will be a short quiz on Friday.

Plant walk

Today we went outside to meet some local plants. We took samples and taped them into our science journals along with notes about each plant. We looked at White Clover, Sour Grass, Common Plantain, and Flowering Dogwood. We recorded their scientific names and some of their common uses. There will be a quiz on Friday about food webs and some vocabulary. We will review on Thursday a bit.

The structure of the food web

Collected homework today. Went over the answers and looked at some of the terms discussed in the reading. Drew a pyramid to show the relative numbers of organisms at each level of the food chain/web. Producers at the bottom, then primary consumers (herbivores), up to secondary and tertiary consumers (top predators). New homework, Read "Energy and Matter" pages 10-14. Answer questions 3 and 4, due on Thursday, September 15th. We had a student from UNC visit our class today, Megan. She will be coming by every monday this trimester.

More Web stuff

Thursday and Friday we got into more food web stuff. We looked at different levels of biological complexity from the level of atoms, molecules, and cells on up to organisms, populations, and communities. We took notes on the parts of the food chain and who eats who. We defined terms like producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore and top predator. I was gone on Friday and Tonie was the sub. On this day they built food chains based on organisms from a particular ecosystem. Then we looked at organisms that we could add to the chain to make it into a web that was more complex.

Web of Life

Today we modeled a web of life using yarn to show the connections between different organisms. We then looked at the cause and effect of changing parts of the ecosystem. What would happen if certain plants died out from a drought? Or if the top predators were hunted to extinction? We compared our definitions of ecology. We have a new homework assignment. There is a reading packet, They will need to read pages 5-10 of the "Web of Life" and answer questions 3, 4, and 5. These are due on Monday, September 12th.

Survivor!

Collected the homework today. There might be some follow up interviews to find out more about everyone's learning styles. Today we split into groups and imagined that we had been trapped in a remote mountain range. A landslide isolated us and we only had minutes to grab six items to help us survive for days or even weeks. What would you take? You can down load this from Google Docs: Survivor! We then looked at how our choices covered the basic requirements of food, water, and shelter. This launched us into a discussion of  the requirements for all living things. Homework is to complete the question: "Ecology is..." due tomorrow.

First Day of Classes for 2011-2012

First day was a short day. We went over the basics of how the class works and what you need to bring to class each day: notebook, paper, pencil and pen. Homework was to fill out a questionnaire, "What kind of a learner are you?". This is a google doc if you want to download it. This will help me understand what works and what doesn't work for you in class. This questionnaire is due on Tuesday, September 6th.