Delaware's Ecosystems
Overview-
This unit focuses on the horseshoe crab/shorebird connection as a model to help students understand ecosystems. Students first examine how science is different from other disciplines. Students then look at where organisms live in order to establish the interaction of abiotic and biotic factors. Students learn a variety of sampling techniques and explore the effects of limiting factors on populations. Adaptations are investigated as they relate to the interaction of structure and function. Food webs and the flow of energy are a major focus before students cap the unit with a human impact/fisheries management computer activity.
This unit focuses on the horseshoe crab/shorebird connection as a model to help students understand ecosystems. Students first examine how science is different from other disciplines. Students then look at where organisms live in order to establish the interaction of abiotic and biotic factors. Students learn a variety of sampling techniques and explore the effects of limiting factors on populations. Adaptations are investigated as they relate to the interaction of structure and function. Food webs and the flow of energy are a major focus before students cap the unit with a human impact/fisheries management computer activity.
Big Ideas-
(This information is taken from the Delaware Department of Education website under Science Education Unit Templates)
- The scientific process is different than other forms of investigation and has specific characteristics that relate causes to effects and develop relationships based on evidence.
- Critical analysis skills learned in the classroom can be applied to judge the validity of claims made in everyday life.
- An ecosystem consists of all the organisms that live together and interact with each other and their physical environment.
- Populations consist of all individuals of a species that occur together in a given place and time. These populations can scientifically estimated.
- Interactions in an ecosystem result from the transfer of matter and energy from producers to consumers and eventually to decomposers. The total amount of matter and energy in the system remains the same even though its form and location changes.
- Changes in the physical or biological conditions of an ecosystem can alter the diversity of species in the system. As the ecosystem changes, the populations of organisms must adapt to these changes, move to another ecosystem, or become extinct.
- The number of individuals in a population increases, or decreases as a result of the interrelationships among organisms, availability of resources, natural disasters, habitat changes, and pollution.
- The supply of natural resources such as water and petroleum are finite.
- Decisions about the use of natural resources can affect the stability of ecosystems.
(This information is taken from the Delaware Department of Education website under Science Education Unit Templates)