Environmental interactions: Connectedness of a natural system

Students will learn the concepts from the unit of Ecology. This lesson is designed to:
1. Students will be able to provide a real life example of how each of the terms of ecology are interconnected in their local environment.
2. Students will be able to differentiate between an environment that has many interconnections compared to one that has very few.
3. Students will be able to provide for the teacher an example of interconnectedness that they observed on their own in the natural world.

This lesson will work well for a Life Science/Biology class. I could be used as early as the elementary years all the way up through the high school years. I use it with the 7th grade. Depending on your comfort level will determine whether you would attempt to do this lesson. I teach multiple classes of 25-30 students per class and it works well. The experience is a outdoor walk with teacher discussion along the way. One class period is needed of at least 45 minutes. Students should bring out with them a notebook or journal to take notes on the vocabulary terms. This activity is a good one to introduce students to the concept of Ecology. It gets the students in the natural world and provides the opportunity for them to see first hand how things are connected. It's a nice introduction to food chains and food webs with a nice introduction to the complexity that nature offers. This lesson should be done in the spring or fall when there is still an abundance of flora and fauna present, or at least potential signs of life can be interpreted.

Students are walked out into a natural environment. When immersed into the environment students can be familiarized with biotic and abiotic factors. The students will share some of the examples that they see around them. The teacher should then as for the students to take 2 minutes on their own to sit quietly (apart from one another). Try doing this silently. Allow for the students to see what it's like in the natural world from their perspective. While being quiet, students should look for a particular type of species. Remember that species and they will share it with their classmates. Each of the students that share are told that this is an example of a species. They can be plants or animals and if they are living then they are a species. Students are asked, "How many species do you think lives in this environment? Next students are to join with three other individuals and sit in a circle. Students go around the circle and share their species. (At this point they should be writing this down). Students are asked to share with each-other how they chose their species during the quiet time. How is it that each of the species belong to a population? Each group shares with the others how all four of the species together fit into a community. Finally, students are to come up with a short presentation of how all four of the student's species are linked together in an ecosystem. Students can feel free to add additional species to their descriptions that they will be sharing with their classmates. To finish up the teachers should let them know the requirements of an ecosystem and that all the ecosystems on the planet make up what we call the biosphere.

Be sure that you have prior approval from your administrators to go outside. Bring some sort of device (cell phone, walkie talkie) to communicate with the office in case of an emergency. If you are going off school grounds you may need to have each students have a permission slip signed on file. Students should bring out a clipboard, pencil and any additional handouts that you may create as a framework so that while in the field students have a clear understanding of what to write down (do this without too much guidance, this is an opportunity for students to make their own connections). Be sure to go over outdoor expectations and responsibilities. This includes leaving no trace and respect for the natural world.

I like to give the kids a short quiz on their arrival back to class the next day of school about the vocabulary terms from this unit and to share their example from the previous day.

Interdependence among Living Systems

1.Natural Systems include a variety of organisms that interact with one another in several ways.

*Identify a variety of populations and communities in an ecosystem and describe the relationships among the population and communities in a stable ecosystem.