Details
Pages
32 Pages
Subject
Science, Biology
Languages
English
Product
Digital
Grade
9th, 10th, 11th, 12th
Resource Type
Activities, Interactives
Standard
Next Generation Science Standards
Description
Do your students struggle with the complex ways that limiting factors interact to determine carrying capacity? This digital, interactive google slides lesson starts by breaking these concepts down to their most simple form, then allow students to build the concepts back up in a differentiated way.
Student tasks are listed below
1. The lesson starts with some basic notes- students look at carrying capacity graphs, learn about logistic and exponential growth, name some possible limiting factors, and see the four ways that a population can level out after it exceeds carrying capacity.
2. Students study an alien ecosystem that contains orange aliens. The aliens need a habitat (a hole), some food (a carnivorous plant) and some pink water in order to survive. Students pull the resources over to the aliens until they run out- this tells them which resource is the limiting factor, and what the carrying capacity for the ecosystem is.
3. Next, students make a graph of the aliens' population on a new planet for twenty years. They analyze the graph to determine the carrying capacity, and answer other thoughtful questions.
4. Students choose a final task based on how comfortable they felt with the material so far. See these choices below!
Differentiated student tasks
Green circle task (easiest): If students struggled with the content, they can choose to do another practice set. This time, teenagers die of embarrassment if they don't have all of the resources that they need to be cool- a cell phone, a bag of takis, and a Monster Energy Drink. Students then graph how the teenage population grows in an unpopulated high school, with so many abundant resources that the teens invite their friends!
Blue square task (intermediate): Students read a comic about St. Matthew Island, where the US Coast Guard released 29 reindeer in 1944. With no predators and abundant resources, the population ballooned to 6000 reindeer before a population crash led to their complete local extinction. Students will analyze what led to the tragedy, and make connections to how this may apply to humans.
Black diamond task (challenging): Students manipulate different limiting factors to see how they affect the tuna population in a simulation. Finally, students design an experiment that they will test using the simulation, to make a conclusion regarding how one limiting factor can change population growth.
Student tasks are listed below
1. The lesson starts with some basic notes- students look at carrying capacity graphs, learn about logistic and exponential growth, name some possible limiting factors, and see the four ways that a population can level out after it exceeds carrying capacity.
2. Students study an alien ecosystem that contains orange aliens. The aliens need a habitat (a hole), some food (a carnivorous plant) and some pink water in order to survive. Students pull the resources over to the aliens until they run out- this tells them which resource is the limiting factor, and what the carrying capacity for the ecosystem is.
3. Next, students make a graph of the aliens' population on a new planet for twenty years. They analyze the graph to determine the carrying capacity, and answer other thoughtful questions.
4. Students choose a final task based on how comfortable they felt with the material so far. See these choices below!
Differentiated student tasks
Green circle task (easiest): If students struggled with the content, they can choose to do another practice set. This time, teenagers die of embarrassment if they don't have all of the resources that they need to be cool- a cell phone, a bag of takis, and a Monster Energy Drink. Students then graph how the teenage population grows in an unpopulated high school, with so many abundant resources that the teens invite their friends!
Blue square task (intermediate): Students read a comic about St. Matthew Island, where the US Coast Guard released 29 reindeer in 1944. With no predators and abundant resources, the population ballooned to 6000 reindeer before a population crash led to their complete local extinction. Students will analyze what led to the tragedy, and make connections to how this may apply to humans.
Black diamond task (challenging): Students manipulate different limiting factors to see how they affect the tuna population in a simulation. Finally, students design an experiment that they will test using the simulation, to make a conclusion regarding how one limiting factor can change population growth.
Do your students struggle with the complex ways that limiting factors interact to determine carrying capacity? This digital, interactive google slides lesson starts by breaking these concepts down to their most simple form, then allow students to build the concepts... more
5.0 (1) | @thelessonlaboratory Reviews
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