ALEX Classroom Resource

  

Animal Migrations and Their Ecosystems

  Classroom Resource Information  

Title:

 Animal Migrations and Their Ecosystems

URL:

 https://www.nationalgeographic.org/lesson/animal-migrations-and-their-ecosystems/

Content Source:

 National Geographic
Type: Lesson/Unit Plan

Overview:

Students engage with a variety of resources to learn about ecosystems and the interactions among organisms in ecosystems, with a focus on elk migration in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Groups create a second map layer for their unit project that shows how their focal animal’s migration impacts its ecosystem. This lesson is part of the Detours and Distractions: How Humans Impact Migration Patterns unit.

Content Standard(s):
Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 7
Life Science
6 ) Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence regarding how resource availability impacts individual organisms as well as populations of organisms within an ecosystem.

NAEP Framework
NAEP Statement::
L8.7: The number of organisms and populations an ecosystem can support depends on the biotic resources available and abiotic factors, such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition.

Unpacked Content
Scientific And Engineering Practices:
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Crosscutting Concepts: Cause and Effect
Disciplinary Core Idea: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • Organize data (tables, graphs, charts, etc.) that allows for analysis and interpretation of relationships between resource availability and organisms in an ecosystem.
  • Analyze data that shows identification of relationships between factors like population size, the growth and survival of individual organisms, and resource availability.
  • Make relevant predictions, based on interpretation of organized data, of relationships between factors like population size, the growth and survival of individual organisms, and resource availability.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • Analyze
  • Interpret
  • Evidence
  • Resource(s)
  • Organism(s)
  • Ecosystem
  • Biotic
  • Abiotic
  • Populations (e.g., sizes, reproduction rates, growth information)
  • Competition
Knowledge:
Students know:
  • Organisms, and populations of organisms, are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living (biotic) things and with nonliving (abiotic) things.
  • In any ecosystem, organisms and populations with similar requirements for food, water, oxygen, or other resources may compete with each other for limited resources, access to which consequently constrains their growth and reproduction.
  • Growth of organisms and population increases are limited by access to resources.
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • Organize the given data to allow for analysis and interpretation of relationships between resource availability and organisms in an ecosystem.
  • Analyze the organized data to determine the relationships between the size of a population, the growth and survival of individual organisms, and resource availability.
  • Determine whether the relationships provide evidence of a causal link between factors.
  • Interpret the organized data to make predictions based on evidence of causal relationships between resource availability, organisms, and organism populations.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems.
  • Causal links exist between resources and growth of individual organisms and the numbers of organisms in ecosystems during periods of abundant and scarce resources.
AMSTI Resources:
AMSTI Module:
Investigating Biodiversity and Interdependence
Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards
AAS Standard:
SCI.AAS.7.6- Use data as evidence that the availability of natural resources (e.g., food, light, water) influences the growth of organisms.
Science
SC2015 (2015)
Grade: 7
Life Science
8 ) Construct an explanation to predict patterns of interactions in different ecosystems in terms of the relationships between and among organisms (e.g., competition, predation, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism).

NAEP Framework
NAEP Statement::
L8.6a: Two types of organisms may interact with one another in several ways: They may be in a producer/ consumer, predator/prey, or parasite/ host relationship.

NAEP Statement::
L8.6b: Or, one organism may scavenge or decompose another.

NAEP Statement::
L8.6c: Relationships may be competitive or mutually beneficial. Some species have become so adapted to each other that neither could survive without the other.

Unpacked Content
Scientific And Engineering Practices:
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Crosscutting Concepts: Patterns
Disciplinary Core Idea: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • Articulate a statement that similar patterns of interactions occur between organisms and their environment, regardless of the ecosystem or the species involved.
  • Use evidence and reasoning to construct an explanation concerning relationships between and among organisms within ecosystems.
  • Use multiple valid and reliable sources for the evidence to identify and describe quantitative or qualitative patterns of interactions among organisms that can be used to identify causal relationships within ecosystems.
  • Use reasoning to predict patterns in the evidence.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • Interactions
  • Evidence
  • Reasoning
  • Quantitative
  • Qualitative
  • Patterns
  • Ecosystems
  • Relationships
  • Competition
  • Predation
  • Mutualism
  • Commensalism
  • Parasitism
Knowledge:
Students know:
  • Competitive relationships occur when organisms within an ecosystem compete for shared resources.
  • Predatory interactions occur between organisms within an ecosystem.
  • Mutually beneficial interactions occur between organisms within an ecosystem; some organisms are so dependent upon one another that they can not survive alone.
  • Resource availability affects interactions between organisms (e.g., limited resources may cause competitive relationships among organisms; those same organisms may not be in competition where resources are in abundance).
  • Competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions occur across multiple, different ecosystems.
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • Articulate a statement that relates a given phenomenon to a scientific idea, including that similar patterns of interactions occur between organisms and their environment, regardless of the ecosystem or the species involved.
  • Use multiple valid and reliable sources of evidence to construct an explanation for the given phenomenon.
  • Identify and describe quantitative or qualitative patterns of interactions among organisms that can be used to identify causal relationships within ecosystems, related to the given phenomenon.
  • Describe that regardless of the ecosystem or species involved, the patterns of interactions are similar.
  • Use reasoning to connect the evidence and support an explanation using patterns in the evidence to predict common interactions among organisms in ecosystems as they relate to the phenomenon.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • Although the species involved in relationships (e.g., competition, predation, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism) vary across ecosystems, the patterns of interactions of organisms with their environments, both living and nonliving, are shared.
AMSTI Resources:
AMSTI Module:
Investigating Biodiversity and Interdependence
Alabama Alternate Achievement Standards
AAS Standard:
SCI.AAS.7.8- Identify relationships among organisms as competitive, mutually beneficial, parasitic, or neutral.
Tags: ecosystem, migration, organisms
License Type: Custom Permission Type
See Terms: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/terms-of-service/
For full descriptions of license types and a guide to usage, visit :
https://creativecommons.org/licenses
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  This resource provided by:  
Author: Stephanie Carver
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