Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Eliminating Extinction--It's Complicated!

Subject Area

Science

Grade(s)

7

Overview

Students receive their target species and perform background research. Students learn about working with local populations to protect endangered species and read several conservation success stories. Students engage with two conservation storytellers and apply the power of storytelling to their target species. They then compare two grant proposals to prepare for writing their own proposals. This lesson is part of the Extinction Stinks! unit.

    Science (2015) Grade(s): 7

    SC15.7.6

    Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence regarding how resource availability impacts individual organisms as well as populations of organisms within an ecosystem.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:SC15.7.6

    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.

    Scientific and Engineering Practices

    Analyzing and Interpreting Data

    Crosscutting Concepts

    Cause and Effect
    Science (2015) Grade(s): 7

    SC15.7.7

    Use empirical evidence from patterns and data to demonstrate how changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem (e.g., deforestation, succession, drought, fire, disease, human activities, invasive species) can lead to shifts in populations.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:SC15.7.7

    Vocabulary

    • Empirical evidence
    • Patterns
    • Data
    • Ecosystem
    • Populations
    • Physical components (e.g., water, air, temperature, sunlight, soil, etc.)
    • Biological components (e.g., plants, animals, etc.)
    • Phenomena (e.g., deforestation, succession, drought, fire, disease, human activities, invasive species, etc.)

    Knowledge

    Students know:
    • Ecosystems are dynamic in nature and can change over time.
    • Disruptions to any physical or biological component of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations.
    • Changes in the physical or biological components of an ecosystem (e.g., rainfall, species introduction) can lead to changes in populations of species.

    Skills

    Students are able to:
    • Demonstrate the scientific idea that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem can affect the populations living there.
    • Identify and describe the given evidence needed to demonstrate the scientific idea that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem can affect the populations living there.
    • Evaluate the given evidence, identifying the necessary and sufficient evidence for supporting the scientific idea.
    • Use reasoning to connect the evidence and support an explanation using patterns in the evidence to predict the causal relationship between physical and biological components of an ecosystem and changes in organism populations.

    Understanding

    Students understand that:
    • Changes in the amount and availability of given resource may result in changes in the population of an organism.
    • Changes in the amount or availability of a resource may result in changes in the growth of individual organisms.
    • Resource availability drives competition among organisms, both within a population as well as between populations.
    • Resource availability may have an effect on a population's rate of reproduction.

    Scientific and Engineering Practices

    Analyzing and Interpreting Data

    Crosscutting Concepts

    Stability and Change
    Link to Resource

    CR Resource Type

    Lesson/Unit Plan

    Resource Provider

    National Geographic
    Accessibility

    Accessibility

    Text Resources: Content is organized under headings and subheadings
    License

    License Type

    Custom
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