Understanding By Design Unit Template



|Title of Unit |Ecology: Biotic & Abiotic Interactions |Grade Level |10th |

|Curriculum Area |Biology |Time Frame |2-3 weeks |

|Developed By |Erich Hoffmann & Morgan Hunt |

|Identify Desired Results (Stage 1) |

|Content Standards |

|NGSS Standard: HS-LS2-6:2 |

|“Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may |

|result in a new ecosystem” |

|Colorado Standard: 2.2 High School Life Science |

|“The size and persistence of populations depend on their interactions with each other and the abiotic factors in an ecosystem.” |

|Colorado Standard: 2.1 High School Life Science |

|“Matter tends to be cycled within an ecosystem, while energy is transformed and eventually exits an ecosystem.” |

|Understandings |Essential Questions |

|Overarching Understanding |Overarching |Topical |

|Students will understand how organisms interact with abiotic and biotic environment aspects, and how |How do small changes in the part of a system |How do organisms interact with their environment?|

|these interactions can lead to dissent with modification |change the system as a whole? |How do species also interact with each other? |

| | | |

| | |How do nutrients flow through the environment and|

| | |how does a disruption in the flow impact the |

| | |environment? |

| | | |

| | |How does evolution occur via natural selection? |

|Related Misconceptions | | |

|Exploring Ecology and Interactions in an Ecosystem | | |

|Some students thrive when working with visual elements such as a poster and others work with facts and | | |

|the use of the internet should provide both resources. A visual picture of a food web may help one | | |

|student to understand. | | |

|Commensalism, Mutualism, Parasitism | | |

|Students may come with the misconception that symbiosis and mutualism are interchangeable. Explain that | | |

|symbiosis is a long term relationship between two or more species and that mutualism is a type of | | |

|symbiosis. Mutualism and commensalism and parasitism are all examples of a type of symbiosis. | | |

|Students may come with the misconception that predation is similar to parasitism in that one organism | | |

|benefits and the other is harmed. Explain to students that symbiosis is a long term relationship between | | |

|organisms and this means that the short term relationship between predator and prey is not a symbiotic | | |

|relationship. Explain what a parasite and host are to help explain parasitism and the differences | | |

|compared to predation. Use examples. Also explain that predation results in death for the prey, but | | |

|parasitism results in the host staying alive. | | |

|Food Webs and Chains | | |

|The hardest thing for students to understand is that literally everything on the planet is connected via | | |

|a food web. It may not be a direct connection, but there is eventually a connection. Another thing that | | |

|they may have a misconception about is that the introduction of an invasive species has a huge impact on | | |

|the feed web and can decimate the complexity of a local web. | | |

|Evolution by Natural Selection | | |

|Evolution is not the same as natural selection. Evolution means change and change can happen through the | | |

|process of natural selection, but they are not the same. | | |

|Evolution does not happen to an individual; it happens to a population. | | |

|Nutrient Cycles | | |

|Students may have a harder time understanding the nitrogen cycle because they cannot easily see the cycle| | |

|like they can the water cycle. It will just be harder for them to accept as a cycle. | | |

|Building an Ecosystem | | |

|Some students may think that we are killing the fish buy sealing the bottle, that eventually the will run| | |

|out of oxygen. | | |

|Knowledge |Skills |

|Students will know… |Students will be able to… |

|How organisms interact with abiotic and biotic environment aspects and how these interactions lead to |Exploring Ecology and Interactions in an Ecosystem |

|dissent with modification over at least one generation. |Demonstrate understanding of the various roles that animals/organisms play in the environment along |

| |with what roles they play in the world by explaining explain 4 species interactions in which they |

| |learned from their home group. |

| |Define each type of species interactions in their own words supported by examples in their notebook.|

| |Learn the information at the station they are assigned and teach their home group members what they |

| |memorized and produced from the lab. |

| |Commensalism, Mutualism, Parasitism |

| |Demonstrate understanding of the various roles that animals/organisms play in the environment along |

| |with what roles they play in the world by explaining explain 4 species interactions in which they |

| |learned from their home group. |

| |Define each type of species interactions in their own words supported by examples in their notebook.|

| |Recall the information at the station they are assigned and teach their home group members what they|

| |memorized and produced from the lab. |

| |Food Webs and Chains |

| |Create a detailed food web for a local animal. |

| |Analyze the energy flow from one trophic level to the next. |

| |Construct and analyze a graph reflecting the results of a population simulation. |

| |Evolution by Natural Selection |

| |Recall the three requirements for evolution to occur by means of natural selection. |

| |1.Phenotypic variation in a trait is necessary within the population |

| |2. Phenotypes must be heritable within the population |

| |3. Some phenotypes are more fit than others |

| |Determine whether evolution happened in a given species. |

| |Explain how evolution by natural selection could lead to biodiversity in an environment. |

| |Nutrient Cycles |

| |Describe the flow of Water, Carbon and Nitrogen through the environment |

| |Explain what would happen if one step in the cycles of Water, Carbon and Nitrogen were removed what |

| |would happen. |

| |Illustrate one of the cycles completely, and point out which factors are Biotic and which are |

| |Abiotic. |

| |Building an Ecosystem |

| |Describe the flow of nutrients through the students’ ecosystem (oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon) |

| |Explain the importance of each component of the ecosystem (plant, snail, and fish) |

| |Explain the importance of ethical treatment of working with live animals in a science class |

|Assessment Evidence (Stage 2) |

|Performance Task Description |

|Goal |Evaluate students overall understanding of Ecology |

|Role |Students will demonstrate that they have an in depth understanding of Ecology and how to study interactions throughout the environment |

|Audience |10th Grade Students |

|Situation |Pre-test and Unit exam to be administered prior to and after unit material has been presented |

|Product/Performance |Test |

|Standards |NGSS Standard: HS-LS2-6:2 |

| |“Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable |

| |conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem” |

| |Colorado Standard: 2.2 High School Life Science |

| |“The size and persistence of populations depend on their interactions with each other and the abiotic factors in an ecosystem.” |

| |Colorado Standard: 2.1 High School Life Science |

| |“Matter tends to be cycled within an ecosystem, while energy is transformed and eventually exits an ecosystem.” |

|Other Evidence |

|Science notebooks, quizzes, discussions in groups, exit tickets, answers given orally in class. |

|Learning Plan (Stage 3) |

|Where are your students headed? Where have they been? How will you make |The unit fits into the curriculum in the following manner. The unit prior to ecology will be the plant unit. The unit following |

|sure the students know where they are going? |the ecology unit will be anatomy. This is the perfect place for an ecology unit because the students will have great |

| |understanding of plants, because plants colonized land first and are responsible for earth’s breathable atmosphere. As students |

| |move into anatomy the students will have the opportunity to see how decent with modification has affected various organism. |

|How will you hook students at the beginning of the unit? |Video during the first lesson showing the broadness of the field of Ecology and Brainstorming activity |

|What events will help students experience and explore the big idea and |The interactive activates, videos, group projects, homework assignments are all geared toward providing students with the |

|questions in the unit? How will you equip them with needed skills and |required skills needed to understand the unit. |

|knowledge? | |

|How will you cause students to reflect and rethink? How will you guide them|Students are expected to reflect on lessons in their journals, which will be reviewed periodically by instructor. Instructor will|

|in rehearsing, revising, and refining their work? |provide feedback to students on their reflections guiding them on how to refine their findings in class activities. |

|How will you help students to exhibit and self-evaluate their growing |Quizzes and assignments in lessons relate directly to pre-test and unit exam |

|skills, knowledge, and understanding throughout the unit? | |

|How will you tailor and otherwise personalize the learning plan to optimize |Lessons will be differentiated to suit students’ needs/desires. Students will be allowed to create their own assignments if it is|

|the engagement and effectiveness of ALL students, without compromising the |has the same end goal of the pre-planned lesson. |

|goals of the unit? | |

|How will you organize and sequence the learning activities to optimize the |All lessons will start with a warm up to engage the students’ interest in the material for the day. After students are hooked we |

|engagement and achievement of ALL students? |will then proceed to an engaging activity where the students learn hands on, as well as minds on. After this students will |

| |participate in whole class discussion over the material to fill in any gaps in understanding. The lesson will then be concluded |

| |cover the main points of the lesson. |

From: Wiggins, Grant and J. Mc Tighe. (1998). Understanding by Design, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

ISBN # 0-87120-313-8 (ppk)

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