Mrs. Orgill's Science Page



Name:__Answer KEY __Biological Energy Packet

Standard 2 Students will understand that energy from sunlight is changed to chemical energy in plants, transfers between living organisms, and that changing the environment may alter the amount of energy provided to living organisms.

Obj 3 A. Describe specific examples of how humans have changed the capacity of an environment to support specific life forms (e.g., people create wetlands and nesting boxes that increase the number and range of wood ducks, acid rain damages amphibian eggs and reduces population of frogs, clear cutting forests affects squirrel populations, suburban sprawl reduces mule deer winter range thus decreasing numbers of deer

Please go to: to view the World Population Clock

Click on “Population” and answer the following questions:

1. What is the current population of the earth today? _____________________________

2. Are more people dying or are more people being born? _________________________

3. How many people have born on our planet? ______________________________

Click on “Food” and answer the following questions:

4. How many chickens have been killed this year in 2011? ______________________________

Click on “Energy” and answer the following questions:

5. What percentage of the energy we are using “Renewable”?________________________

6. What does this mean?

St 2. Obj 3 B. Distinguish between inference and evidence in a newspaper or magazine article relating to the effect of humans on the environment.

Earth Overshoot Day Today

By Tim Wall | Tue Sep 27, 2011 08:10 AM ET Found at:

Europe isn't the only place facing a debt crisis this week. Today marks the day the entire planet goes into ecological debt, according to the Global Footprint Network.

Dubbed “Earth Overshoot Day,” Sept. 27 marks the day when humans have used an entire year's worth of the planet's productivity, the Network calculates.

"That's like spending your annual salary three months before the year is over, and eating into savings year after year," Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel said in an AFP article, "Pretty soon, you run out of savings."

Human's depend on the Earth for everything from food to fuel and clothing, but since the 1970's humans have been using more resources than a single planet provides, the Network says. To keep up our current usage rates we would need between 1.3 to 1.5 Earths.

Since no one has a spare Earth sitting around, we are in ecological debt. And unlike the United States national debt, there is no way to raise the debt ceiling. Once the planet's resources are used up, we have nowhere else to go.

"From soaring food prices to the crippling effects of climate change, our economies are now confronting the reality of years of spending beyond our means," Wackernagel said.

Earth Overshoot Day is not a precise measure, but tries to put humanity's impact on the Earth into an observable form. The Global Footprint Network's website notes that Sept. 27 is actually on the later end of the possible date range.

The Earth Overshoot Day concept was originally developed by the New Economics Foundation. The date is calculated by comparing human demand to Earth's supply. Calculations are influenced by Earth's natural productive ability, how much people consume, and how many people there are.

The equation can be simplified to:

[world biocapacity / world Ecological Footprint ] x 365 = Earth Overshoot Day

That's a small equation for tremendous set of data. Can scientists really estimate the entire planet's productivity and the whole human species' resource use?

“It is possible to estimate it based on sunlight, rainfall, land area, and plant community,” Jan Weaver, biologist at the University of Missouri told Discovery News.

“It would be similar to how the UN Food & Agriculture Organization estimates crops and forest productivity,” Weaver said.

Other national and international agencies use a similar methodology to estimate energy and food needs, and the approach seems reasonable, she added.

To keep tabs on all this data the Global Footprint Network uses National Footprint Accounts. According to their website:

“National Footprint Accounts measure the ecological resource use and resource capacity of nations over time. Based on approximately 5,000 data points per country per year, the Accounts calculate the Footprints of 241 countries, territories, and regions from 1961 to the present. These accounts provide the core data that is needed for all Ecological Footprint analysis worldwide.”

Just as the United States has a monstrous economic debt, they have a massive ecological debt as well. The US has a massive ecological footprint, an AFP story noted that it would take five Earths to meet humanity's needs if everyone used as many resources as the average American.

Europe and Canada have big footprints too. And China, India and other developing countries are catching up quickly. The Network estimates in the Living Planet Report 2010, that by 2030 humans will be using double the Earth's capacity.

IMAGE:A composite satellite image of the Western Hemisphere. (NASA, Wikimedia Commons)

Research Question:_Is there enough evidence supporting Human over use of Resources ?

Hypothesis: If humans are over using their resources, than other species will have been harmed such as extinction or loss of biodiversity.

Procedures:

Since this claim is at such a high magnitude it will be difficult to get data from simply observing something in the classroom.

We will need to find a research article from a reliable source and determine:

1. The claim, 2. Data 3. Warrant and 4. Resource.

We will also need to get at least 5 other articles from our peers.

Where to get Articles: Use the Utah Research Site: 1. Go to:

2. Select one of the following article search methods:

-EBSCO - eMedia -SIRS Databases -Utah Collections Multimedia

Search using words such as: Earth’s Resource Consumption, Overshooting Earth’s Resources, etc.

Data:

|Claim |Data |Warrant |Resource |

|By 2030, we’ll use Double Earth’s |Global footprint network calculated we’re |We want resources for the future |“Earth overshoot day today.” |

|capacity |over using | |By Tim Wall |

| | | |Discovery News on Sept 27th |

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|By 2050, fish in the ocean will be |One fishing dive can wipe out 50% of the |We want fish for our planet |“Cities” |

|almost totally wiped out |fish in the reef (and this happens 3 times | |Human planet |

| |a day for this one fishing group) | |BBC 2011 |

|Claim |Data |Warrant |Resource |

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Find three claims by looking under: Click on EBSCO, Use Kids Search, type in “Resource Consumption”

Standard 2 Objective 1 Compare ways that plants and animals obtain and use energy.

Reactants of: Energy coming in for:

PHOTOSYNTHESIS RESPIRATION PHOTOSYNTHESIS RESPIRATION

Carbon Dioxide Glucose Solar Energy Chemical Energy

& Water & Oxygen

Products of: Energy given off in:

PHOTOSYNTHESIS RESPIRATION PHOTOSYNTHESIS RESPIRATION

Glucose Carbon Dioxide Chemical Energy Mechanical Energy

& Oxygen & Oxygen

Obj 1. A. Recognize the importance of photosynthesis in using light energy as part of the chemical process that builds plant materials.

Explain photosynthesis in your own words:

Photosynthesis is when a plant takes in carbon dioxide, water, & sunlight to make food & oxygen for animals like us.

What energy drives this reaction?

Solar Energy

What energy is now stored in the leaves and tomato?

Chemical Energy

Home Plant Growth Experiment

Obj. 2 C: Formulate and test a hypothesis on the effects of air, temperature, water, or light on plants (e.g., seed germination, growth rates, seasonal adaptations).

Question: Does changing the _______________________________________ affect how well grass seeds grow?

Hypothesis:

Materials: Each person will do one of the tests and each person will therefore have:

- One cup fill ¾ full of dirt. – A pinch of grass seed - Water -Additional materials

|Day |Observations |Day |Observations |

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Procedure:

1. Plant your pinch of grass seed one one inch deep in your dirt cup

2. Water at home with the following amount __________ at the following time per day _________

3. Put your plant:______________________________

4. Record observations of what your dirt cup (and plant) look like each day.

5. Discuss with your group everyday your results and change your procedure as necessary.

Group Data: Group Graph:

|How the Independent Variable |Dependent Variable (or Results) |

|Changed: | |

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|-Decomposers |-8 things you eat |-producer (green) |-Sun energy to producers ( ) |

|-Producers |-a 2nd consumer & 3 things they eat |-herbivore ( ) |-1st consumers ( ) |

|-1st Consumers |-a 3rd consumer & 3 things they eat |-omnivore ( ) |-2nd consumers ( ) |

|-2nd Consumers |-Total of 10 living things |-carnivore ( ) |-3rd consumers ( ) |

|-3rd Consumers |Past 10 get 1 pt per living thing up to 5.| |-Decomposers ( ) |

| | | |-Arrows are straight, labels are clear |

| | | |- 5 pictures minimum drawn with each living thing. |

Objective 3 Analyze human influence on the capacity of an environment to sustain living things.

Describe specific examples of how humans have changed the capacity of an environment to support specific life forms

Obj 3 C. Infer the potential effects of humans on a specific food web. (Our Planets Resources)

Arctic Food Web Activity:

Work in your groups to organize the cards to make a food web. Then draw the food web in the space below:

[pic]

After your food web is drawn, fill in the following table:

|Environmental Impact |Changes it would cause |

|# of days of winter is shortening |Animals that are white are eaten more because they don’t blend into a non-snow |

| |background & are not camoflauged. |

|Humans are drilling for oil in these regions (on land & in the ocean) |Oil spills could kill all animals & plant in the ocean. In addition when oil is |

| |burned more CO2 goes into the air. |

|Increasing the amount of freshwater in the ocean |Zoo plankton & photoplankton may die off, so less food for other animals. |

|Sea ice at the poles are melting |Polar bears, walrus, & seals rely on firm ice to hunt, they might drown looking for |

| |other food causing an increase in other animal populations. |

|Humans are fishing more in the arctic regions |Less arctic cod fish means less food for whales & seals. In addition we are using up |

| |our renewable resources so they can’t renew in the future |

|The amount of land is shrinking due to rising oceans. |Less land for animals to hunt on, less resources available for all land based animals.|

|More people are touring the Polar Regions |People cause pollution, energy consumption, waste, and can easily disrupt food webs by|

| |over population. |

|Increased amount of sunlight |Warms up ice which causes it to melt and also causes reflections on the ice and snow, |

| |it becomes harder to hunt as polar bears, walruses, and seals. |

|Sea water is getting warmer |Less ice means polar bears, walrus, and seals may drowned. There is less algae on the|

| |underside of ice. Less algae means less for every animal in food web |

Analysis:

1. Can all of these environmental impacts be traced to humans? Explain your answer.

Yes, mostly because humans are putting more CO2 in the air and that causes a greenhouse affect. This green house affect is responsible for shifting weather, increasing temperatures that melt ice poles.

2. What happens to a food web if you increase the amount of producers?

The more producers available the more first consumers can survive on it, thus it increases all animals that are 2nd and 3rd producers as well as decomposers.

3. What happens to a food web if you decrease the number of large predators.

Large predators keep the 1st and 2nd consumer number down. If they are absent then the lower consumers over eat their resources causing less producers in the next year and these plants (and the whole food web) has a hard time bouncing back.

4. Why do we need decomposers in a food web?

Decomposers get rid of dead things so that the excess can be broken down and nutrients can be returned to the soil.

Obj 2 A. Categorize the relationships between organisms (i.e., producer/consumer/decomposer, predator/prey, mutualism/parasitism) and provide examples of each.

Title: Best Buddies

Introduction: In nature, plants and animals develop complex relationships. Some are relationships you may know of are producer/consumer/decomposer or predator/ prey. You may be less familiar with mutualism, commensalisms or parasitism. These relationships are sometimes amazing to see because they remind us of human types of behavior. In this activity you will investigate the plant and animal world as well as the human side of interactive relationships.

Procedures:

1. Turn to a partner and describe what you think it means to be a “buddy” to someone else.

2. Define the following terms that are used to define “buddies” in an ecosystem:

Producer: Plants make food from the sun.

Consumer: Animals eat either plants or other animals (cannot use the sunlight directly to get energy to live).

Decomposer: Organism that breaks down dead plants and animals for energy.

Predator: Eats other animals.

Prey: Gets eaten by another animal.

Predation: The relationship between a predator and prey. ( (

Mutualism: A relationship when two organisms help each other. ( (

Parasitism: A relationship when organism slowly sucks nutrients and weakens another organism. ( (

Commensalism: A relationship when one organism benefits but the other organism doesn’t care. ( :I

|Picture number |Organism and Role |Organism and Role |Type of relationship |

|1 |Forest/produces food from sunlight |Mushroom/decomposer |Producer/decomposer |

|2 |Grassland/produces food from sunlight |Elephant/consumes food |Producer/consumer |

|3 |Lioness/may hunt or be hunted by man |Man/may hunt or be hunted by lion |Predator/prey |

|4 |Leaves/produces food from sunlight |Grasshopper/consumes leaves |Producer/consumer |

|5 |Ant/feeds and protects aphids |Aphid/produce food for ant |Mutualism |

|6 |Buffalo/stir up insects as they walk through|Cowbird/eats insects the buffalo stirs up. |Commensalism |

| |grass | | |

|7 |Badger/opens bee hive |Honey guide/shows badger where bee hive is |Mutalism |

|8 |Hermit crab/uses snail shell |Snail/discards shell when outgrown |Commensalism |

|9 |Deer/provide home and food |Tick/feed on deer blood, pass disease |Parasitism |

| |Cuckoo/lays eggs in warblers nest |Warbler/hatches and feeds cuckoo offspring, warbler|Parasitism |

|10 | |chicks may die | |

|11 |Ostrich/lives with gazelle herds and helps |Gazelle/lives with ostrich herds and helps warn of |Mutualsim |

| |warn of danger |danger | |

|12 |Remora/feeds off shark scraps |Shark/doesn’t know remora is around |Commensalism |

Living Together Movie Notes:

Name 3 examples of Mutualism & Why:

1. The ant provides protection and the aphid provides milk (honey dew)

2. The egret picks off parasites from the deer.

3. The blind shrimp builds the home and the Gobi fish watches out for danger.

Name 3 examples of Parasitism & Why:

1. The cowbird eats blood from the giraffe even though it supposed to help it.

2. The moth has mites in its ears that take it’s blood and nutrients.

3. The tape worms suck nutrients from the sheep’s guts.

Name 1 example of Commensalism& Why:

The crab gets protection from the octopus by putting anemones on it. The anemone doesn’t really benefit.

Name 1 example of Predation & Why:

The armored caterpillars march into the ants nest and eat the baby ant larvae.

Take a Stand Obj 3 C. Infer the potential effects of humans on a specific food web. (Our Planets Resources)

Choose one of these five positions around the room. You will need to articulate why you agree with that statement and convince others in your class to join your position. However if you find that someone has an influential claim and data to support it you can join another group if you feel that is right.

Your choices to stand are:

1. There are enough resources on our planet to support human population growth, therefore no action needs to be taken.

2. There are not enough resources on our planet to support human population. However, there is no immediate threat. In addition, we cannot control 7 billion people’s choices.

3. Our world is in trouble probably in 50 years. Therefore, we need to start correcting our problems gradually to alleviate the problem.

4. Our world is in trouble now, however the only way to make a big enough difference to elect smart people who can set up laws to mandatorily change our behavior.

5. Our world is in trouble now, however the only way to make a big enough difference is through individual choice.

As we go through this activity, write down three human impacts that were discussed and what will be the result if humans keep doing that activity.

|Human Impact |Result |

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Human Impact Essay

Please describe if Humans really are going past our planets resources. If we are, what resources are we consuming? Can other species live on these resources if we as humans use up more than our share of resources? Please use three paragraphs of 4 sentences each or more to describe your position. You need to back up your position by describing claims and data from articles found from our class research.

Ecosystem Ecology: Links in the Chain - Crash Course Ecology #7



5 Human Impacts on the Environment: Crash Course Ecology #10



How Ecosystems Work | Biology | Ecology



LS1C - Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms



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