Backyard Ecosystem

jun 08 2011

Source: NYSCI

Summary Information

Keywords:

ecosystem, food web, food chain, predator, prey, basic needs

Topic:

Earth Science

Biology

Target Grade (Ages):

Grade 6 (Ages 11-12)

Grade 7 (Ages 12-13)

Grade 8 (Ages 13-14)

Estimated Time Required:

3-5 hours

Diversity Indicators:

Part of this lesson takes place outdoors. Be sure to make accommodations for students with limited mobility.

Watch this Lesson in Practice

Introduction

Lesson

Reflection

Tab Wrapper

LESSON

Goals and Prerequisites

Goals:

To introduce students to the living and nonliving things in their local area
To allow students to practice observation and data recording skills
To use the web resource Project Noah as a tool to document wildlife and introduce the concept of citizen science

Prerequisites:

Students should have a basic understanding of ecosystems and food chains.

Instructional Objective(s)

Identify multiple living and nonliving things that contribute to the local ecosystem.
Concept map how these things are interrelated.
Use a camera to record data and a computer to upload their data to the Project Noah site.

Instructional Resources

Background:

To start, you may want to watch this video entitled What is STEM Education?

What is STEM Education

Be sure to visit the Project Noah site before starting the lesson at http://www.projectnoah.org.

Before students go out into the field, you should create a mission on the Project Noah site. This should include a brief description of what you'd like students to do,as well as more specific instructions and a timeline for completion of the project. In order to add a mission, you must contact the site, so be sure to allow enough time prior to the start of the activity.

You may choose to assign the field visits as homework or do them during class time. You may also do the first field visit during class so you can prompt student observations and assign later visits as homework.

Even urban areas have ecosystems. For some ideas of what students could look for in more urban settings, check out the urban biodiversity mission on Project Noah.

“Citizen science”is a term that describes programs in which people who may or may not have scientific training contribute to a project. This contribution may be in the form of data collection, but may also include helping with the development of the research questions and procedure or data analysis and drawing conclusions. Citizen science allows for more data collection than might be possible otherwise, and also allows for the inclusion of different perspectives. You may want to include a pre-activity conversation about the importance of citizen science. For more information to include in a discussion, visit http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citscitoolkit

This lesson can be used to reinforce many different concepts such as the diversity of life, food chains, energy flow through ecosystems, interdependence of living things, dynamic equilibrium, and human interaction with the environment. You can change the exact procedure for the mission and the criteria for the final representation of the ecosystem to fit your needs.

Materials:

Pencils
Paper/Journals
Digital cameras
Computers
Field guides (print or online)
Posterboard, large pieces of construction paper etc.
Markers

Procedure:

Before starting this lesson with students, you should view the Backyard Ecosystems How-To below.

Backyard Ecosystems How-To

Field Observations

Select an outdoor area that will become the field site. This can be a playground, a local park, etc. Alternatively, you can have students complete this project at home, and have them use their backyard, local park, etc.
When students are at the field site, have them record observations on paper,as well as take photographs. Have them record the living things they see, as well as the nonliving things they think are part of the ecosystem. Depending on the number of cameras, etc. you may have students work in pairs or groups.
Students should visit their field site multiple times to get a better idea of the organisms that might live there. For example, squirrels might not be present on field visit one, but students may see squirrels when they go back a second time. Similarly water may be present on some days, but not others depending on the location and climate.

Back in the Classroom

Have students upload their photos to the Project Noah site.
Have students identify the living things they found. Some organisms, like a cardinal, might be easier to identify, whereas others, like certain types of plants or birds, might be more challenging. Provide nature guides so that students can try to identify organisms. Also, uploading photos to the Project Noah site will allow community members to help with the identification process.
After students have completed their identifications as best they can, have them begin to link the living and nonliving things to create a visual representation of the ecosystem. The representation could include predator/prey relationships, different trophic levels, etc. This can be done using drawings, printed photgraphs, or on the computer. The representation should include labels and appropriate scientific vocabulary to help explain the visuals.

Extensions

Have students create a representation of what their ecosystem might look like during a different season. Would the organisms found there be different? What about the natural resources like water or sunlight?
Ask students to discuss what the ecosystem would look like in different parts of their state. What about the world?

Assessments and Rubrics

If you are interested in learning how to make your own rubric for this or other lessons, you may be interested in watching the How to Make a Rubric video below.

How to Make a Rubric

Or, you can choose to use or customize the one created for this lesson plan below.

Backyard Ecosystems Rubric (DOC)

Backyard Ecosystems Rubric (PDF)

You can use students' concept maps to assess their understanding of ecosystems and energy flow.

If students are doing field visits outside of class time, you can have them take field notes in a journal and use this as a way to assess their observation skills, effort, and understanding of ecosystems.

External Resources

The Franklin Institute: Basic information about ecosystems
Science for Citizens: Information about citizen science and listings of citizen science project
Nature in the City: Information on urban biodiversity

Credits

New York Hall of Science and Project Noah

RESOURCES

Original Resources

Backyard Ecosystem How-To (FLV)

Backyard Ecosystem Rubric (PDF)

Backyard Ecosystems Rubric (DOC)

How to Make a Rubric (FLV)

What is STEM Education (FLV)

Lessons In Practice

Backyard Ecosystem Introduction

Introduction

Backyard Ecosystem Lesson

Lesson

Backyard Ecosystem Reflection

Reflection

Contributed Resources

Contribute a Resource

Click the button above if you would like to contribute a resource to this lesson.

STANDARDS

Click here to add Standards

NSTA Standards

Standard Type: National

NSTA STANDARDS

Abilities Necessary to Do Scientific Inquiry

Use Appropriate Tools and Techniques to Gather, Analyze, and Interpret Data.
Think Critically and Logically to Make the Relationships Between Evidence and Explanations

Regulation And Behavior

All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment.

Populations And Ecosystems

A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time. All populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem.
For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs.
The number of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and abiotic factors, such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition. Given adequate biotic and abiotic resources and no disease or predators, populations (including humans) increase at rapid rates. Lack of resources and other factors, such as predation and climate, limit the growth of populations in specific niches in the ecosystem.

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Keywords:

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Watch this Lesson in Practice

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Prerequisites:

Background:

Materials:

Procedure:

Original Resources

Lessons In Practice

Contributed Resources