Biodiversity: Can science save an ecosystem from extinction?

Middle School Life Science: Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems

MS:LS 2-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.

If you've never looked into the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's (HHMI) BioInteractive site, NOW would be a great time to do so. This free website is such a wealth of information, ranging from data sets to lesson plans to short videos to full-on inquiry-based explorations. Each resource specifically is linked to current scientific research and provides students with tremendous insight into what science really "looks like."

My middle school class immediately dug into the citizen-science aspect of the WildCam Gorongosa activities. There's no better way to study an ecosystem than to immerse oneself in the trail-cam photos as if we were really there (since a field trip to Mozambique was out of the question)! I could see students at any level using the built in tools (as well as this Field Guide) to key out the different species they observed. As with any citizen-science program, the students felt pretty important when they learned that what they were doing would really be utilized by scientists studying the biodiversity of the area.

While we didn't complete the entire BioInteractive WildCam Lab, we did use several of the resources available (found in their entirety here) to look at how populations changed over time due to different habitat disturbances. It was a great way to not only introduce food chains/webs/pyramids, but to look at how these relationships were influenced when resource availability changed.

Link to Slides and Student Guide we used in class

One phenomenon... two ways

Choosing a good phenomenon to have students explain is a critical step in designing 3D lessons. Fortunately, the best phenomena can be used to address multiple Performance Expectations; it just depends on how you want to use them. Great phenomena can anchor lessons for multiple grade levels and subject areas.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2267504/The-sealed-bottle-garden-thriving-40-years-fresh-air-water.html

I was inspired to think about a lesson that would use this phenomenon when Saranac Middle School's Rebecca Shuman posted on Instagram about her students making these really cool biosphere ecosystems. (Secretly I just wanted to fill my classroom with cool stuff like this.) What I didn't realize at the time was that Becky had developed an awesome lesson sequence (called "There is no Planet B") with the biospheres as the culminating experience. Becky's biosphere lesson incorporates MS:LS2-1 and 2-3 and serves to compare the model biospheres to the closed system of the Earth as a whole.

In my classroom, we used our miniature biospheres as a model for the larger human-designed ecosystems such as Biosphere 2 and the eventual (?) biospheres used to colonize Mars or other distant places. (MS:LS2-5) We plan to observe the biospheres throughout the course of the school year to monitor changes and to model the matter and energy flow in the system.

Link to the Ecosystems in Space lesson

Making a scientific claim... it's more than just an opinion!

Middle School Life Science

Introduction to Life Processes: Identifying Patterns

In middle school life science, we started the year off by identifying patterns to show that all living things share similar characteristics. This year, we followed a 5E model to kick-start this concept that we will revisit all year long.

Engage
Students brought in objects that were either nonliving, living, or once-living / came from a living thing. We spent a lot of time examining the cool nature that ended up in the classroom... a salamander, a cactus, a caterpillar, some great rocks, lots of fall leaves, etc. This prompted some great conversations: "Do we need to add anything to the salamander's tank so it will survive the day?"... "Are the leaves that are off the tree still considered 'alive' if they are still green?" ... "What happened to the caterpillar? (Two days later when we spied a cocoon in the container.)"

Explore
Individually, students brainstormed what it meant to be "alive," recording their ideas on tiny post-it notes. Small groups then did a sort-and-classify activity: looking for patterns, grouping similar ideas together, and naming the categories they came up with. When we shared out as a class, we came up with seven distinct life processes. Students didn't necessarily come up with same science terms that we will use all year, but they did have categories such as "live in a certain environment," or "need to get/make food and use energy." All the groups quickly identified that living organisms contain genetic material that, when they reproduce, passes on to offspring.

Explain
At this point, we took a more formal step to identifying life processes, giving each one an official name. Here's the student worksheet (and teacher version) that we used. Since we tied these ideas back to the original objects that students brought in during the Engage phase, we defined biotic / abiotic at this point as well. Students had to explain the difference between "biotic" and "alive." We also posted the life processes in extra-large text in a prominent place in the classroom; we will come back to these every time we study a new topic this year.

Extend
In this activity, students had to research which of the life processes viruses exhibit. We started by simply searching for images of viruses so that students could see how diverse and interesting they are! Next, students read several articles and found that even scientists have a hard time determining if viruses should be considered "alive." We shared facts from our research as a whole class and listed these facts as "evidence" on a Claim/Evidence/Reasoning graphic organizer.

• Websites to use:
• https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/cells/viruses/a/are-viruses-dead-or-alive
• https://www.livescience.com/58018-are-viruses-alive.html
• https://askabiologist.asu.edu/questions/are-viruses-alive
• https://www.popsci.com/new-evidence-that-viruses-are-alive
• http://theconversation.com/are-viruses-alive-giant-discovery-suggests-theyre-more-like-zombies-75661
• Research Worksheet
• Claim/Evidence/Reasoning graphic organizer

Evaluate
Students now had to decide whether or not viruses should be considered a living thing. We used the C/E/R graphic organizer to choose a claim AFTER listing all the evidence. Then, students took some time to write down the reasoning behind their choice. They had to use the concepts of the seven life processes in their reasoning. Over the next two days, students worked to write a paragraph addressing the question, "Are viruses alive?" Some of them were able to use the graphic organizer to jump in and justify their claim. Others found that it was best to work from an outline that helped them organize their writing.

This whole unit, and especially the task of having students justify their claim with evidence, helped introduce multiple scientific concepts. It was also a good start to get students thinking about how a scientific claim is not simply someone's opinion. A claim is a statement backed up by evidence... students don't need to write, "I think that..." or "I believe that..." when making a claim. Having multiple pieces of evidence allows us to know that our claim can be supported. One student asked, "What happens when scientists find evidence that doesn't support their claim?" and this led to a short discussion of how scientific knowledge evolves over time.

Final Assessment
Students will have to apply their knowledge to classify a mystery organism as living or nonliving. We will also do this in Claim/Evidence/Reasoning format.

Middle school science = practicing the art of collaboration

Middle School Life Science 5E ENGAGE Lesson

What adaptations do organisms have that help them survive in their environment?

Recently in my middle school classroom, our collaboration abilities have felt a little off-track... way too many direct reminders from me about what the expectations were for students working in groups, and too little self-regulation on the part of my students. This is not going to work for student scientists who need to work together, especially when the Science and Engineering Practices require student interaction.

We're beginning a new 5E learning cycle, so I started off the day with a "Looks Like / Sounds Like" discussion for two behavioral targets. Collaborative work isn't silent, which means that we needed to have a very specific understanding of what Volume Control means in the science classroom. The students contributed their ideas and then we made those our targets for group work for the day.

 On each of the group's placemats (an activity printed on 11x17 paper) I put a little box for teacher feedback and walked around giving them pink stars with my "magical highlighter" for achieving the targeted behavior as a group. Look at all those stars! 

Link to the original Google Doc file for this ENGAGE (5E) activity

All class I heard students asking, "How can we earn another star?" and telling their groups, "If we keep working well together maybe she will give us another one!" I've used this type of reward system before, and it never fails, no matter the age of the students. They crave the immediate feedback and look forward to the validation that they are on the right track when given targets to meet. As we continue working on these behavior targets, we'll experience that much more success as scientists.

Fall Phenomena

Applied Measurement- Fish Tank Design Challenge

Exploring modeling instruction and the properties of matter

3D Middle School Physical Science Lesson

MS PS1-4: Develop a model that predicts and describes changes in particle motion, temperature, and state of a pure substance when thermal energy is added or removed.

Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on qualitative molecular-level models of solids, liquids, and gases to show that adding or removing thermal energy increases or decreases kinetic energy of the particles until a change of state occurs. Examples of models could include drawing and diagrams. Examples of particles could include molecules or inert atoms. Examples of pure substances could include water, carbon dioxide, and helium.

Phenomenon: 

What happens when you add an ice cube to a cylinder filled with oil?

Photo from Steve Spangler Science

Students can use the Systems & Models graphic organizer to begin developing a model of the phenomenon, and whiteboards later on to build a group consensus model.

Link to full set of Crosscutting Concepts Graphic Organizers

3-dimensional lesson plan for this phenomenon:

Link to lesson file with blank template

Modeling the phenomenon:

The most important facet of this lesson is the development of student models to diagram and explain the phenomenon. The demonstration sets the stage for student understanding; it's important for the teacher to equip students with the opportunity to ask questions to reveal new layers of understanding of the phenomenon. Through group collaboration, class discussion, and individual reflection, students have an opportunity to continually revise their understanding. Class discussion, led by the teacher, is critical so that key vocabulary and concepts are connected to student understanding and represented in the consensus model. Teachers need to be equipped to guide students through any typical misconceptions during the discussion phase.

Want more information about modeling instruction? 

Here's a synopsis from the American Modeling Teachers Association.