Tag Archives: graphic organizer

Species distribution in aquatic environments

Teacher Note: Depending on the length of class time available, this lesson may take 2-3 sessions to complete.

Learning Outcome
Students will describe factors that affect productivity and species distribution in aquatic environments.

Steps to the Lesson

  1. Discuss key vocabulary.
  2. Watch a video on how human activity and government policy has impacted a river system in British Columbia.
  3. Complete a Graphic Organizer while viewing the video.
  4. Conduct an investigation on how to save endangered rivers in British Columbia.
  5. Reflect on the process.

CONNECT

Goals:

  • Students will analyze how federal policies and human activity have affected aquatic systems in British Columbia.
  • Students will identify and analyze alternatives to issues affecting endangered rivers in British Columbia.

Task:
Students will conduct an investigation on endangered rivers in British Columbia and write proposals for alternative solutions on how to save the respective rivers.

Activate Prior Knowledge:
Students complete a mind map activity entitled ‘The Many Ways People Use Water’ found in the McGraw-Hill Ryerson textbook BC Science 8 (page 359). While completing the activity, students should focus specifically on what human activities impact river and lake systems.

Predict and Question:
In Canada, there is a plentiful supply of water and we rarely pay attention to how much water we use in our daily lives or how our actions impact local aquatic areas like rivers and lakes.

What are the students wondering about how human activity has impacted their local rivers, lakes and oceans?

PROCESS

Video Guidelines:

Before viewing the video, students need to understand the meaning of the following terms.

Key vocabulary to discuss: anadromous, confluence, extinction, fathom, mitigate, resident (Definitions)

Students watch the following video and track their thinking using the Graphic Organizer. Students should try to identify some key effects and implications of federal policy on the Sinixt Nation.

Reminder: It is important to stop throughout the story and give students (A/B partners) opportunity to talk or respond to the story.

Videos

Screen Shot 2015-05-04 at 1.46.11 PM

Video Length (4 mins)

 

Having viewed the video above, students need to share their ideas from the video Graphic Organizer (A/B partner recommended). Teachers ask student pairs to share their main ideas and generate a list of ideas and evidence on the board or overhead. Teachers lead class discussion on the significance of the ideas generated (and those not generated) and how federal policies have impacted the environment and Aboriginal people on the Columbia River system.

TRANSFORM

Now that students have learned how federal policies and human activity have impacted a regional river system (Columbia River), students will now conduct an investigation on how to save other endangered rivers in British Columbia. Working in A-B partners or groups of four, students conduct an investigation activity found in the McGraw-Hill Ryerson textbook BC Science 8 (pages 444-445). Using the chart provided on page 445 in the textbook, students will choose a local river (or river of their choice) to research and write a proposal to save an endangered river. Student groups report out their proposals to the class in the form of an oral presentation, using either poster boards, written reports, or Powerpoint presentations.

REFLECT

Upon completion of the investigation activity, students complete a Reflection Sheet to reflect on what they liked/disliked about the investigation process and how their thinking towards how Canadian Federal Government policy impacts the environment and Aboriginal people has changed.

Extend learning or next lesson

One of the key ideas from the video is the impact that Canadian federal government policies have had on an Aboriginal population in British Columbia (Sinixt nation). There are many other examples of how government policies have affected the environment and populations in Canada. Some of these include:

  • Governments adopting (or not adopting) Kyoto Protocol emission targets.
  • The Canadian federal government imposing a moratorium on seabed oil and gas exploration off the coast of British Columbia.
  • The Canadian federal government policies regarding pollution standards in the Alberta northern Oil Tar Sands.
  • The Kashechewan Reserve water crisis in Northern Ontario.

Students can complete a research report on these and other issues affecting the environment and Aboriginal populations in Canada.

Organisms as Part of Interconnected Food Webs

Teacher Note: Depending on the length of class time available, this lesson may take 2-3 sessions to complete.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

  • analyse the roles of organisms as part of interconnected food webs, populations, communities, and ecosystems.

CONNECT

Goals:

  • The students will gain an awareness of environmental stewardship from a West Coast Aboriginal perspective.
  • The students will understand the concepts of ecological pyramids and interconnected food chains.

Task:

Students will select one animal from a local ecosystem and create a presentation that represents their understanding of food chains and food webs.

Process:

  1. Discuss key vocabulary.
  2. Discuss the difference between a food chain and food web and complete a food chain exercise of a local ecosystem.
  3. Play a game that highlights the process of how a food chain works.
  4. Complete a graphic organizer while viewing the video.
  5. Students complete a demonstration assignment of their understanding of food chains and food webs.

Activate Prior Knowledge:

Discuss the following vocabulary and brainstorm ideas of the respective definitions on the board.

Key vocabulary to discuss: Stewardship, indigenous, perspective, assets, potlatch, elders, traditional territory, hereditary chief, floodplain, fry, riparian, watershed, producer, consumer, primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary. (Definitions)

Predict: Discuss the difference between food chains and food webs and predict what would happen to a local ecosystem food chain if one element was removed.(A/B partner talk suggested)

Question: Teachers distribute a food chain diagram and students, in A/B partners, complete a food chain of local ecosystem. Reference Enchanted Learning for explanations of food chains.

Distribute the Krill Grill Record Sheet and play the game Dining at the Krill Grill. Students record results of the game on their record sheets. Discuss the questions at the end of the activity to reinforce understanding of food chains.

PROCESS

Video: Students watch the following video and use a What’s Important and Why sheet to highlight five keys points that focus on land stewardship.

Reminder: It is important to stop throughout the video and give students (A/B partners) opportunity to talk or respond to the video.

Videos

Screen Shot 2015-04-28 at 3.11.07 PM

(Video Length: 6 mins)

TRANSFORM

Students will select one animal from a local ecosystem and create a presentation that represents their understanding of food chains and food webs. For example, a poster could be created with a food chain on one side and a food web on the other. Other possibilities include a Powerpoint presentation, drama presentation, modifying the Krill Grill game to one’s local ecosystem.

REFLECT

Students discuss what stewardship initiatives are in place in their local region/province/country and write, on the back of their video sheet, three ideas of how they can assist these initiatives.

Extend learning or next lesson

  • The National Geographic web site describes a ‘real world’ example of food chain disruption that may be occurring with Antarctic krill. Study more about the Krill at National Geographic and write a research report on the factors affecting global krill populations.
  • Create playing cards of animals in a local ecosystem (ie. bear, cougar, mouse, birds) and have students play a version of the ‘war’ card game to reinforce the levels of a food chain.