|
Big Ideas:
Species Interactions
Predation
Objectives:
Students will be able to create connections and show relationships between
species as well as demonstrate the importance of keystone species by seeing the
role that they fill in the ecosystem.
Background:
Many desert species rely on interactions with other species for
survival. Agave and saguaros rely on bats for pollination, and the bats
rely on these plants for food. Yuccas rely on moths for pollination, and
many moths lay their eggs in yuccas, so that when their young hatch, the are
able to eat the yucca seeds.
Activity:
Species Interaction Activity
National Science Education Standards
met by this lesson:
National Science Education Standards online: http://books.nap.edu/html/nses/html/index.html
Life Science (Content Standard C) grades 9-12
Interdependence of
Organisms:
* Organisms both cooperate and compete in ecosystems. The
interrelationships and interdependences of these organisms may generate
ecosystems that are stable for hundreds or thousands of years
Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy met
by this lesson:
Common Themes:
11A Systems: grades 9-12
*In defining a system, it is important o specify its boundaries and subsystems,
indicate its relation to other systems, and identify what its input and its
output are expected to be.
The Living Environment:
5D Interdependence of Life, grades 6-8
* Two types of organisms may interact with one another in several ways: They may
be in a producer/consumer, predator/prey, or parasite/host relationship.
Or one organism may scavenge or decompose another. Relationships may be
competitive or mutually beneficial. some species have become so adapted to
each other that neither could survive without the other.
Sources:
National Resource Council. (1996). National Science Education Standards.
Washinton DC: National Academy Press.
Project 2061: American Association for the Advancement of
Science. (1993) Benchmarks for Science Literacy. New York: Oxford
University Press.
|