I have converted some of my favorite activities that I do every year with my students into a digital form which can be used in class or remotely, depending on your needs. Since we still don't know what the plan is for next year, I am trying to create lessons which can be used both remotely if necessary or used in class and reduce the use of paper. We usually have student packets, but because we would be trying to reduce the touching of surfaces, I am trying to have everything go digital. This is no small task. It is tricky to figure out how students can still get what they need out of an activity while also making it easy for them to follow along. I am really happy with what I have been creating, as I think it strikes a good balance. Biomagnification or Bioaccumulation is a good topic to cover near the end of an ecology unit, as it covers, food chains, food webs and how changes in the environment can affect both of those. I also enjoy teaching it, as it brings the previous topics into focus which a real world problem that students can relate to. Again, all of the following activities can be used for distance learning or in the classroom. This is formatted as a google slide show, which is easy for the students to follow, and has built in areas for them to answer directly on the slide presentation, which reduces their confusion. Here is the breakdown of what this Google Slide Presentation Includes: Title Slide Slides 1-3: Students review their knowledge of trophic levels, energy pyramids and the 10% rule. Make sure students have prior lessons on this, otherwise this will not make sense. Check out my lessons on food chains and energy pyramids along with food webs FIRST before completing this lesson. Students are given feeding rules for each trophic level. Students then have to drag the correct number of organisms onto each level of the energy pyramid. Students then fill out a data table for each trophic level. Students must then answer analysis questions where they have to relate the 10% rule to the number of organisms at each level, along with applying their knowledge to predict how changes in the environment or the food chain will affect the other populations. Students are then introduced to the idea of pesticide being sprayed and then predict how that will affect this food chain and come up with a basic understanding of how biomagnficiation works. Slides 4-9: Students collect data for an Ocean Biomagnficiation Simulation. Students read about how runoff from human activity can lead to heavy metal contamination in the ocean, specifically focusing on mercury. In the first section, green dots represent plankton that have not been contaminated and red dots represent plankton that have been contaminated with mercury. Students must collect data by counting the numbers of each and recording it in the data table. They will then calculate the amount of mercury in this population. Students then repeat this process moving up this marine food chain and fill out the table as they go. Students then answer questions to that require them to analyze the data and determine what is happening to the amount of mercury as they move up the food chain. Students also given a different ocean food chain and must use their understanding of biomagnification to interpret which organisms have the highest levels of mercury and which are safest to eat. Students must then explain why humans polluting our own ocean comes back to bite us. This will give students an understanding of how human activity can have a large impact on ecosystems, especially those that we rely on for food. Interested in this lesson? Check out my TpT account.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2021
Categories |