The Lessons

Background

Objectives: 

• Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about ecosystems as biological communities of interacting organisms and their physical environments.

Students will:

• Download the following resources: Khan Academy “Ecosystem biodiversity” video, CA Academy of Sciences “Exploring Ecosystems: Coastal Food Webs?” video, National Geographic “Ecosystem” article.
• Download the “Ecosystem and Biodiversity” Table.
• Review the resources about ecosystems as biological communities of interacting organisms and their physical environments.  .   

Directions

Step 1- Review the resources.

Step 2- Fill out the Ecosystem and Biodiversity Table, using what you learned from the resources.

Discussion

Discuss your answers to the following questions:

• What are ecosystems?   
• What does it mean for an ecosystem to be healthy and stable?  
• Why do you think that scientists use an ecosystem’s biodiversity as one of the measures of the health and stability of that ecosystem?  
• What sorts of things can cause disruptions to the stability of ecosystems? Explain the possible effects of those disruptions on the health of that ecosystem.

Background

Objectives: 

• Model how plastic pollution in ecosystems affects organisms.

Students will:

• Obtain the following materials: a tray/shoebox, small cups/paper bags, rubber bands, 4 different colored beans or beads (10 of each color per person).
• Download the "You Are What You Eat" Data Table.
• Model how plastic pollution can impact the extent to which different organisms are able to get the nutrition that they need to grow, survive, and reproduce.  
• Choose a “leader” to keep track of time and decide which color represents plastic pollution.

Directions

Step 1- Discuss what the definitions of predator and prey are. Pick a predator-prey relationship to represent (e.g. shark eating small fish). There needs to be at least one person for each organism group (e.g. shark is 1 group, small fish is another group).

Step 2- Fill each tray/shoebox (one for each group) with four different colored beans/beads.  Trays should include a mixture of different colored beans (equal proportion of each color for each tray, e.g. a handful of each color) that represent pieces of plastic pollution and uncontaminated food (each round the leader decides which color is plastic without telling the group). 

Step 3- Each group gets one rubber band in which one person (an organism) will become entangled. Each person gets a cup/paper bag (to represent their organism’s stomachs) and a copy of the data table.

Step 4- Have at least one person from each group  wrap a rubber band around his/her fingers to restrict movement, simulating their organism being entangled in plastic pollution. If you only have one person per group, play a couple times so that everyone gets a chance to play entangled and un-entangled.

Step 5- Each person should write down the color names of their beans/beads (e.g. “red”, “white”, “blue”) in their data table.

Step 6-  Everyone gets 30 seconds to pick food items from their group’s tray habitat one at a time and put them in their cup/bag stomach. Hint: the more food items, the higher nutrition your animal is able to get and the healthier it is!  

Step 7- When time is up, each person/organism counts the number of ‘food items’ of each color that they were able to ‘consume’ (collect) and records the data in the Round 1, 2, or 3 row of their table, as applicable. 

Step 8- Now each person adds up the total number of items consumed in the round (1, 2, or 3) and records the number in their data table. 

Step 9- Repeat this Steps 6-8 for two more rounds. 

Step 10- Now each person adds up the total number of pieces of each color that they consumed in all rounds and records this number for each color in the “Total Consumed” row (A) on their data table.

Step 11- The leader tells everyone which color represents plastic pollution. Each person should now copy the total number of pieces that they ‘consumed’ (collected) of that color into the box titled “Total Plastic” (Box B) on their data table.

Step 12- Each person should subtract the total number of plastic pieces (box B) from the number of food items they were able to ‘consume’(collect) (Box A) in order to determine the amount of nutrition that they obtained from their food or the “Total Food” (Box C) on their data table.  

Step 13-  At the end of three rounds, each person/organism who was able to collect 30 or more pieces of uncontaminated food items has survived! The others have (unfortunately) perished.

Discussion

Background

Objectives: 

• Discuss how small changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another part. 
• Apply what you’ve learned about per-capita consumption, plastic pollution, and the effects on ecosystems to develop a personal pledge for behavior change.

Students will:

• Download the “I Make A Difference” Table and Pledge Worksheet
• Access the following resources: National Geographic “Planet or Plastic” Personal Pledge, and Baltimore Beyond Plastic Personal Pledge
• Optional: Obtain art paper/poster board to make final pledges
• Develop individual pledges that to share with peers and communities and encourage others to pledge to make change as well.