Ecology Unit

STANDARDS / OBJECTIVES
During this project you are responsible for learning the following objectives:
recognize that plants use energy from the sun to make sugar (glucose) by the process of photosynthesis.
describe how all animals get energy by consuming other organisms and using the materials to grow and function.
recognize that food provides the energy for the work that cells do.
describe specific relationships between organisms and determine whether the relationships are competitive or mutually beneficial
(predator/prey, consumer/producer, parasite/host).
describe how changes caused by organisms in their habitat can be beneficial or detrimental to themselves or their environment.
describe how certain biotic and abiotic factors can limit the number of organisms an ecosystem can support (predators, amount of
light and water, temperature, soil composition, etc).

BIG IDEA
Ecosystems are made up of interactions of organisms with their living and nonliving environment.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION
How are ecosystems balanced?

You are going to build a model ecosystem (in a 2L bottle) to investigate the interactions of organisms with their living and nonliving
environment. You will design an ecosystem that includes biotic and abiotic factors. Your ecosystem needs to be balanced for survival. You
must be researching and investigating the objectives above during the design, construction and maintenance of your ecosystem.

DESIGN
What are some problems you are trying to investigate? What are some questions you are trying to answer?
What about water? How will the plant get water? If the plant cant grow how will the worms and other living things live?
What about air? Maybe the snails and pill bugs use too much oxygen and they dont have enough oxygen.
What if food runs out? The insects will starve and die.
List of materials that you will use in your design.
Grass seed
Dirt
Land Snails
Pill Bugs
Earthworms
Sticks/Leaves/etc
Rocks
Water
2L plastic bottle
Brainstorm potential designs. Describe multiple designs that you could easily do to investigate the essential question. Choose your best
design to be your investigation.
we are going to position our bottle in a horizontal. We will have two mini pools that provide water for all the biotic factors. We will have dirt coming up to
the half point line.
Identify the independent and dependent variables. Which variables can be controlled? How will you control them? Which will be
measured and how will you measure them?

Dependent Variables (Measured)

Independent variables (Controlled)

Pill bugs
Snails
stick

Amount of soil
Size of bottle
Position of bottle/amount of sunlight
Amount of water

What will the finished design look like? Exactly how much of each material/organism will you use? Insert a drawing of your design.
It will have two mini pools and a stick will support the bottle. Dirt will be filled to the half point line. We will plant the seeds and then water it. Then the
plant would be grown. With half a cup of grass seeds.

Build your design. Document the steps taken to build it, including pictures. Include a final picture once it is ready for testing.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

get the soil

put in the grass seeds
water it to a certain amount
gather stick
put down the rocks
put in the snail the worm and pill bug
record your progress

DATA
Collect qualitative (observations) and quantitative (numbers and measurements) data. Insert a table below to organize your work.
Day 1 observation
Day 1 stick: 17 cm Pill bugs: 2 that we can find, Snails: 2
The soil is moist and the grass is nice and tall. We can find both snails resting in the middle with all the rocks. Stick is 17 cm and hasn't shrunk yet or has
decayed. We can find no worms from the top or bottom. We can only find two that is loafing around. The grass is growing well and is very healthy. All the
life forms we found are healthy for now.

Day 2 stick: 17 cm Pill bugs: 1 that we can find, Snails 2 worms: 1 worm that we can find
At day two the soil was still moist. We still had two snails not moving and we found one worm, I think the worm died because it cannot stay alive for a
long time outside the soil. We found a Pill bug that was stuck in the grass and we think it died. We found that the stick was still the same length and \
mkk
Day 3 Observation~+!
}Day 3 Stick: 17 cm Pill bugs none that we can find Snails: two Worm: cannot find any worms
Everything is going great with the snails moving a little bit and the stick is still 17 cm. Two things that has been bothering us is the pill bugs and worms
we cant find any of them from day one.Well we did find only two for the pillbugs once but from then on it was either zero or none. One other problem is
the worms we have only found one that was on ground and the rest we cannot find. The worm has been spotted once this whole project and that has
been really bugging us.
Day 4 Observation Stick: 17 cm Pill bugs 1 that we can find Snails:2 still not moving but changed positions. worms
Our bottle is going great and we are still cant see the snails moving around. We are finding a pill bug in average and (which is one) we are not finding
any worms. The stick is not decaying as fast as we thought.
Day 9 Observation Stick: 17 cm Pill bugs : 0 That we can find Snails: 2 changed position we cannot find any worms and pill bugs
The soil is moist it is pretty humid. The stick is turning white and the grass leaves grew tall. We have found is our food storage a white fungus.We
couldnt find any pill bugs and we think they are dead.
Day 10 Observation Stick: 17 cm Pill bugs none that we can find Snail two. and we cannot find any worms

The Pill bug have been disappearing for two days now. The stick is still 17 cm with some white spots that pop out and it is fluffy. The snail have not
moved yet we think they are dead. Worms are still out of our point of view and the
Day 15 Observation Stick: 17 cm and there is some white stuff on the top turned into green stuff and the white stuff is heading down to the bottom of
the stick. Pill bugs: none that we can find Snail: 1 that we can find Worm: none
We cant find any of the pill bugs or worms. We can only find one snail and the other is missing. The stick is still 17 cm but the white stuff on the top
turned green and is spreading down.
Day 17 Observation Stick: 16 Worms: we cant find any Pill bugs: none that we can find Snail: both snails are their

Organize and group your data (and/or calculations).

Display your data in a graph or chart.

CONCLUSIONs
What have you learned regarding the questions you started with (in the design section). Give examples from your data that help
explain your conclusion.
Questions:

Whatrelationshipswereinyourecosystem?Thesnailsandthegrasswhichisknownasdetrimental.Detrimentalmeansoneorganismgetsharmed
whiletheotherisbenefited.

Howdideachorganismchangetheenvironmentofyourecosystem?Theychangedtheenvironmentbyexhalingc02andthetheplantscouldnt
producethatmucho2,sotheydied.

Whatlimited(bioticorabiotic)eachorganismspopulationofyourecosystem?Whenthereislivingorganismstheplantsbreatheinthecarbondioxide
thattheinsectsbreathout.Theplantsthenusethecarbondioxidetoturnitintooxygenwhichprovidesenergyfortheorganismtosurvive.

Howdidphotosynthesisaffectyourecosystem?Iproducedfoodforthesnailsandworms.Italsohelpedtheplantssurvive.Withoutphotosynthesisthe
plantswouldnotsurvivewhichwouldresultineverylivingorganismtodiesoonorlater.

Howdidcellularrespirationaffectyourecosystem?Withoutcellularrespirationtheplantswoulddieanditwouldnotprovideanyenergyforthe
organismstosurvive.

Whydoorganismsneedfoodandhowdidtheygetinyourecosystem?Theorganismsgetfoodfromplantstosurviveandlivethroughoutthespacethat
theyareassignedto.Therearemanydifferentfoodsforthewormsincetheyeatanything.

What about your design was really good? What about your design didnt work or needed to be improved? What adjustments had to be
made? Explain.

How could your design be improved if you were going to build it again?

Rubric rating submitted on: Tue Nov 04 2014 19:03:28 GMT-0500 (EST) by ryan.kuhl@seoulforeign.com
4

defining the problem

Your score: 3

advanced

identifies a focused problem

or question

identifies a
problem/question that is
incomplete

does not identify a

problem/question

selecting the variables

Your score: 2

advanced

identifies the relevant

variables

identifies only some

variables or variables that
are irrelevant

does not identify any

relevant variables

controlling variables
Your score: 1

advanced

designs a method which will

control the variables

designs a method that

attempts to control the
variables

designs a method that does

not control the variables

developing a method for

collection of data
Your score: 2

advanced

designs a method that

allows for the collection of
relevant and sufficient data

designs a method that

allows for the collection of
insufficient relevant data

designs a method that does

not allow for any relevant
data to be collected

recording raw data

Your score: 2

advanced

records appropriate
quantitative and qualitative
raw data including units

records appropriate
quanitative and qualitative
raw data but with some
mistakes

does not record any

appropriate quantitative raw
data or raw data is unclear

processing raw data

Your score: 1

advanced

processes the quantitative

raw data correctly

processes quantitative raw

data, but with some
mistakes

no processing of quantitative
raw data or major mistakes
are made in processing

presenting processed data

Your score: 1

advanced

presents processed data

appropriately

presents processed data

appropriately but with some
mistakes

presents processed data

inappropriately or
presentation is unclear

conclusion
Your score: 2

advanced

states a conclusion with

justification based on a
reasonable interpretation of
the data

states a conclusion based on

a reasonable interpretation
of the data

states no conclusion or the

conclusion is based on an
unreasonable interpretation
of the data

evaluating procedures
Your score: 0

advanced

identifies the weaknesses

and limitations

identifies some weaknesses

and limitations but the
evaluation is weak

identifies irrelevant
weaknesses and limiations

improving the investigation

Your score: 0

advanced

suggests realistic
improvements in respect of
identified weaknesses and
limitations

suggestions only superficial

and irrelevant improvements

suggests unrealistic
improvements

following instructions
Your score: 2

advanced

follows instructions
accurately and
independently and is able to
solve problems as they arise

follows instructions but

requires assistance

rarely follows instructions

and/or requires constant
supervision

carrying out techniques

Your score: 2

advanced

competent and methodical

in the use of a range of
techniques and equipment

usually competent and

methodical in the use of a
range of techniques and
equipment

rarely competent and

methodical in the use of a
range of techniques and
equipment

working safely
Your score: 3

advanced

pays attention to safety

issues

usually pays attention to

safety issues

rarely pays attention to

safety issues

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