Population Change in Ecosystem

Population and Ecosystems

By Steven Mata

Essential Question

What caused the size of the moon jelly population in Glacier Sea to increase?

Students activate prior knowledge about what can cause the size of a population to increase.

Open Ended

Pre-Lesson Question

What ideas do you have about why the number of organisms in an area might increase?

Stem: The number of organisms in the area increased because____________.

An ecologist is a scientist who studies interactions of organisms with one another and their environment. One thing ecologists investigate is why sometimes the number of organisms in a particular area changes very rapidly.

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Students view a documentary video about an ecologist studying real jelly populations

​What is an ecologist?

In a moment, you will watch a video to learn more about why changes in the number of organisms in an area are important and how ecologists study them. You will hear from a real ecologist who studies organisms called jellies. Sometimes they are called jellyfish, but ecologists do not use this term because jellies are not fish at all.

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Students view a documentary video about an ecologist studying real jelly populations

Watching The video

Questions to answer:

What is an Ecologist?

What is a prey or predator?

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Students view a documentary video about an ecologist studying real jelly populations.

Open Ended

Video Check

What is an Ecologist?

What is a prey or predator?

The ecologist from the video studies a jelly population. That population includes all of the jellies in a certain area. The jelly population is part of a larger ecosystem made up of many populations of organisms that live in that area.

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The teacher introduces students to the fictional Glacier Sea jelly population increase they will investigate

Glacier Sea Ecosystem

​a group of the same type of organism living in the same area

​​Population

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​all the living and nonliving things interacting in a particular area

ecosystem

Vocabulary

Unit Question

Think about it...

Why do populations change size in an ecosystem?

The teacher introduces students to the fictional Glacier Sea jelly population increase they will investigate.

Open Ended

Think About It...

Why do populations change size in an ecosystem?

Population sizes can decrease, stay the same, or increase. Ecologists are especially interested in populations that change size quickly.

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The teacher introduces students to the fictional Glacier Sea jelly population increase they will investigate.

Remember that...

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Open Ended

Why do you believe Ecologist want to know why populations change quickly?

Read with your shoulder partner

Let's use our imagination!

Glacier Sea Ecosystem​

Glacier Sea and the moon jelly population we are studying are not real. However, they are based on moon jelly population increases in real Arctic environments. The research you do will be very similar to the real research the ecologist from the video is doing.

The teacher introduces students to the fictional Glacier Sea jelly population increase they will investigate

The Real Truth

Jelly Fish in Real Life...

Some causes of population increases have been:

• overfishing of jellies' competitor fish species.

• warming waters due to climate change increasing the amount of zooplankton available as food for the jellies.

• runoff from agriculture, animal waste, and sewage loads coastal waters with nutrients causing low oxygen levels which jellies can tolerate better than their competitor fish species.

• introduction of non-native jelly species to a location where they have no competitors or predators.

The teacher introduces students to the fictional Glacier Sea jelly population increase they will investigate

Throughout this unit, we will be using the Populations and Resources Simulation to help us learn about why the jelly population in Glacier Sea increased.

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Students explore the Sim to learn about its features and investigate what can happen to an organism in a population.

Simulation

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Remember that simulations are scientific models. Scientists often make and use simulations to study the things they cannot observe or measure directly. For example, simulations like this one allow ecologists to observe changes they can’t observe in real populations. This simulation is based on how real populations interact, and will help us observe and understand how things work in an ecosystem.​

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Students explore the Sim to learn about its features and investigate what can happen to an organism in a population.

Simulation

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Home

Open in new tab

Copy link

​https://learning.amplify.com/populationsandresources/

Write down an observation, then ask a question about the observation.

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Partner #1 will go next​

Partner #2

Write down an observation, then ask a question about the observation.

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Partner #2 will go next.​

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Partner #1

Achieving Our Goal!

Students explore the Sim to learn about its features and investigate what can happen to an organism in a population.

Open Ended

What were two observations that you and your partner observed?

What did you observe the organisms you tracked doing?

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What happened to the organisms you tracked?

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Questions to Remember

Open Ended

What did you observe the organisms you tracked doing?

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What happened to the organisms you tracked?

In the Sim we observed that organisms reproduce, meaning they have babies. We also observed organisms dying. These two things happen in all populations; organisms are always being born and dying. This is important because it is one of the things ecologists need to understand as they investigate changes in population sizes.

Take Aways

In the Sim we observed that organisms reproduce, meaning they have babies. We also observed organisms dying. These two things happen in all populations; organisms are always being born and dying. This is important because it is one of the things ecologists need to understand as they investigate changes in population sizes.

Open Ended

Post-Lesson Question

What ideas do you have about why the number of organisms in an area might increase?

Stem: The number of organisms in the area increased because____________.