Biodiversity and Population Dynamics

The performance expectations in Topic 3: Biodiversity and Population Dynamics help students answer the question:

How do biotic and abiotic factors affect biodiversity? 

Students investigate the role of biodiversity in ecosystems and the role of animal behavior on survival of individuals and species. Students analyze how organisms interact with each other and their physical environment, how organisms change the environment, and how these changes affect both organisms and the environment. Students use evidence to explain those interactions and changes. Students explore solutions for major global problems, evaluate possible solutions for reducing the impact of human activities on biodiversity, and use computer simulations to model and test those solutions, considering a wide range of criteria including cost-benefit analysis.

Students who demonstrate understanding can: 

• LS2-1: Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales

• LS2-2: Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales

• LS2-6: Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem

• LS2-7: Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity

• LS2-8: Evaluate the evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species’ chances to survive and reproduce

• LS4-6: Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity

• ETS1-3: Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts

• ETS1-4: Use a computer simulation to model the impact of proposed solutions to a complex real-world problem with numerous criteria and constraints on interactions within and between systems relevant to the problem