Ecosystem Intro

We're going to start with using our senses again (do 360 degree view or a short selection of sensory activities (1 each, or focus primarily on one or two senses).

What do you notice that is different about this environment, what has changed since the last time we were out here together?

Introduction (10-15 min)

In the last lesson, you practiced a routine for making observations, asking questions, and making connections, (and some tried coming up with possible explanations from evidence). You also found a sit spot, and drew a "treasure map" to it.

In this lesson, we are going to record our observations in our journals in detail. (see String Safari lesson from How to Teach Nature Journaling)

Scientists do sample plots when studying a large area - what we'll be doing is a kind of version of that, as we'll each have a small area to observe and record (about 2-3 square feet). We can compare data afterward to learn from each other.

Set Up:

You may go back to your same sit spot that you mapped, OR, you may want to find another area to study that is close to your original sit spot, and this is why: It will be more interesting if you find an area with a little variety, so if you were sitting in the middle of a grassy area without many other plants, you may want to move to the edge of the clearing, near other kinds of plants or even water, for this part. You can show on your first map where your sample plot is in relation to your first sit spot.

(DEMO) Use the string you were given to create a boundary for your area. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle. You don't need to tie the ends of the string together - just lay it out so they connect in a circle-ish area. You can use the ruler on the back of your journal to measure your area if you like.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to leave some blank areas on the sides or top and bottom of your drawing for the system model we'll be doing later today. The top and bottom are separated by a dashed line in your journal to leave room for this, but whatever works so you have space on the side is fine. (DEMO in your journal or on whiteboard)

We (docents) will be working on our own sample plots, but taking turns roaming around to see how you are doing and if you need any help or ideas.

You are going to have 30 minutes (or whatever time you decide to give) to work on part 1 of this, so take your time and include lots of details - the goal is to observe closely and record what you find. You have two pages (pp.8-9), and if you need more room, you can use the blank page before these two pages (p.7).

Use pictures, words, numbers (including measurements), and arrows to record your observations (It's not about a "pretty picture")

If you get really focused on one thing in your plot, that's okay!

What are some things you expect to find that you could include in your journal entry?” (Students might say: soil, grass, sticks, dead leaves, insects, etc.)

More things to consider observing and recording:

• Don't forget metadata: date, time, weather, location - we can do that together now.

• Record what you notice and wonder about - you can use symbols like a question mark for things you wonder, and write your questions or observations off to the side of your drawing, as an example.

• Things to consider recording:

  • Percent area for each species or ground cover type, such as grass, bare soil, water, etc (estimate)

  • Sun or shade (where is sun and shade in your spot, and what is under that area?)

  • Temperature (stick your finger in the soil, or just touch/feel the surface of soil and different plants)

  • Moisture (same)

  • Numbers of things - if you find a lot of the same kind of thing, try counting (or estimating) and adding that to your data.

  • What else?

• Consider making a key for each different type of thing/species you are recording and draw them on your map of your plot with symbols

• Orientation: See if you can figure out which way is north, and indicate it on your drawing (you can ask for help if you are unsure)

• Do at least one close-up (zoom in) drawings of one lifeform in your plot with as much detail as you can. Label it and use pictures, words and numbers. Some things to potentially think about:

  • Imagine your life as this organism. Draw this life form in a circle with an arrow showing where it is in your plot. Reflect as you draw: How did its life begin? What has it seen over its lifetime? Has it lived its whole lifetime in this spot? Has it always looked as it does to you now? Does it remain in the same form all year long or does it change with the seasons? How have you grown and changed over time? (etc)

• Use the Journaling Tips (p.2) in your journals to give you ideas

• At the end, draw a dashed line to show your string boundary (important for part 2!)

• Does anyone else have any ideas about creative or interesting ways to record what we find?

• You may feel like you are "done" before we call you back - remember, this is just a feeling, and has nothing to do with how much or how deeply you can observe. If you feel done, notice the feeling and then see how much more you can discover after that.

• Review signal to return

• Allow 30 minutes (observe student progress and let them go longer if they can/if time allows)

• Start out modeling working in your own journals, then take turns roaming around to offer help an encouragement as needed. Remember "it's not about a pretty picture"! Be sure to give positive feedback on what you actually asked for, such as detailed observation, using words, pictures, numbers, INIWRMO(ITM), etc. Use your BFF questions to get them to go further! (When they answer, say "good, write that down!")

After calling them back, discuss what they found - some suggested questions from How to Teach Nature Journaling - pick a few:

• How did limiting your observations to the area inside the string affect the way you observed? What was it like studying a ‘tiny world’ or 'pocket world'?

• What was the most interesting observation you made?

• What questions do you have about what you found in your loop of string?”

• During your study, did you come up with any new ways of taking notes or recording information you could use again in the future?”

• If you could do this same activity again in any location on earth, where would it be, and why?”

Stability and Change

• Did you see any evidence of things that are changing in your observation area? How can you tell?

• If you came back in one week, do you think you would notice any changes in the area you studied? What might

• those be?

• If you set up a camera to record your area over one year, what changes would you expect to see?

• What thing in the area you observed would change the most? What would change the least?

Patterns

• Take a look at the notes or observation areas of a couple of people nearby. What are similarities and differences that you notice in the types of things that are in your circles?

• What about the location of things in the circle? For example, are there leaves all over in every person’s circle, or are there other patterns of things that were found?

Cause and Effect

• Take a look at your observation area and journal page. Did you notice any mysteries to unravel? A mystery might be a hole in a leaf, the location of a pinecone, or a piece of grass that has been bent.

• When scientists notice something, they often think about how it came to be, or what caused it. See if you can come up with some possible explanations for the mysteries in your circle.

• (If they do, you could come up with a "Why Web" of possible explanations from evidence - probably no time for this, but could be something they can do on their own or in class?)

Energy and Matter - these questions will help tie into our systems model and the next part of the lesson

• Did you see any evidence of decomposition [or, if students don’t know that term, “things breaking down”] in the area you studied? What did it look like? Say as much as you can about what this process looks like.

• Did you see any evidence of last year’s plants? What do they look like now? Where are the plants from two years ago?

Option 1 - from How to Teach Nature Journaling, p. 67 (pages 4-5 of pdf of String Safari lesson)

Summary

1. Convert the objects in the diagram to a system model: use words, pictures, and arrows to identify boundaries, system components, and the inputs and outputs of the system.

2. Use words, pictures, and numbers to identify and show interactions between system components, inputs, and outputs.

Steps

1. System Definition - define what a system is with examples

2. System Boundaries for their plots - draw a dotted line to show their system "boundary" which is the string (you may want to give this direction at the beginning of the lesson!)

3. System Parts and Interactions within their plot systems - Guide students through the process of identifying parts of their system (discuss with a neighbor what you think are the "parts" of your systems), thinking about how the parts interact with each other, and using arrows to represent these interactions.

In the blank areas on each side (left/right or top/bottom - whatever space they left)

4. Inputs coming into their systems from outside the boundaries - What are some forces that may affect this system, but are not inside this loop of string? Consider things you cannot see, and things that may have happened in the past but that you do not see going on right now. These are called inputs. (DEMO) Draw a big arrow pointing into the system and label it with the inputs you named. How do these inputs affect the parts of the system—the things you found, labeled, and described there?

5. Outputs coming from their systems to outside the boundaries - What are some of the things that leave the loop of string? Does the system create or produce anything? Again, think about things you both can and can’t see. These are called outputs. (DEMO) Write down some of the outputs you named, then draw an arrow around them, pointing out of the system. How do these outputs interact with or affect nearby areas?

6. Predictions about Changes in inputs or outputs (discuss)

7. Thinking about Changes in interactions within the system - any part of the system with lots of arrows pointing to it interacts with many other parts of the system, and that changes in that one part of the system can greatly affect everything else

8. Scientists often use systems thinking and have these kinds of conversations when they are looking at ecosystems and trying to make predictions about what might happen in the future.

9. Explain that the boundaries of a system affect what we learn from it, then ask students to think about what might be different if the boundary were much smaller or much larger.

=================================================

Option 2 (could do as supplement to option 1, as well, or the teacher could follow up with this in class)

Use the Abiotic/Biotic list on page 10 of their journals to have students classify the things they found. They can add P, C, or D next to items in the biotic list to show if they are producers, consumers, or decomposers, if they know what those are.

For sit spots today, you've already spent a lot of time observing and recording, and if you want to add more details, you can do that, or you can just relax and use your senses to enjoy being out here. Close your eyes and listen for birds. insects, rustling leaves, do a sound count, feel the air, sunlight, shadows, ground, use "Owl Eyes" to look for movement and see if you can notice anything new that way, etc.

Another option is if you found a Nature Mystery in your sample plot, make a "Why Web" (p. 6) to come up with as many possible explanations ("I think maybe..." or "it could be..." statements) as you can think of. Don't forget to include "something else"! Think about the evidence for each of your explanations - which ones have the best or most evidence?

Options

• Do the Science Camp Ecosystems "hula hoop" lesson (one square foot) but see notes at bottom - we changed how we did it last time and it was much more authentic and student-centered/nature-centered.

• Vashon - From Sit Spot to Sample Plot lesson

• HTTNJ - String Safari with follow up System Model extension - perfect! The whole lesson will take 90 minutes if done exactly as written in How to Teach Nature Journaling - this is a GREAT introduction to systems, modeling, and thinking about inputs and outputs and interactions. We don't need to do much more than get them thinking at this point. See if teachers can go a bit longer to allow for a Magic Spot, or just do the extended journaling time in Magic Spots?

• Vocabulary: Biotic, Abiotic, (Producer, Consumer, Decomposer?)

• Wrap up with "Web of Life" activity? (can do a version in classroom)

This Intro to Ecosystems could just focus on biotic-abiotic and students explore connections

More detailed explorations of food web could be in later sessions?

• Decomposition / Soil lesson could be one (do Timeline Journal Activity)

• Producers - could do the transpiration experiment, the seed to tree puzzler, what do plants need to grow? Where do they get their energy and matter? Do LAWS/Miracle of Life/Thank a leaf activity? Create activity to build sugar/cellulose from "ingredients" in water, air, and soil? Labels for students - CO2 = 3 students, same with H2O, add N, P, K from soil - won't be able to have enough for building one sugar molecule with 1/2 class! Need 6 molecules of CO2 or 18 students, same with H2O... maybe have single students be CO2 but have 3 cards that the "plants" need to rearrange. Even with that, you need 6 students each to be CO2 and H2O and there may not be 12 kids in a half-class. Maybe do it like a big card game, where kids each get CO2 and H2O and N, P, K... or some mixture of that, and have to work together to figure out how to make C6H12O6. It would be neat if the C's could link together in a chain... Look up Dr. Art's play to see if there are better ideas for this.

• The problem with a photosynthesis game is it is not nature-centered, but it's good problem solving. Could be done on the playground vs. in the COSA, too.

• Focus on the MATTER transfer first - where does C, H, and O come from in cellulose? Where do those go when wood is burned or decomposes? (back to CO2 and water vapor)

• Energy is still there - comes out as heat/light - stored sunlight!

Standards

• 5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

Thoughts - for a short lesson, matter is easiest to start with - we can address energy later with photosynthesis and using the puzzler phenomena of how does a tiny seed become a tree, and how is firewood like a battery - also the rabbit problem - eats x lbs of food & water, poops out z lbs of pellets and urine, gains z lbs - where did the rest go?

Materials

• Journals, pencils, sit tarps, dry erase boards and markers for instructor, sanitation kits (during covid)

• String - can use waterproof colored string to make it easier to clean in pandemic, and also easier to see so none get left behind.

  • For 3 square foot areas, cut 10 foot lengths of string and tie together in a loop

  • For 2.5 sf areas, cut 8 foot lengths

  • For 1.5 sf areas, cut 5 foot lengths

• (Could use hula hoops, but they are bulkier and harder to get out to the field site. plus more plastic...)

From: http://beetlesproject.org/resources/lead-indoor-science/

Food Web: http://beetlesproject.org/resources/for-field-instructors/food-web/ In this lesson, students will:

• Construct a food web made of organisms observed during an outdoor science experience, using evidence of those organisms’ interactions.

• Differentiate between firsthand observation, secondhand sources, and reasoning.

• Make predictions about the impacts of different changes, such as the introduction of a predator, based on the connections between organisms in the food web.

• Read about the impacts of reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park.

• Discuss the usefulness and limitations of food webs.