This project meets the following Indiana Academic Science standards:
Science and Engineering Process Standards:
SEPS.3 Constructing and performing investigations
SEPS.8 Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Content Standards:
6.LS.3 Describe specific relationships (predator/prey, consumer/producer, parasite/host) and symbiotic relationships between organisms. Construct an explanation that predicts why patterns of interactions develop between organisms in an ecosystem.
8.LS.5 Explain how factors affecting natural selection (competition, genetic variations, environmental changes, and overproduction) increase or decrease a species’ ability to survive and reproduce.
B.3.2 Design, evaluate, and refine a model which shows how human activities and natural phenomena can change the flow of matter and energy in an ecosystem and how those changes impact the environment and biodiversity of populations in ecosystems of different scales, as well as, how these human impacts can be reduced.
B.3.3 Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, and identify the impact of changing conditions or introducing nonnative species into that ecosystem.