Sunflower Problem
Phenomenon:
A sunflower in the school garden begins to look unhealthy.
Three-dimensional Performance Task:
Define the problem and design a solution to improve the health of the sunflowers in your garden.
Model
N/A
Investigate
Students observe how insects interact with one another and with the sunflower in a virtual school garden.
Obtain Information
Students read to obtain information about the insects observed in a garden (i.e., aphids, ladybugs, ants, and wasps).
Analyze Data
N/A
Problem:
The sunflower in the school garden is unhealthy because it is being attacked by aphids. Aphids take shelter on the undersides of leaves and suck the juices from the sunflower to obtain energy. This explains why the leaves of the sunflower are turning yellow. Aphids can reproduce very quickly and so are considered a garden pest.
The ladybugs observed in this community are helpful to the sunflower because ladybugs eat aphids (predation). In contrast, the ants observed in this community are harmful to the sunflower because ants protect aphids. Ants want to keep the aphids alive so they can milk them for honeydew (mutualism). Ladybugs and ants battle for aphids using sophisticated defenses (competition).
Solution:
To better control the aphid population in the school garden, we could bring in additional native ladybugs and spray for ants.
NGSS Standard:
MS-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
[Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on predicting consistent patterns of interactions in different ecosystems in terms of the relationships among and between organisms and abiotic components of ecosystems. Examples of types of interactions could include competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial.]
Utah SEEd Standard:
6.4.2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
[Emphasize consistent interactions in different environments, such as competition, predation, and mutualism.]
Recommended Teaching sequence:
Day 1: Students observe how insects interact with one another and with the sunflower in a virtual school garden. Students ask questions about the interactions between organisms and record them in a science notebook.
Day 2: Students read to obtain information about the insects observed in the school garden (i.e., aphids, ladybugs, ants, wasps) then jigsaw to define the cause of the sunflower problem.
Day 3: Students construct a written explanation based on evidence for the cause of the changes in sunflower health. During a class discussion students reflect on the different types of interactions they observed among organisms (competition, predation, mutualism). Students then apply what they have learned about interactions between organisms to design a solution that will improve the health of the sunflowers in the garden.
Assessment:
Use what students have written in their science notebooks as a formative assessment, including the observations they recorded and their written explanation for the phenomenon. Do students use patterns as evidence to support their explanation?
Lesson Contributor:
April Mitchell, Science Specialist, Salt Lake City School District