How does changing an ecosystem affect what lives there?
This is a life science unit that builds science ideas around biodiversity and ecosystems. Specifically, students first examine how people buying candy bars can have a ripple effect on dwindling orangutan populations. Students then investigate other activities that either increase or decrease the biodiversity within an ecosystem.
The unit starts with a news headline, “Your Halloween Candy Could Be Killing Orangutans.” To explore this claim, students discover there is a connection between orangutan populations and candy bars: palm oil. From reading about candy ingredients and deforestation within Indonesian rainforests, students start to see how local actions can impact global communities. Students conduct a series of investigations using computer simulations to test how populations, like the orangutan, increase or decrease over time. Students use what they learn about these connections to design better ways to protect ecosystems, like rainforests, while also using land to grow food.