Ecosystems Lesson 2 Learning Goals

Target Student Performance

Activity

Target Performance

Lesson 2 – Patterns in Organic Matter in Ecosystems (students as investigators)

Activity 2.1: Predictions and Planning for the Meadow Simulation

Students make predictions about changes in the mass of different populations in a meadow ecosystem and plans to maximize the fox population.

Activity 2.2: The Meadow Simulation

Students identify patterns in relationships among organic mass of populations at different trophic levels in a simulated meadow ecosystem (the organic matter pyramid).

Activity 2.3: Evidence-Based Arguments for the Meadow Simulation

Students develop arguments from evidence about possible patterns in relationships among mass of populations at different trophic levels in a simulated meadow ecosystem (the organic matter pyramid).

Activity 2.4: Organic Carbon Pools in Other Ecosystems

Students describe patterns in relationships among mass of populations at different trophic levels in a other ecosystems (the organic matter pyramid).

NGSS Performance Expectations

High School

  • Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics. HS-LS2-1. Use mathematical and or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales.

Middle School

  • Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems. MS-LS2-2. Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
  • Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems. MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
  • Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems. MS-LS2-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.