Evolution and Ecology
This segment of the environmental science course focuses on the biotic, or living parts of the environment. Students will learn about the importance of biodiversity, the interconnectedness of life, and the different types of relationships all living things share with each other. This unit also includes a brief introduction to natural selection and its relationship to the diversity of forms seen throughout the biosphere.
Evolution and Ecology Unit Plan
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Purpose: This is an outline of the major lessons covered within this unit, their suggested sequence, a time estimate for each topic, and important objectives and vocabulary covered by this unit. Links are provided for any website, video clip, worksheet, or lecture Powerpoint needed by the instructor.
This unit plan is primarily written for instructors of upper-level high school students and introductory college-level students.
Evolution and Ecology Lecture Powerpoint
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Purpose: This lecture introduces students to the first three levels of ecological organization: species, populations, and communities. After a brief overview of evolution and natural selection, students will be shown each of the different types of symbiotic, competition, and predator-prey relationships. Different types of niches will also be explored as students learn the role of individual species within a community.
Essential Concepts: Ecology, ecological organization, populations, communities, niche, species interactions, symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, intraspecific competition, interspecific competition, predator, prey, food web, evolution, natural selection, artificial selection.
Evolution and Ecology Lecture Notes Outline
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Purpose: Taking efficient notes can be a big challenge for many students, especially when working from a Powerpoint lecture. This outline gives students a means to take notes that guides them toward important concepts and avoids the pitfalls of writing word-for-word or simply not taking notes at all. The outline is written as a series of questions, fill-in-the-blanks, or diagrams.
Essential Concepts: Ecology, ecological organization, populations, communities, niche, species interactions, symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, intraspecific competition, interspecific competition, predator, prey, food web, evolution, natural selection, artificial selection.
PBS Evolution Series "Why Sex?" Video Worksheet
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Purpose: Evolution is a six-part documentary created by NOVA in 2001. Each episode covers a different aspect of evolution. While each episode is exceptionally well-done, the "Why Sex?" episode is particularly relevant to this chapter. This documentary explores the evolutionary advantage sexual reproduction has over asexual reproduction. Multiple examples throughout both the human world and the animal world are analyzed.
Essential Concepts: Evolution, natural selection, sexual selection, sexual reproduction, asexual reproduction, adaptations.
Cosmos, Episode 2: Some of the Things that Molecules Do
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Purpose: The second episode of the Cosmos (2014) documentary miniseries focuses on life and evolution. Neil DeGrasse Tyson gives a brief, but very succinct overview of artificial and natural selection by using examples that are familiar to us -- the breeding of dogs from wolves, the evolution of the eye, and exploring the possibility of life on Saturn's moon, Titan.
Essential Concepts: Evolution, natural selection, artificial selection, origin of life, extaterrestrial life.
Range of Tolerance Graphing Worksheet
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Purpose: The range that a certain organism will inhabit depends largely on a few critical factors. In this activity, students will graph the influence that factors such as oxygen level and temperature have on the population size of a species of fish. They will then label the optimal range, zone of stress, and zone of intolerance for this species.
Essential Concepts: Range of tolerance, critical factor, optimal range, zone of physiologic stress, zone of intolerance.
Natural Selection of Cereal Lab
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Purpose: A great way to model the process of natural selection is to have students "prey" on different colored cereal pieces, such as Fruity Pebbles, spread across colored cloths. The idea is that, depending on the color of the cloth, certain colors (traits) will be favored and will increase in frequency over time, while others will decrease.
Essential Concepts: Natural selection, camouflage, predation.
Reindeer of St. Matthew Island - Carrying Capacity Activity
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Purpose: St. Matthew Island, located near Alaska, had a population of reindeer introduced in 1944. The population exploded, as the island had no predators or other factors to slow their growth rate. Over time, the deer used up the resources of the island, eventually experiencing a severe dieback due to the lack of food. In this activity, students will graph the population change of the deer, then identify and discuss the dieback.
Essential Concepts: Carrying capacity, exponential growth, dieback.
Deer Dilemma - Class Debate
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Purpose: Deer Dilemma is a modified activity from the Project Wild! curriculum. Students will take on the roles of different community members attending a meeting to deal with a deer overpopulation problem afflicting a large forest preserve. Points of view at the meeting include a hunter, animal rights activist, college instructor, and farmer.
Essential Concepts: Carrying capacity, exponential growth, dieback, population control.
Turkey Trouble Activity
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Purpose: Turkey Trouble is an activity from the Project WILD curriculum that studies the growth of an introduced population of turkeys over time. In this revision, the math is simplified, the instructions are shortened and clarified. The activity takes an introduced population of turkeys and predicts their population growth using a linear and exponential model. The linear model is very simple, assuming a constant rate of growth. The exponential model takes many more variables into account, and ends with a discussion of carrying capacity.
Essential Concepts: Population growth rates, linear growth, exponential growth, carrying capacity, birth rate, death rate, immigration, emigration, variables.
BBC Life In the Undergrowth - Intimate Relations Worksheet
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Purpose: The BBC Life in the Undergrowth series focuses on the ecology of insects and small arthropods. This particular episode describes a series of symbiotic relationships that insects have with plants.
Essential Concepts: Symbiosis, competition, predation, parasitism, commensalism, mutualism.
BBC Blue Planet "Coral Seas" Video Worksheet
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Purpose: The seas surrounding coral reefs have the most diversity of any of the aquatic ecosystems. With such a wide abundance of life, a wide variety of complex relationships can be seen between the different animals and plants within the ecosystem. This episode of the BBC Blue Planet series illustrates wonderful examples of parasitism, mutualism, commensalism, competition, and predation.
Essential Concepts: Coral reefs, symbiosis, competition, predation, parasitism, commensalism, mutualism, coral reef, adaptations, aquatic ecosystems.
Survivorship Curves Worksheet
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Purpose: Survivorship curves show what proportion of individuals in different age groups are alive. These curves typically take on three shapes depending if mortality is highest for the very young (type III), very old (type I), or consistent across all ages (type II). In this assignment, students will calculate survivorship based on some mortality data for sheep, turtles, and grass.
Essential Concepts: Survivorship curves, mortality rates, life tables
Evolution and Ecology Study Guide
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Purpose: Once the instruction for the unit is completed, students can complete this study guide to aid in their preparation for a written test. The study guide is divided into two sections: vocabulary and short answer questions. The vocabulary is taken directly form the lecture, sequentially. The short answer questions are meant to model the type they may see on the exam.
Essential Concepts: Ecological organization, populations, communities, niche, species interactions, symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, intraspecific competition, interspecific competition, predator, prey, food web, evolution, natural selection, artificial selection, K-strategists, r-strategists.
