Go to Unit 7 Plan
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Key Idea 1: Living things are both similar to and different from each other and from nonliving things.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 1.1: Explain how diversity of populations within ecosystems relates to the stability of ecosystems.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 1.1a: Populations can be categorized by the function they serve. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers carrying out either autotropic or heterotropic nutrition.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 1.1b: An ecosystem is shaped by the nonliving environment as well as its interacting species. The world contains a wide diversity of physical conditions, which creates a variety of environments.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 1.1c: In all environments, organisms compete for vital resources. The linked and changing interactions of populations and the environment compose the total ecosystem.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 1.1d: The interdependence of organisms in an established ecosystem often results in approximate stability over hundreds and thousands of years. For example, as one population increases, it is held in check by one or more environmental factors or another species.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 1.1e: Ecosystems, like many other complex systems, tend to show cyclic changes around a state of approximate equilibrium.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 1.1f: Every population is linked, directly or indirectly, with many others in an ecosystem. Disruptions in the numbers and types of species and environmental changes can upset ecosystem stability.
Key Idea 5: Organisms maintain a dynamic equilibrium that sustains life.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 5.1: Explain the basic biochemical processes in living organisms and their importance in maintaining dynamic equilibrium.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 5.1a: The energy for life comes primarily from the Sun. Photosynthesis provides a vital connection between the Sun and the energy needs of living systems.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 5.1b: Plant cells and some one-celled organisms contain chloroplasts, the site of photosynthesis. The process of photosynthesis uses solar energy to combine the inorganic molecules carbon dioxide and water into energy-rich organic compounds (e.g., glucose) and release oxygen to the environment.
Key Idea 6: Plants and animals depend on each other and their physical environment.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 6.1: Explain factors that limit growth of individuals and populations.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.1a: Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, typically from the Sun, through photosynthetic organisms including green plants and algae, to herbivores to carnivores and decomposers.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.1b: The atoms and molecules on the Earth cycle among the living and nonliving components of the biosphere. For example, carbon dioxide and water molecules used in photosynthesis to form energy-rich organic compounds are returned to the environment when the energy in these compounds is eventually released by cells. Continual input of energy from sunlight keeps the process going. This concept may be illustrated with an energy pyramid.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.1c: The chemical elements, such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, that make up the molecules of living things pass through food webs and are combined and recombined in different ways. At each link in a food web, some energy is stored in newly made structures but much is dissipated into the environment as heat.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.1d: The number of organisms any habitat can support (carrying capacity) is limited by the available energy, water, oxygen, and minerals, and by the ability of ecosystems to recycle the residue of dead organisms through the activities of bacteria and fungi.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.1e: In any particular environment, the growth and survival of organisms depend on the physical conditions including light intensity, temperature range, mineral availability, soil/rock type, and relative acidity (pH).
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.1f: Living organisms have the capacity to produce populations of unlimited size, but environments and resources are finite. This has profound effects on the interactions among organisms.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.1g: Relationships between organisms may be negative, neutral, or positive. Some organisms may interact with one another in several ways. They may be in a producer/consumer, predator/prey, or parasite/host relationship; or one organism may cause disease in, scavenge, or decompose another.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 6.2: Explain the importance of preserving diversity of species and habitats.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.2a: As a result of evolutionary processes, there is a diversity of organisms and roles in ecosystems. This diversity of species increases the chance that at least some will survive in the face of large environmental changes. Biodiversity increases the stability of the ecosystem.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.2b: Biodiversity also ensures the availability of a rich variety of genetic material that may lead to future agricultural or medical discoveries with significant value to humankind. As diversity is lost, potential sources of these materials may be lost with it.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 6.3: Explain how the living and nonliving environments change over time and respond to disturbances.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.3a: The interrelationships and interdependencies of organisms affect the development of stable ecosystems.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.3b: Through ecological succession, all ecosystems progress through a sequence of changes during which one ecological community modifies the environment, making it more suitable for another community. These long-term gradual changes result in the community reaching a point of stability that can last for hundreds or thousands of years.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 6.3c: A stable ecosystem can be altered, either rapidly or slowly, through the activities of organisms (including humans), or through climatic changes or natural disasters. The altered ecosystem can usually recover through gradual changes back to a point of longterm stability.
Key Idea 7: Human decisions and activities have had a profound impact on the physical and living environment.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 7.1: Describe the range of interrelationships of humans with the living and nonliving environment.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 7.1a: The Earth has finite resources; increasing human consumption of resources places stress on the natural processes that renew some resources and deplete those resources that cannot be renewed.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 7.1b: Natural ecosystems provide an array of basic processes that affect humans. Those processes include but are not limited to: maintenance of the quality of the atmosphere, generation of soils, control of the water cycle, removal of wastes, energy flow, and recycling of nutrients. Humans are changing many of these basic processes and the changes may be detrimental.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 7.1c: Human beings are part of the Earth’s ecosystems. Human activities can, deliberately or inadvertently, alter the equilibrium in ecosystems. Humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, consumption, and technology. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems may be irreversibly affected.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 7.2: Explain the impact of technological development and growth in the human population on the living and nonliving environment.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 7.2a: Human activities that degrade ecosystems result in a loss of diversity of the living and nonliving environment. For example, the influence of humans on other organisms occurs through land use and pollution. Land use decreases the space and resources available to other species, and pollution changes the chemical composition of air, soil, and water.
MAJOR UNDERSTANDING 7.2b: When humans alter ecosystems either by adding or removing specific organisms, serious consequences may result. For example, planting large expanses of one crop reduces the biodiversity of the area.
KEY IDEA 1: The central purpose of scientific inquiry is to develop explanations of natural phenomena in a continuing and creative process
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 1.1: Elaborate on basic scientific and personal explanations of natural phenomena, and develop extended visual models and mathematical formulations to represent one's thinking.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 1.2: Hone ideas through reasoning, library research, and discussion with others, including experts
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 1.3: Work towards reconciling competing explanations; clarify points of agreement and disagreement
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 1.4: Coordinate explanations at different levels of scale, points of focus, and degrees of complexity and specificity, and recognize the need for such alternative representations of the natural world.
KEY IDEA 2: Beyond the use of reasoning and consensus, scientific inquiry involves the testing of proposed explanations involving the use of conventional techniques and procedures and usually requiring considerable ingenuity
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 2.2: Refine research ideas through library investigations, including electronic information retrieval and reviews of the literature, and through peer feedback obtained from review and discussion.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 2.3: Develop and present proposals including formal hypotheses to test explanations; i.e., predict what should be observed under specific conditions if the explanation is true.
KEY IDEA 3: The observations made while testing proposed explanations, when analyzed using conventional and invented methods, provide new insights into natural phenomena.
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 3.1: Use various methods of representing and organizing observations (e.g. diagrams, tables, charts, graphs, equations matrices) and insightfully interpret the organized data
PERFORMANCE INDICATOR 3.3: Assess correspondence between the predicted result contained in the hypothesis and actual result, and reach a conclusion as to whether the explanation on which the prediction was based is supported
Follows safety rules in the laboratory
Selects and uses correct instruments: Uses graduated cylinders to measure volume
Makes observations of biological processes
Follows directions to correctly use and interpret chemical indicators
Collects, organizes, and analyzes data, using a computer and/or other laboratory equipment
Organizes data through the use of data tables and graphs
Analyzes results from observations/expressed data
Formulates an appropriate conclusion or generalization from the results of an experiment
Reading: Key Ideas and Details
Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; trace the text’s explanation or depiction of a complex process, phenomenon, or concept; provide an accurate summary of the text.
Reading: Key Ideas and Details
Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks attending to special cases or exceptions defined in the text.
Reading: Craft and Structure
Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 9–10 texts and topics.
Reading: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Translate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a table or chart) and translate information expressed visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation) into words.
Reading: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Compare and contrast findings presented in a text to those from other sources (including their own experiments), noting when the findings support or contradict previous explanations or accounts.
Reading: Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently
Writing: Production and Distribution of Writing
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
Writing: Research to Build and Present Knowledge
Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
Writing: Research to Build and Present Knowledge
Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Writing: Range of Writing
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
These are all the things teachers need to know to get started planning this unit. The unit plan is a model that can be modified for a given school context; it includes standards alignment and a learning plan. Summative assessments include the performance task, which can be used to provide a framework for the unit of study, and a bank of items from past Regents exams, aligned to the current unit.
Energy flows and matter cycles among organisms, and between organisms and their environment, creating dynamic interconnected systems. In this unit, students learn about the biotic and abiotic factors in a river ecosystem, using the Hudson River as a case study. They then investigate the impact of an invasive species (zebra mussels) on this ecosystem, using teaching case materials created by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History.
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Living Environment & Earth Science ARCHIVE
LE Unit 7: LE: Ecosystems and Invasive Species
Unit Overview: Resources for Unit-Level Hands-on Exploration of Ecosystems
Opportunities for students to observe interactions between organisms and between organisms and their environment may useful in providing context for the concepts explored in this unit. However, collecting primary data on ecosystems may be challenging in some school settings. The following investigations can be incorporated into the activities of unit in order to allow students to interact with and generate observations on mini-ecosystems.
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How does the invasion of zebra mussels in the Hudson River affect one biotic or abiotic factor in the river ecosystem? To answer this question, students write a scientific explanation using evidence from texts, videos, and secondary data sources, along with sound scientific reasoning and logic, in order to support their claim.
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The Regents Item Bank provides questions from past Regents exams aligned with the content of this unit.
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5E Instructional Model Plans form the backbone of each unit. The 5E sequences are designed using the BSCS 5E Instructional Model to support students in developing a deep conceptual understanding of a specific big idea in science.
Living Environment & Earth Science ARCHIVE
LE Unit 7: LE: Ecosystems and Invasive Species
5E Instructional Model Plan: Components of a Stable Ecosystem 5E Instructional Model Plan
Stable ecosystems are complex and dynamic systems that rely on the interconnectedness between organisms and between organisms and their environment. In this sequence, students explore the components and organization of ecosystems, how energy flows through food chains and webs, and how nutrients are cycled to maintain life.
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Living Environment & Earth Science ARCHIVE
LE Unit 7: LE: Ecosystems and Invasive Species
5E Instructional Model Plan: Population Dynamics 5E Instructional Model Plan
In stable ecosystems, populations are often in a state of dynamic equilibrium; following cycles of increasing and decreasing based on feeding relationships and resource availability. In this sequence, students explore how predator-prey and symbiotic relationships highlight the interdependence of living things and between living things and their environment.
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Living Environment & Earth Science ARCHIVE
LE Unit 7: LE: Ecosystems and Invasive Species
5E Instructional Model Plan: Ecosystem Disruption & Recovery 5E Instructional Model Plan
Ecosystems can return to dynamic equilibrium after a natural or human-caused disruption. After a disruption, ecosystems proceed through a process that may return them to their initial state or to a new equilibrium based on the complexity of the ecosystem and the nature of the disturbance. In this sequence, students explore different examples of disturbances and how ecosystems recover and change from these events.
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Living Environment & Earth Science ARCHIVE
LE Unit 7: LE: Ecosystems and Invasive Species
5E Instructional Model Plan: Invasive Species 5E Instructional Model Plan
New species may be introduced into ecosystems by accident or for a specific purpose. Some of these introduced species will become invasive, others cause little disruption or fail to establish themselves. Due to increased competition or predation some invasive species may have devastating effects on ecosystems. In this instructional sequence, students explore a data set in order investigate the impacts of the introduction of the zebra mussel on the Hudson River.
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Laboratory experiences give students the opportunity to collect and analyze primary data, while also exploring scientific phenomena first-hand. All laboratory experiences are embedded in the 5E Instructional Model Plans listed above, almost always in the Explore phase of a 5E plan. These labs all can count toward the 1200-minute lab requirement for sitting for the Regents exam.
In this lab, students explore a decomposition in a mini-ecosystem.
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In this lab, students collect your data about either abiotic or biotic factors in order to draw conclusions about a body of water. Students investigate factors such as the cloudiness of the water, its temperature, how much gas is dissolved in the water and how many and what types of organisms live in it.
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In this lab, students explore how the changing population of one species affect the population of another.
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These highlighted resources are key components of the 5E Instructional Model Plans listed above. They can also be used as stand-alone materials.
Key Vocabulary List for Unit: Consider using this list to guide the Explain or Elaborate portions of the 5E plans, and use it as reference for student to student vocabulary based discussions.
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In this task, students collaboratively interpret a predator prey graph based on the Hudson River ecosystem
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In this task, students use organism fact cards to identify the relationships between different organisms found in the Hudson River.
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In this task, students read case studies of different examples of ecological succession; describing the important events in a sequence chart.
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Students use an online graphing tool to explore the ecological impacts of the introduction of the zebra mussel in the Hudson River.
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