Digital Unit Plan Template Unit Title: Populations—in Nature and Society Name: Jason Unger Content Area: Biology Grade Level: 9 CA Content Standard(s)/Common Core Standard(s): HS-LS2-1. Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales. HS-LS2-2. Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and Populations in ecosystems of different scales. HS-LS2-7. Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity. Big Ideas: Distinguish between exponential and logistic growth. Explain how populations are affected by limiting factors (including density- dependent, density-independent, abiotic, and biotic factors) Explain how human activities (including population growth, technology, & consumption of resources) affect the physical and chemical cycles & processes of Earth. Unit Goals and Objectives: Students will be able to take data and independently organize and graph it, and decide whether it follows the pattern of exponential or logistic growth. When given a list of limiting factors, they will be able to categorize them as density-dependent or density-independent. Given a graph of population data, they will be able to correlate changes in populations with changes in factors such as competition, predation, and parasitism. They will recognize that human population growth has continued to grow exponentially for the past 500 years, and that in the future, for many reasons, the population will begin to level off. They will make suggestions for what things can be changed to decrease human impact and slow the population growth. Unit Summary: This is the Populations unit of the ninth-grade biology class. Students will learn about the basic trends and the factors that limit population growth. This includes knowing the math needed to understand and describe the patterns. We will relate human population growth to the ecological models and design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impact of human activities. We will begin by reviewing previously covered big ideas in the Ecology module, including ecological levels of organization, food webs, cycles of matter, biotic and abiotic factors, niche, community interactions, and ecological succession. These concepts will be incorporated into the Populations unit. There are two entry-level exercises. For the first, in Lesson 1, students use the given information to calculate how many rabbits are living at the school, and give observations about what is incorrect about that model. This will be expanded with guided notes and WebQuest 1 on how populations grow. The other entry-level exercise is a visual ranking exercise in the Assessments, where students will rank the impact of factors on human population growth. Next will be WebQuest 2 on the limits to growth, where the focus will be on differentiating between density-dependent and density-independent limiting factors. A vocabulary and conceptual quiz will cover what has been learned thus far. That will be followed by WebQuest 3 on human population growth. Assessment Plan: Entry-Level: Introductory exercise: how many rabbits can live at the school Visual ranking exercise: rank the impact of factors on human population growth Formative: Guided notes: how populations grow WebQuest 1: How populations grow, part 2 WebQuest 2: Limits to growth Quiz: how populations grow and limits to growth WebQuest 3: Human population growth Summative: Written: respond to questions with at least one paragraph each Graphic Organizer: choose one developed and one third-world country to research. Essay: research strategies to conserve resources and reduce human impact Lesson 1 Student Learning Objective: After doing calculations, students see that exponential growth is not practical longterm. They learn that logistic growth is the realistic model of populations. They learn to calculate population density and changes in populations with data given. They also organize six factors in an order of importance for the impact they have had on the exponential growth of the global human population. Lesson 2 Acceptable Evidence: Students will identify the errors in the exponential growth model of rabbits at the school. They will show calculations and give written definitions that show an understanding of the concepts. Instructional Strategies: ☒ Communication ☐ Collection ☐ Collaboration ☐ Presentation ☒ Organization ☒ Interaction Lesson Activities: A Prezi presentation gives an introduction on how populations grow. Then they download a word document and use math and reasoning skills to calculate how many rabbits might be living on campus each year after two are introduced. They then look at the “How Populations Grow” visual web lecture on Prezi, and learn the most important characteristics of a population, what is population density and how is it measured, the factors that affect population size, and the differences between exponential growth and logistic growth. They use the visual web lecture as a resource tool for the assignment “How Populations Grow.” Then, they do the Intel Education visual ranking exercise “Human Population Growth Race.” Looking at the world human population as a whole, they rank the importance that each of the given factors has had on population growth. They add a comment where they briefly write about why they chose to rank things in that order, and respond to two other people's comments. Student Learning Objective: Knowing how to organize the information about populations to form graphs. Interpret graphs and data to answer questions about populations and the factors that affect them. Get a visual and basic understanding of the rate of human population growth. Acceptable Evidence: They will only be able to answer WebQuest questions if they explore the linked activities. Correct answers will show that they have been able to organize different sets of data that represent exponential and logistic growth, limits to population growth, and the rate of human population growth. Instructional Strategies: ☐ Communication ☒ Collection ☐ Collaboration ☐ Presentation ☒ Organization ☐ Interaction Lesson Activities: WebQuest 1: How Populations Grow, Part 2. This has two links that show examples of exponential growth, and two that show examples of logistic growth. They will analyze the predictions that the professors make about the Zebra mussels, and decide who is correct. They will follow that with Bacteria Growing in a Bottle, the other exponential growth activity. Then there are two logistic growth activities. WebQuest 2: Limits to Growth. This looks into the factors that limit population growth. Students answer questions about density-dependent and density-independent limiting factors with a link to a web page about the Yellow Perch in Lake Winnipeg. Then they watch a video on predatorprey relationships and answer questions about the pyramid analogy, coevolution, and mimicry. WebQuest 3: Human Population Growth. This begins with a ClassZone animation and follows with a video "When Will we Run Out of Space?". There are no definite answers to the questions, because statistics change every second. This site may be used for summative assessment activities. Lesson 3 Student Learning Objective: This is a group of three summative assessment assignments. Students will work on their own for parts 1 and three. They will form groups of two for part 2. For that assessment, they will do the “Growth Race, 2 Countries” graphic organizer. Acceptable Evidence: Students will properly cite their information and support their choices for ranking the six population growth factors for the two countries chosen. There will be a rubric to follow for the activity. For the essay, they will address population growth with wellthought strategies that can lower human impact. Instructional Strategies: ☒ Communication ☒ Collection ☒ Collaboration ☐ Presentation ☒ Organization ☐ Interaction Lesson Activities: For part 1, seven questions will be answered with at least one paragraph each. Then students will form groups of two for part 2. They will visit the Population Reference Bureau World Population Data Sheet 2014 and choose two countries to research: one developed country and one less-developed (third-world) country. In the Human Population Growth Race visual ranking exercise, they ranked food, medicine, sanitation, agriculture, energy, and technology in the order of their impact on global population growth. For this summative assessment activity, partners will agree on two countries to research and will rank these categories independently for each country. They will cite statistics from the website for answers. Students will investigate three other topics for those countries, and summarize and cite what they find most important/interesting/disturbing. Finally, for part 3, students will devote a minimum 400-word document to the following topic. Although the annual percent increase of global population has been decreasing since reaching a high of 2.2% in 1962, global population is still increasing exponentially. Think about and research some strategies that can be applied to conserve resources and slow population growth. Unit Resources: Intel Educate 2014 World Population Data Sheet Lions in the Santa Monica Mountains? ClassZone https://educate.intel.com/workspace/student/loginpage.aspx?LID=en http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2014/2014-world-population-data-sheet.aspx http://www.nps.gov/samo/naturescience/pumapage.htm http://www.classzone.com/cz/index.htm Useful Websites: Bozemenscience Two bank accounts Quizlet Prezi http://www.bozemanscience.com/exponential-growth/ http://mathbench.umd.edu/modules/popn-dynamics_exponential-growth/page02.htm http://quizlet.com/37499567/density-dependent-or-density-independent-sheehan-flash-cards/ http://prezi.com