Module: Environmental changes and their affect on organisms, populations, and species.
Subject: Life Science
Grade Level: 6 th
Colorado Standards:
Standard 2
Prepared Graduates: Explain and illustrate with examples how living systems interact with the biotic and abiotic environment.
6 th Grade: Concepts and Skills students master: 1. Changes in environmental conditions can affect the survival of individual organisms, populations, and entire species.
Evidence Outcomes: a.
Interpret and analyze data about changes in environmental conditions – such as climate change – and populations that support a claim describing why a specific population might e increasing or decreasing (DOK 1-3) b.
Develop, communicate, and justify and evidence-based explanation about how ecosystems interact with and impact the global environment (DOK 1-3) c.
Model equilibrium in an ecosystem, including basic inputs and outputs, to predict how a change to that ecosystem such as climate change might impact the organisms, populations, and species within it such as the removal of a top predator or introduction of a new species (DOK 2-3) d.
Examine, evaluate, question, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media to investigate how environmental conditions affect the survival of individual organisms.

Unit Design
This is an inquiry based unit – through observation, discussions, hands-on activities, students are lead through the unit looking at two populations that live together in the Colorado forest, the lodgepole pine and the Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB), to discover how these two populations affect each other and how environmental conditions change their populations.
There are five lessons based around five questions and one evaluative lesson.
Lesson 1 – What’s going on? Students will discover that something is killing trees in the
Colorado forest and discover that it is some sort of insect. (1 – 70 min class period)
Activity 1 – What’s going on? This is a photo exploration of the Colorado forest, observations, idea generation, and ideas about what might be going on
(individual, small group and large group discussions).
Worksheet: Lesson 1 Activity 1
Photos: 11 photos of the Colorado forest (1 set for each group)
Activity 2 – A closer look at what’s going on! Utilizing pine beetle killed tree trunks, students will take a closer look at the damage done to a lodgepole pine.
Students will make observations, which should include seeing pine beetle galleries under the bark as well as blue/grey wood from the blue stain fungi produced by the MPB.
Tree kits can be obtained from http://www.acornnaturalists.com/store/BARK-PINE-BEETLE-LIFE-CYCLE-
DISPLAY-KIT-P6554C457.aspx
Worksheet: Lesson 1 Activity 2
Tree kits: One for each group
Lesson 2 – What’s the big deal? Who Cares? This lesson is designed to get students thinking of why they care about what is happening to the Colorado forest. Six photos are used to show hazards to campers, hikers, skiers, as well as fire threats (1 – 70 min class period)
Activity 1 – Groups will explore, through photos, aspects of some of the factors that would give them reasons to be concerned about what is going on. Students will make observations and come up with ideas important to them about why the dead trees are an issue/hazard.
Worksheet: Lesson 2 Activity 1
Photo’s: Lesson 2 Activity 1

Activity 2 – Students will create a poster highlighting one of their ideas with a paragraph about why this is important to them.
Lesson 3 – What are we looking at? Through a series of several activities students will understand the lodgepole pine, its life cycle as well as what factors makes the tree healthy or stressed and how their populations grow and decline over time. What the
Mountain Pine Beetle is, its life cycle, and the factors that help the population grow or decline. (5 to 8 – 70 min class periods)
Activity 1 – Anatomy of a tree. Students will first do a “jigsaw” of the anatomy of a tree.
Each member of a group will get information on one or two particular structures that make up a tree. They will study these structures and their purpose, then switch so that new groups are formed that have a representative from each of the original groups. These new groups will share their knowledge with the others in the group. Students will record the parts of the tree in their journals.
Parts of a tree cards
Tree anatomy – label activity
Tree anatomy – Crossword puzzle (class time or homework)
Activity 2 – Students will participate in the “Tree Factory” Activity. In this activity students act out the part of the tree they have been assigned. After the kinetics portion students will write in their journals how their role keeps the tree healthy.
Activity 3 – Students will complete the “Be your Own Tree” art activity where they will create their own tree ring to represent their life. This will also be an introduction as to how a tree grows a new ring every year.
Paper plates
Colored Pencils.
Activity 4 – Students will read independently the story “A year in the life of a Mountain
Pine Beetle by: Buford the Mountain Pine Beetle”. Published by Colorado
State Forest Service. Students will complete a guided reading worksheet.
Worksheet: Lesson 3 Activity 4
Activity 5 – Pine beetle population growth game.
Worksheet: Lesson 3 Activity 5
Pinto beans
Medicine cups or something similar

Activity 6 - Students will participate in the “Every Tree for Itself” kinetics activity that will enable them to discover what trees need to survive, what happens when a tree becomes stressed, and how a MPB plays a role in attacking stressed trees and can kill them.
Worksheet: Lesson 3 Activity 6
Poker chips: Red, White, and Blue
Activity 7 – The lodgepole pine reading activity & crossword puzzle. (Can be a homework assignment)
Worksheet: Lesson 3 Activity 7
Activity 8 - Role of fire in an ecosystem. This is a series of videos that discuss the role of fire in the forest.
Lesson 4: What environmental conditions affect these populations? Now that students know about trees and Pine Beetles students can begin looking at climate data to come to some conclusion as to how the lodgepole pine tree in the Colorado forest came to be stressed and at risk to MPB infestation at a higher rate than normal.
Activity 1 – Temperature in the mountains. A webquest that has kids use an online database with temperature data from several mountain locations. (1-70min class period) climate Trends website: http://climatetrends.colostate.edu/stations?go=ct_access
Worksheet: Data collection
Activity 2 – Group Analysis. Students will take what they have learned through the data collection webquests and compile and synthesize the data together as a group. Precipitation for the same locations will be looked at as well.
Part 1 – Webquest Synthesis worksheet. Lesson 4 Activity 2
Part 2 – Precipitation charts analysis and synthesis. Lesson 4 Activity 2
Activity 3 - Drought charts analysis and synthesis. Webquest. Students will look at the
Drought Monitor website and collect drought information for the Colorado
Mountains.
Webquest worksheet: Lesson 4 Activity 3

Lesson 5 – In this lesson students will watch a video about the Colorado forest and the effects of the beetles. This is a summary of everything they have learned and should recognize the information presented. Students will then be given a writing prompt that should be used to answer the question “What would happen if”. This lesson is to enable students to use critical thinking skills and expand upon what they know about the lodgepole pine and the mountain pine beetle.
Suggested Videos:
Youtube: Pine Beetle Project (Length 9:13 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C2WrOJJpDE&feature=related
Colorado forests and the pine beetle epidemic – (Length 9:23 min) http://player.vimeo.com/video/37083319?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&autoplay=1
Youtube: Beetlemania: an aerial tour of central Colorado forests infested by the
Mountain Pine Beetle. (Length 6:22 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdK-B8N4SLc
Youtube: Mountian Pine Beetle Documentary . Grand County (Grand Lake
Colorado) (Length 5:00 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXzX9l7vJXA&feature=related
Writing Activity: Lesson 5 Activity 1
Lesson 6 – This is the final summative lesson that has the students write an essay about what
they have learned during the unit.