Diversity in a Leaf Pack

Note: All teaching materials are packaged as a ZIP file. You can download individual files from the following paragraphs, or download the whole package here. Biodiv 2012 TE resources

Target Grades: Middle School and High School (modification suggestions for each level are included)
Description:Students will explore functional and taxonomic diversity in a stream ecosystem, learn about food web relationships, and learn about the ways in which abiotic and biotic factors determine what organisms are present in a community.  Students will make and install leaf packs in a stream, wait for the leaf packs to be colonized by stream organisms, measure abiotic variables that could influence leaf pack colonization, retrieve the leaf packs and classify the organisms they find in both taxonomic and functional ways, and discuss how the leaf pack community is situated within a larger ecosystem.
Learning Goals:  The purpose of this unit is to increase students’ ability to apply principles of biodiversity to their observations and reasoning about the natural world, using the freshwater stream ecosystem as the context for learning.   This unit focuses on the following principles of biodiversity: 

1. Organisms vary genetically, thus also vary phenotypically & functionally
2. Ecological communities are constrained and shaped by: Biotic resources & interactions, Abiotic resources & conditions, and Dispersal
3. Matter and Energy are finite in space and time, and organisms interact with and impact matter and energy resources.

Lesson Plans – This document includes Teacher Notes, Student Worksheets, Teacher Answer Keys, and additional handouts. Power points and other resources can be found below. Appendices, including optional lesson plans, can be found here.

Assessments -- Assessments are available in online or paper and pencil versions, click here. Please plan to do the pre-test within 2 weeks of starting the lessons and post-tests within 2 weeks of ending the lesson. The pre and post test forms are the same but there are separate tests for middle school and high school students.

Teacher Feedback Form -- We would like your feedback to improve these lessons! Also, in order to make proper inferences about student learning we would like to understand what actually happened in your classroom. Please fill out this form and return it to your MSP researcher.

MSP researcher Contacts for Support or Questions

For Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) or New York Teachers: Lia Harris (harrisc@caryinstitute.org)

For Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) Teachers: Jennifer Doherty (dohertyjh@gmail.com)

For Shortgrass Steppe (SGS) or Wyoming Teachers: MaryAnn Murphy (MMURPHY1@greeleyschools.org) or Laurel Hartley (laurel.hartley@ucdenver.edu)

For Santa Barbara Coastal (SBC) Teachers: Scott Simon (simon@msi.uscb.edu)

For all others: Jennifer Doherty (dohertyjh@gmail.com)

Additional Support Materials for Lessons
Posters and sorting cards:

Bird Population Maps: (For Lesson 4)

Organism sorting cards (For lessons 6, 9, 10, and 11)
Sorting cards for students to use with the three posters below.  There are smaller versions for student desk work and larger versions whole class board work.

Food Web Poster- (for Lessons 5 &11)
This food web diagram will help scaffold student understanding of the feeding relationships between organism groups in a stream ecosystem.  More advanced students may not need this tool, although it might be a useful organizing framework. Food web templates to print on 8.5"x11" sheets or to project or print in large format for board work.  Two scaffoldings included: 1 with some matter and energy transfer arrows included and 1 with none.
Powers of 10 poster (For optional lesson D)
This diagram is designed to help students understand the relative sizes of organisms identified in the leaf pack.
Classification Poster (For Lesson 9)
This phylogeny based diagram of organismal relatedness is designed to help scaffold student understanding of the evolutionary relationships between organism groups in a stream ecosystem. Classification poster for board work to project or print large scale. Classification poster for each student group, print on 2 11"x17" sheets or 4 8.5"x11" and tape together.

Powerpoint Presentations
Feeding Groups PowerPoint Slide Presentation- (For Lesson 6)
This PowerPoint introduces different feedings strategies, helps students see the different types of mouthparts present on stream invertebrates, and helps them think about how mouthparts are related to functional feeding groups. 
Decomposer PowerPoint Slide Presentation - (For Lesson 8)
This PowerPoint presentation contains pictures and information about different groups of microscopic decomposer organisms that are likely present in the leaf packs. It is focused primarily on bacteria and fungi and how microorganisms acquire resources (food).
Biological Classification PowerPoint Slide Presentation- (For Lesson 9)
This PowerPoint presentation contains an introduction to biological classification and what it means for organisms to be related.

 

Excel Templates

Graphing template (For Lessons 5 & 7)

Example leaf pack data (For Lessons 5 & 7)

Beans example template (For Lesson 7)

Shannon Index Template (For Lesson 12)