3 - LS4.D and LS2.C - Environmental Changes and Effects - FINAL (LH 1/30/2014)

Module: Environmental Changes and Effects

DCI: LS4.D Biodiversity and Humans – Populations live in a variety of habitats, and change in those habitats affects the organisms living there.

 DCI: LS2.C Ecosystems Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience – When the environment changes in ways that affect a place’s physical characteristics, temperature, or availability of resources, some organisms survive and reproduce, others move to new locations, yet others move into the transformed environment, and some die.

PE: 3-LS4-4 Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.

 [Clarification Statement: Examples of environmental changes could include changes in land characteristics, water distribution, temperature, food, and other organisms.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to a single environmental change. Assessment does not include the greenhouse effect or climate change.]

The ideas we see in this standard are: 

- populations live in a variety of habitats

- change in habitats affects the organisms that live there

- when the environment changes in a way that affects a place's physical characteristics, some organisms survive and reproduce, some move to new locations, some move into the new environment, and others die

- when the environment changes in a way that affects a place's temperature, some organisms survive and reproduce, some move to new locations, some move into the new environment, and others die

- when the environment changes in a way that affects a place's availability of resources, some organisms survive and reproduce, some move to new locations, some move into the new environment, and others die

Seeing as how there is no 'right' claim that can be made by a student about a particular solution, as that seems to be fairly subjective, it will be awfully hard to write a multiple choice test item that addresses that specifically.  We should be able to get several good questions out of the content, and the basic idea that when the environment changes, organisms either survive or don't.  

What we can do is provide several possible solutions to a problem that arises as the environment changes (change in resources, for example) and ask students to evaluate which solution would be most efficient. 

Possible Question Starters: 

"Forests of trees are grown just for the purpose of making paper.  When the trees are growing, they provide a home for many kinds of animals.  When they get large enough, they are cut down . For each tree that is cut down, five new trees are planted in its place.  Which part of this practice causes the most harmful change to the environment?"

correct answer - cutting down the trees

incorrect answer - planting five new trees

"The chart shows the number of individual organisms from several species before and after a flood. 

Species	Population before flood	Population after flood
W	123	46
X	87	113
Y	30	27
Z	116	140

From the chart, we can tell that the flooding affected the environment in which way? The flood-"

correct answer - caused changes that helped some organisms survive

incorrect answer - decreased the resources for all organisms