Land of Many Opportunists

Students race to survive in Land of Many Opportunists

NPS photo

Land of Many Opportunists request

Level: 3rd – 6th grade
Group size: Min 8, Max 60 (40ish is ideal)
Program Length: 1 hour
Program Requirements: An outdoor area with very thin grass; dirt with some small gravel size rocks is OK. The ground needs to camouflage dried beans but not bury them. Min 60 ft square area.

Program Description:
Through active learning students experience how aggressive exotic species take advantage of a wide range of resources in order to expand their range and compete in a non-native habitat.

In a race for survival, each team represents a fish species that lives in Lake Roosevelt. Each team member takes a turn in the lake (game area) to gather food resources in hopes that their species will survive while struggling against competition from other species and environmental stressors. Multiple rounds are played and graphed to illustrate fluctuations in species strength due to stress factors.

Key Concepts: native/non-native/invasive species, competition between species for resources, human impact, population fluctuation, environmental stressors, graph interpretation, patterns

Potential Follow-Up Activities: This program can be used by teachers as an introduction to plant biodiversity research in the outdoor classroom. For more information on training and resources to teach field investigations with your class, please visit the website for our flagship education program, The River Mile.

 

Lake Roosevelt depends on community support to prevent invasive species issues.

Education Standards Addressed in this Program

Third Grade Next Generation Science Standards

Performance Expectations

3-LS4 Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity

• 3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
• 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.

Science and Engineering Practices

Engaging in Argument from Evidence

• Construct an argument with evidence. (3-LS4-3)
• Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem by citing relevant evidence about how it meets the criteria and constraints of the problem. (3-LS4-4)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

LS2.C: Ecosystem 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 transformed environment, and some die. (secondary to 3-LS4-4)

LS4.C: Adaptation

• For any particular environment, some kinds of organisms survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. (3-LS4-3)

LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humans

• Populations live in a variety of habitats, and change in those habitats affects the organisms living there. (3-LS4-4)

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect

• Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified and used to explain change. (3-LS4-3)

Systems and System Models

• A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions. (3-LS4-4)

Third Grade Common Core/ELA Literacy Standards

Comprehension and Collaboration

• SL.3.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

• SL 3.4: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
• SL.3.6: Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.

Fourth Grade Next Generation Science Standards

Performance Expectations

4-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: structure and Process

• 4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Science and Engineering Practices

Engaging in Argument from Evidence

• Construct an argument with evidence, data, and/or a model. (4-LS1-1)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

LS1.A: Structure and Function (4-LS1-1)

Crosscutting Concepts

Systems and System Models

• A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions. (4- LS1-1)

Cause and Effect

• Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified and used to explain change. (4-ESS3-1)

Fourth Grade Common Core/ELA Literacy Standards

Comprehension and Collaboration

• SL.4.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

• SL.4.4: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

Fifth Grade Next Generation Science Standards

Performance Expectations

5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

Disciplinary Core Ideas

ESS3.C: Human Impacts on Earth Systems

• Human activities in agriculture, industry, and everyday life have had major effects on the land, vegetation, streams, ocean, air, and even outer space. But individuals and communities are doing things to help protect Earth’s resources and environments. (5-ESS3-1)

Crosscutting Concepts

Systems and System Models

• A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions. (5-ESS3-1)

Fifith Grade Common Core/ELA Literacy Standards

Comprehension and Collaboration

• SL.5.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Middle School (6th-8th Grade) Next Generation Science Standards

Performance Expectations

MS-LS2 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

• MS-LS2-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
• MS-LS2- 2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems
• MS-LS2- 4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.

Science and Engineering Practices

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

• Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for phenomena. (MS-LS2-1)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

• Organisms, and populations of organisms, are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors. (MS-LS2-1)
• In any ecosystem, organisms and populations with similar requirements for food, water, oxygen, or other resources may compete with each other for limited resources, access to which consequently constrains their growth and reproduction. (MS-LS2-1)
• Similarly, predatory interactions may reduce the number of organisms or eliminate whole populations of organisms. Mutually beneficial interactions, in contrast, may become so interdependent that each organism requires the other for survival. Although the species involved in these competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems, the patterns of interactions of organisms with their environments, both living and nonliving, are shared. (MS-LS2-2)

LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience

• Ecosystems are dynamic in nature; their characteristics can vary over time. Disruptions to any physical or biological components of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations. (MS-LS2-4)

Crosscutting Concepts

Patterns

• Patterns can be used to identify cause and effect relationships. (MS-LS2-2)

Cause and Effect

• Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems. (MS-LS2-1)

Stability and Change

• Small changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another part. (MS-LS2-4)

Middle School (6th-8th Grade) Common Core/ELA Literacy Standards

Comprehension and Collaboration

• SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• SL 7.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• SL 8.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.