Last updated: August 10, 2020
Lesson Plan
Freeing the Elwha (Salmonid Natural History)
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Science
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- State Standards:
- Washington State Standards
Science
EALR 4: 6-8 LS3A, LS3E, LS2D
Reading
EALR 1: Component 1.2
Social Studies
EALR 5: Component 5.2
Writing
EALR 2: Component 2.1 - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience.
Essential Question
What combination of factors both natural and man-made is necessary for healthy river restoration and how does this enhance the sustainability of natural and human communities?
Objective
How does biological evolution account for the diversity and distribution of salmonid species?
Background
This lesson focuses on some of the natural history and stochastic events that have influenced the current distributions of salmonid fish in western North America. The relatedness of salmonid species and some of the events of the past, of which the ice age is the most important, can be examined using phylogenetic trees. This information can then be used to determine how the phylogenetic tree branched as it did. Genetic isolation, the founder effect, genetic drift, and stochasticity have all played a role in the diversification of the various species, subspecies, stocks, and runs of salmonids in western North America.
Preparation
- Lesson 10- Salmonid Natural History.pptx
- Speciation Articles.doc
- Reflection Journal Pages (Printable handout)
- Vocabulary Notes (Printable Handout)
Materials
Speciation Articles
Salmonid Natural History Lesson Plan
Download Salmonid Natural History Lesson Plan
Salmonid Natural History PowerPoint
Download Salmonid Natural History PowerPoint
Salmonid Natural History Worksheets
Download Salmonid Natural History Worksheets
Procedure
1. Review Essential Question; introduce Guiding Question.
2. Students should take a few minutes to respond to the First Reflection Journal questions. Discuss their answers and any questions they've generated.
3. Hand out the Vocabulary Notes. With this lesson you may want to define the words before presenting the PowerPoint Lesson.
4. Present the PowerPoint Lesson.
5. Read Speciation Articles on Lake Crescent Trout, Olympic Mudminnow, and Olympic Marmot.
6. Hand out the Second Reflection Journal page. Give students time for a final reflection on the session.
Vocabulary
- Anadromous- A fish that is born in freshwater, migrates to the ocean to spend its adult life, and returns to freshwater to spawn.
- Stochastic Event- A random event that can dramatically alter population sizes, selection mechanisms, and genetic isolation. Stochastic events can range from landslides isolating fish populations, droughts and forest fires eliminating habitat and isolating organisms in pockets or available habitat, or hurricanes that randomly kill individuals regardless of their genetic fitness.
- Phylogenetic Tree- A diagram showing the genetic relationships of biological organisms based on when new species or subspecies differentiated. Historically, they were built using the evaluation of changes in morphology. However, today DNA sequencing is used to evaluate changes in the genetic code.
- Pluvial Lake- A lake that formed when rainfall inputs were significantly higher than evaporate rates. Often these refer to ancient lakes when climates were different, such as the ice age. An example is Ancient Lake Bonneville, now dried up to become the Great Salt Lake.
- Pro-glacial Lake- A lake that forms either behind an ice dam formed by a glacier or from the meltwater of a glacier that is dammed by the terminal moraine. An example is Glacial Lake Missoula, where an ice dam blocked the flow of the Clark Fork River in Montana.
- Genetic Isolation: The absence of genetic exchange between populations or species as a result of geographic separation or of mechanisms that prevent reproduction.
- Genetic Drift- The random changes in genetic variation related to small isolated populations suffering from stochastic events not necessarily related to fitness or natural selection.
- Founder Effect- The loss of genetic variation caused by the colonization of a new area by a small population. The limited gene pool means that future offspring can only carry the characteristics of the founders, and may have significantly different characteristics than the species as a whole.
- Endorheic basin- A depression that water drains into, but has no outlet. The Great Basin is one of the largest endorheic basins in the world. Lakes and ponds are often small scale endorheic basins.