Join us this spring in the beta test of the new enhanced unit - 6.6 (v2): Invasive Species. The unit is available for preview beginning on November 1. The new unit is compatible with the 6.6 (v1) Nasco kit, includes enhanced literacy resources, and features a new, simpler Unit Challenge centered around the mysterious decline of native fish species. Is the obnoxious Bigheaded Carp part of the problem? Learn more about the beta test here!
Lesson 7: Invasive Species
NGSS Connections: SEP: Analyzing and Interpreting Data, SEP: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions, CCC: Stability and Change0 Likes Like Helpline/Support
Feedback
 |
Teaching Time: 3 Class Periods (assuming 50 minute periods) |
 |
Instructional Setting
- Classroom with a computer and projector
|
Lesson Question:- What might be the effects of adding a new species to an ecosystem?
Gotta Have Checklist- How changes to the biotic parts of the ecosystem affect things like the resources available, competition, predation and/or mutualism.
- How individuals are affected by a change to the biotic parts of the ecosystem.
- How populations are affected by a change to the biotic parts of the ecosystem.
Lesson Key Concepts
(DCI & CCC) |
- Ecosystems can undergo big changes.
- A change to a biotic part of the ecosystem could affect the entire ecosystem.
- Small changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another part.
- Patterns can be used to identify cause and effect relationships.
|
| Lesson Key Practices |
- Articulate a statement that connects phenomena to scientific ideas
|
Lesson Introduction:In the previous lesson, students considered the relationship between the physical components of an environment and its populations of organisms. They learned that a change in a physical component, such as an increase in snowfall, can help to determine the number of organisms in a population, such as the white-tailed deer of Michigan.
In this lesson, students explore the relationship between the biological components of the environment and populations. They see that a disruption, or change, in a
…
MoreIn the previous lesson, students considered the relationship between the physical components of an environment and its populations of organisms. They learned that a change in a physical component, such as an increase in snowfall, can help to determine the number of organisms in a population, such as the white-tailed deer of Michigan.
In this lesson, students explore the relationship between the biological components of the environment and populations. They see that a disruption, or change, in a biological component can lead to shifts in the numbers of organisms within an ecosystem. These biological disturbances can affect the amount of predation, competition and/or availability of resources for organisms, causing populations to either increase or decrease. Disturbances are not necessarily bad, for example historically in lodgepole pine forests in the Western US, periodic epidemics of mountain pine beetles kill old trees, opening up habitat for younger pine trees. These periodic epidemics are part of the natural ecosystem. Biological disturbances are also caused by humans. The most common example is the introduction of species to new ecosystems.
In this lesson, students examine the effects on populations in an ecosystem when an organism that does not normally live in that ecosystem is introduced. Species that have naturally evolved in an area are referred to as native species. Other species that migrate into, or are deliberately or accidentally introduced into an ecosystem by people, are called non-native species. Many nonnative species are beneficial to people, such as wheat, cattle, and chickens, which are major sources of food. However, when a nonnative species has few or no predators and/or competition for the things it needs, its population can increase. For example, a nonnative species with few predators may outcompete native species for available resources, causing the populations of native species to decrease. When a species causes economic or ecological harm it is called an invasive species. An invasive species can change specific physical or biological components of the ecosystem, such as when invasive an animal species eats food that other organisms need or when invasive plants increase the shade experienced by other plants, making it harder for them to get needed light.
| Science Words |
| Past Lessons |
This Lesson |
Future Lessons |
Biological
Competition
Disturbances
Ecosystem
Interdependence
Mutualism
Physical
Populations
Population Growth
Predation
Predator
Prey
Resources |
Invasive species
Native species
Nonnative species |
|
| Science Words |
| Past Lessons |
Biological
Competition
Disturbances
Ecosystem
Interdependence
Mutualism
Physical
Populations
Population Growth
Predation
Predator
Prey
Resources |
| This Lesson |
Invasive species
Native species
Nonnative species |
| Future Lessons |
|
- Prepare copies of student resources as needed (see phase summaries).
- If you plan to use lesson slides, fill in the lesson slide template with the relevant material from this lesson. To help create lesson slides, the slides created by piloting teachers are available at the bottom of this page. In many cases these slides will require some revision to match the lesson plan.
 |
Safety Considerations
|
Instructional Phases1. Anchoring ExperienceStudents examine how a change to one biotic component of an ecosystem can have an effect on many other parts. Students view a video that illustrates how the reintroduction of wolves in a national park can cause a change in its rivers.
Resources Needed for this Instructional Phase:
Detailed Student Steps:- Individually, students respond to the following question: Can a wolf change a river?
- Students share their ideas with a partner. Pairs share their ideas with the class.
- Students watch L07 Anchor Video 1.
Teacher Note: This is not an example of invasive species. Wolves are a native species within Yellowstone Park, but by the 1930’s humans had killed all the wolves. The killing of all the wolves is often considered a human caused disturbance. Reintroducing the wolves was also a human caused biological disturbance, it was a change to the biotic ecosystem that happened as a discrete event.
- Students share their observations with a group and then groups share their common observations with the class.
- Individually, students record their answers to the lesson question:
- What might be the effects of adding a new species to an ecosystem?
2. Uncover Your IdeasStudents create graphs in order to analyze plant species data for a wetland ecosystem. The data shows the effect of purple loosestrife on the number of other plant species found in a wetland area. Students identify the overall pattern in the data by drawing a line through their graphed data points.
Resources Needed for this Instructional Phase:
- Per Class
- Per Pair
- Teacher Resources
Detailed Student Steps:- Students observe the two images of the ecosystem shown on slide 2 of 6.6_L07_Slides_InvasivePlants. They are provided the following scenario:
The plants with the purple flowers shown in the second image are called purple loosestrife. Some people are concerned that the purple loosestrife is taking over the ecosystem and harming plants that normally grow there, causing them to disappear. A local politician argues that the purple loosestrife is not a problem and is not affecting other plant species. Rather, the purple loosestrife is taller and bigger than other plant species. All the other plants are still there, just harder to see.
- Students work in groups and develop a list of evidence that would explain how the purple loosestrife is problematic to the ecosystem. Groups share their ideas with the class.
- Pairs of students are provided a piece of graph paper and the student resource 6.6_L07_Uncover_Student_Data. Students create a graph of the data provided on the resource.
Teacher Note: If students are not familiar with a scatterplot, they may need some assistance determining which variables should be represented on each axis. For the data provided, students should label the x-axis as the percent of study area with purple loosestrife and the y-axis as the total number of plant species present. The data table provided on the student resource comes from a study of the impacts of purple loosestrife carried out in 2006. Following is the table as well as a graph of the data that was developed from the study.
| Percent of Study Area with Purple Loosestrife | Number of Plant Species Present |
|---|
| 17 | 42 |
| 18 | 32 |
| 22 | 20 |
| 45 | 20 |
| 65 | 8 |
| 85 | 5 |
| 92 | 6 |
Data estimated from Figure 5(a) in Schooler et al. 2006.
Teacher Note: As instructed on the student resource, after students complete plotting the data pairs on their graphs, they draw a single, straight line through the middle of the data points. This line should estimate the overall pattern and may differ slightly among students. Following is an example graph showing an example line.
Figure derived from data estimated from Schooler et al. 2006.
- In small groups, students reason by analyzing their graphs and discussing the overall pattern between percent cover of purple loosestrife and the number of other plant species that can be found in the wetland ecosystem and discuss questions in the table below.
Teacher Note: The student groups can put their initial explanations on whiteboards or large pieces of paper for sharing.
| Example Guiding Questions | Example Student Answers |
|---|
| What evidence did you gather about the relationship between the percent cover of purple loosestrife and the number of other plant species present in the wetland ecosystem? Make sure to support your explanation with the data you gathered and graphs you made. | Based on the graphs that we made as the percent of a study area covered by purple loosestrife increase the total number of plant species decreased. |
| Provide a statement in which you support or refute the politician’s claim “that purple loosestrife is not a problem because it does not actually reduce the number of species present.“ Support your statement with your analysis of the data. | The purple loosestrife is in fact a problem because the data we gathered shows that as the percent of the study area covered by purple loosestrife increased the total number of species found in the study area decreased. |
| Why do you think the number of other plant species responds the way it does to the presence of purple loosestrife? What type of interaction could be happening between the purple loosestrife and the other plant species? | Purple loosestrife is a strong competitor and uses up resources before the other plants can use them. |
- In small groups, students use their observations to derive an initial argument about how the politician’s claim is supported by the evidence on the graph and record their initial reasoning in the 6.6_L07_Uncover_Student_Data resource.
- Students refer to row A. “What activity did we do?” and row B. “What evidence did we gather?” on the 6.6_UnitSummaryTable_Student Version. Note that students will enter information into the one-page Unit Summary Table after the Uncover, Share and Connect phases of lessons 2-8.
Teacher Note: To save time, these two rows can be partially or completely filled in by the teacher prior to teaching the unit, or can be filled in by the students. Example entries can be found in the
6.6_UnitSummaryTable_TeacherVersion (note these entries are not necessarily in student language).
3. Share Your IdeasStudents interpret the graphs and trend lines they developed in the previous phase. They explain that as the area covered by purple loosestrife in the ecosystem increases, the number of native species decreases. Students are introduced to the science words: native species, nonnative species, and invasive species.
Resources Needed for this Instructional Phase:
- Per Class
- Teacher Resources
Detailed Student Steps:- The student groups share their initial explanations to the questions in the previous phase by posting their whiteboards or verbally sharing their explanations. As student groups are sharing their explanations, focus the students to look for similarities and differences by using these questions.
- What similarities do you see in the explanations?
- What difference do you see in the explanations?
- In a consensus discussion, students craft a whole group explanation to the questions above based on the similarities that the students noticed. Also have them note the points that they do not agree on. As students bring up the concepts of native species, nonnative species, and invasive species, lead them to define these science words using questions similar to the following:
| Example Guiding Questions | Example Student Answers |
|---|
| What would you call a species that has naturally evolved in an area? | Native species |
| What would you call a species that migrates into, or is deliberately or accidentally introduced into an ecosystem? | Nonnative species |
| What would you call a non-native species that causes ecological or economic harm? | Invasive species |
Teacher Note: It is important to highlight to students the difference between a reduction in population size and the disappearance of native species from an ecosystem. At large scales (continents), native species are unlikely to disappear, as they are not frequently driven to extinction across their entire range by invasive species (though examples of extinctions do exist.) However, at smaller scales, native populations may disappear from some areas, or populations are reduced such that the number of species remains the same, but many of the native species persist as greatly reduced populations.
More information on purple loosestrife in Michigan can be found on the following website:
L07 Share Resource 1- If necessary, students use the definitions and additional information on slides 2-7 of the resource 6.6_L07_Slides_InvasivePlants to revise their explanations. Slides 2-5 provides students with following Science Word definitions:
Native species: species that have naturally evolved in an area.
Nonnative species: other species that migrate into, or are deliberately or accidentally introduced into an ecosystem.
Invasive species: species that cause ecological or economic harm.
- The class discusses why purple loosestrife is an invasive species:
| Example Guiding Question | Example Student Answer |
|---|
| Why might purple loosestrife tend to become the most common species in areas where it has been introduced? Make sure to use the science words of native, non-native and invasive species in our answer. | Purple loosestrife is an effective competitor for resources compared to other plant species. In addition, there are no native species that feed on purple loosestrife. |
- Students are given the lesson’s Gotta Have Checklist (GHC), and/or the teacher facilitates the students to work on their GHC.
- Students use the GHC to make sure the class explanation from Step 3 includes the key concepts and relationships found in the GHC. Students revise the explanation as needed and record the revised explanation in row C. “My answer to the lesson question(s):” on the 6.6_UnitSummaryTable_Student Version. The Unit Summary Table supports students to construct an explanation for the lesson question(s) by organizing the question(s), details of the investigation conducted, and the evidence gathered, all on one sheet.
Teacher Note: Example entries can be found in the
6.6_UnitSummaryTable_TeacherVersion (note these entries are not necessarily in student language). Students should use the science words of native, non-native and invasive species in the answer to the lesson question in the Unit Summary Table.
4. Connect Your Ideas (Connection to the Unit Challenge)Students work in their Unit Challenge ecosystem teams to gather information on an invasive species that has the potential to impact their ecosystem. Students learn about the invasive species by reading an informational fact sheet that describes how the species lives and the resources it needs. Students use the information to predict how the invasive species could impact organisms that are native to the ecosystem.
Resources Needed for this Instructional Phase:
- Per Team
- Part 2 Team Unit Challenge Organizer - one ecosystem per team
- Teacher Resources
Detailed Student Steps:- Students meet with their Unit Challenge ecosystem teams. Each team is provided with the appropriate fact sheet that describes an invasive species that can be found in its ecosystem. Invasive Species Fact sheets are provided in their Part 2 Team Unit Challenge Organizer.
- Students obtain information from their fact sheets. They identify the following:
- The common and scientific name of the invasive species;
- Where the species originates;
- Where it can be found;
- Why it is (or could be) successful at invading Michigan ecosystems;
- What effect it may have on native species ( e.g. Hemlock wooly adelgid kills Hemlock trees.)
- Each student in a team uses information from their fact sheet to predict the immediate and long term impacts of the invasive species on their assigned organism as well as the whole ecosystem. Students record their predictions.
Teacher Note: At this time, some students may think that their organism is unaffected by the invasive species. As students discuss the invasive species with their ecosystem teams they begin to identify potential impacts. Students who think there is no impact should record why they think their organism would be unaffected.
- As a team, students compare individual predictions as to how the introduction of an invasive species might affect their organisms.
- Teams use the Invasive Species Prediction Chart in their Part 2 Team Unit Challenge Organize to record their ideas.
- Teams share with the class their predictions for the effects of the invasive on their ecosystem.
- Students complete row D “Connecting my ideas to the Unit Challenge”, on the 6.6_UnitSummaryTable_Student Version. Students modify their scientific explanations to address the lesson question(s) in the context of the Unit Challenge, based on the Connecting Your Ideas investigation and using the lesson “Gotta Have Checklist” and key concepts as a reference.
Teacher Note: Example entries can be found in the 6.6_UnitSummaryTable_TeacherVersion (note these entries are not necessarily in student language).
5. Check Your Progress- Students are provided with data of how an invasive species is affecting a hypothetical ecosystem. They analyze the data and determine if the invasive species has had an effect on native species. They use patterns in the provided data to support or refute a scientist’s claim using evidence. Finally, students will revisit the lesson question and reflect on how their understanding of the lesson question has changed.
Resources Needed for this Instructional Phase:
Detailed Student Steps:- Students individually analyze data to determine the impact of the Snark, a hypothetical invasive species. Lesson 7 EA2 - Student includes a graph that shows the relationship between the Snark population and the number of native species in the area. Students use the graph to answer the questions.
Teacher Note: Read the directions and scenario to students. The intent of the EA is to assess students’ ability to interpret graphs rather than assessing reading comprehension.
- Individually, students record and/or refine their answers to the lesson questions a second time using the “Gotta Have Checklist” and an evidence-based explanation:
- What might be the effects of adding a new species to an ecosystem?
- Students refer back to the initial answers that they recorded in the Anchoring Experience phase and respond to a prompt similar to the following:
- Explain how the activities in this lesson confirmed, challenged, or otherwise changed your original ideas about the lesson question.
Sources:- Schooler, S. S., P. E. McEvoy, and E. M. Coombs. 2006. Negative per capita effects of purple loosestrife and reed canary grass on plant diversity of wetland communities. Diversity and Distributions 12:351-363
- Pimentel, D., Zuniga, R., & Morrison, D. (2005). Update on the environmental and economic costs associated with alien-invasive species in the United States. Ecological economics, 52(3), 273-288.
Contributed Files
- Invasive Snark modified (.docx) Oct 14, 2020 10:15am by
I teach students how to use ExCel to generate graphs therefore I opted to modify this assignment (as well as Purple Loosestrife) to have students insert an ExCel graph.
Also, because I am having students submit work online (Schoology) I have them type their answers in RED so I can find answers more quickly to the work. I insert a red dot or red line for them to type so they do not have to remember to change font color.
Contribute a resource to this lesson
Upload a student guide, powerpoint, image, or other resource below to share it with others who are implementing the lesson.
Mi-STAR has recently retired the “comment” feature in order to support you better. Please connect below:
-
Helpline/Support
- get direct help from Mi-STAR’s experts; please allow up to 1-2 business days for a response
-
Feedback
- give Mi-STAR feedback about the program
