Virtual Galápagos
Unit 3 Lesson 4: Ecosystem Engineer
Tortoise Curriculum Lesson Plan
LEARNING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:
- Goal 1: Students will be able to understand what an ecosystem engineer is.
- Goal 2: Students will be able to provide an example of an ecosystem that includes an ecosystem engineer.
STANDARDS
Next Generation Science Standards
- 3-LS4-4: Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem cause when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
- Ecosystem Engineer: An organism that can maintain, modify, create, or destroy an environment.
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
- Students should be familiar with habitats and ecosystems. Students should know how to use a ruler.
ADVANCE PREP FOR TEACHER KNOWLEDGE
Tortoises are ecosystem engineers because they can modify and maintain their ecosystem. Tortoises eat vegetation, and as they walk around, they create little trenches in the soil owing to the weight of their large bodies. During digestion, tortoises are creating the perfect environment in their digestive system for germinating seeds. By walking around, creating trenches in the soil, and excreting waste the tortoise is creating an environment to plant new seeds. In the case of the Opuntia cactus, however, only the saddleback tortoise can reach the prickly pear fruit, so the saddleback tortoise is an ecosystem engineer for the Opuntia cactus.
A useful description of efforts in Galápagos to increase the population of endangered Opuntia cacti on Española island and the role of giant tortoises in this project is located here. Another article about the importance of tortoises and Opuntia cacti to each other’s survival is located here.
MATERIALS AND SETUP
- Virtual Galápagos Ecosystem Dynamics Module
- Virtual Galápagos Fieldbook
- Suggested materials for diorama activity:
- Shoebox
- Glue
- Construction paper
- Scissors
- Coloring utensils
- Popsicle sticks
- Other classroom materials
LESSON SEQUENCE
ENGAGE
- Students watch videos and examine photos of Galápagos tortoises eating, walking, and interacting with their habitats, making a list of things they do that could affect their environment.
- Link to list of videos of tortoises moving around in their environments
- Worksheet title: Galápagos Tortoises in their Environments
EXPLORE
- Students now make claims about how each of the actions they documented by tortoises on their environment may affect the environment in the longer term.
EXPLAIN
- Students watch the ecosystem engineer video, in which the concept of Galápagos tortoises as important components in ecosystem building and maintenance is introduced.
ELABORATE
- Students measure the neck length of both Becki and Tomás to determine which tortoise is the better ecosystem engineer for the Opuntia cactus.
- Students return to their original claim to explain the tortoise shell shape mystery and amend it with new information they have learned in this module.
EVALUATE
- Students return to their original diorama from the beginning of this module.
- Now, they use a checklist to include abiotic factors, biotic factors, an ecosystem engineer, and a food chain in their model.
- Worksheet title: Ecosystem Diorama (part 2)
- Ecosystem engineer examples are included in the Teacher’s Copy for this activity.
- Students can also carry out supplemental research on plants in their own environments.
- Students can watch a video that summarizes the content of the Ecosystem Dynamics module.
DIFFERENTIATION
- For students who cannot go outside, the teacher will be provided with images of ecosystems that students can use as models for their dioramas.
- Students can use sentence starters to talk about their model.
ASSESSMENT
- Students revisit their original diorama from earlier in the lesson.
- Now, they will use a checklist given in the fieldbook to include abiotic factors, biotic factors, a primary source of energy, primary producers and consumers, secondary consumers, decomposers, and an ecosystem engineer in their model.
- Students should be able to identify and draw a food chain they might find in their ecosystem in the corresponding handout.
- Students should be able to describe their ecosystem engineer by stating some of its traits, how the ecosystem engineer modifies, maintains, creates, or destroys its ecosystem, and how the ecosystem engineer affects other living things in the ecosystem.
- Students are given questions in the handout to guide them in describing their ecosystem engineer.
This unit was designed by Sarah Jekel and Krelyn Zacarias, and edited by Ava Wojtaszek and Sarah Jekel.
You can download the lesson plan here:
Virtual Galápagos
virtualgalapagos.colgate.edu
