Where are all of the pollinators going?

1. Sarah Davitt Central Academy in Des Moines, IA sarah.davitt@dmschools.org http://davittsa.wordpress.com/ Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, IA Where are all of the pollinators going? Summary: This project was developed for students in middle school; however, it will be easily modified to fit students in high school or AP Biology as well. Students will be given the challenge of designing a plan to help increase the number of pollinators and presenting it to local conservationists. Throughout this PBL unit, they will have the ability to learn about predator/prey interactions, different trophic levels, how resource availability will effect a population, and they will be able to create their own solution to a growing environmental problem. Driving/Essential Question(s): The main driving question for this project is: How can we, as Conservationists, try to increase the number of pollinators throughout America? Over the course of the project, students should try to work to achieve the following “need-to-know” questions (although this seems like a definitive list, the teacher should try and create the actual list with their students): (1) What are the different trophic levels (2) What are energy pyramids and what do they represent? (3) How do predator/prey interactions change a population over time? (4) Why and pollinators important for our society and why are their populations decreasing at alarming rates? (5) What can we (you and I) do to protect them? Targeted Standards and/or Skills: All of the following are from Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) MS-LS1-5 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms 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-LS2-3 Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations MS-ES3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing human impact on the environment MS-ES3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems Procedures: This project was developed to be approximately two weeks. During this unit, students will be asked to do a variety of things to help develop their overall understanding of Community Ecology, understand how humans can negatively impact ecosystems, and bring attention to the fact that our pollinators are decreasing throughout America. Students will start with an entry event that will help bring attention to how much pollinators do for us and will help the teacher introduce the project to his/her students. Then, they will move into an activity in which they answer their own need-to-knows (developed as a team with the teacher leading). Then, they will undergo a predator/prey simulation in order to better understand the interactions between populations and how that will even effect other populations in the food web. Then, students will read and answer questions about an article to help them formulate a plan for the final project: to design a plan to help increase pollinator populations.