Background 4 : Student Experience Lesson - Systems Study

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(1)Student Experience LESSON: Systems Study. EXPEDITION: YELLOWSTONE! STaRRS. Student Experience LESSON: Systems Study When In the classroom prior to the expedition Disciplines Earth Systems Science, Ecology Description This lesson helps students observe, integrate and articulate their knowledge of a familiar earth system by considering how the different parts of the system interact to keep it in balance. Students first explore the word “system” and then apply the concept of systems to a familiar natural environment. Students will create a collage that is a representation of this system through discussion, further inquiry, and investigation. Learner outcomes The student will: • Identify major components of a familiar, natural system. • Infer and discuss the connections between the atmospheric, biological, and geological features in the system. • Predict how the absence of abundance of these features might affect the balance of the system. • Apply this knowledge as they consider other earth systems.. Materials • Blank bulletin board • Paper, white, & colored construction paper • Pencils, markers, crayons, scissors • Paper tubes, cotton balls, etc. Optional: nature magazines and periodicals with nature photos Background “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” This particular concept is the most important take-home concept of this lesson. Although students are asked to identify and label the components of the system, the key message is that it is the interactions of all these components that make the system what it is. This lesson was originally designed by Jean Trabue Kosky for a lower elementary class, but the concepts are extremely valuable at all levels, and the complexity of the systems you choose to discuss will depend on the needs of your students..

(2) Student Experience LESSON: Systems Study. EXPEDITION: YELLOWSTONE! STaRRS. Suggested procedure The teacher will: 1. Allow students time to explore a natural site near their school. Choose a place that students have previous studied or are familiar with, such as a park, riparian area, or other natural area. (Note: For this lesson 2nd grade students studied an area of trees in Central Park in New York City as the system and it is used in the examples below.) 2. Introduce “system”. • Help students individually identify the meaning and use it in a sentence. • Encourage student discussion about the meanings of the word and create a class definition for the word. • Guide students into a discussion of the Central Park tree area as a system. 3. Ask students to brainstorm components of their tree system • Once ideas begin to flow, show students the blank bulletin board and tell them they are going to recreate the system on the board by adding elements of the system. ºº This could eve be done on the computer using PowerPoint or Picasa (using their collage feature). • Give students the materials and allow free expression. 4. Return to the project several times over the course of the study as students revisit the tree area and think more deeply about the system. Eventually the board should contain various components of the system. Some examples include plants such as: trees, grass, grasses and forbs; animals such as: birds, insects, worms, and squirrels; atmospheric conditions such as: rain, , sun, clouds, and wind; abiotic and biotic processes such as: rocks, soil, leaf debris and, of course, evidence of human intervention (including pollution).. • Older students can take the lesson to a higher level by adding in chemistry. They may look at the pH or nitrogen levels of the water, and/or study any chemicals made by plants and animals that may alter the system. • Adding the study of microbial communities to the system (any system) would also make this lesson more advanced..

(3) Student Experience LESSON: Systems Study. EXPEDITION: YELLOWSTONE! STaRRS. 5. Conclude project with a discussion using “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” as a theme. Here are some guiding questions: • How do the various parts of the system affect each other? • How does change in one part of the system affect the entire system? • How do humans affect the system? • How does this system might relate to other natural systems (Central Park, Hudson River, larger land systems)? Possible Assessment: Have students make a mind-map of the system and show arrowed and labeled connections throughout the system. It is best if a rubric is made and shown to the students ahead of time to help set the framework and expectations for the assessment. Inspiration® is a graphic-organizing software that can be used for this type of assessment. Extensions: 1. Classroom aquariums and terrariums can be studied through the lens of systems. (Resource: http://www.bottlebiology.org/, http://lawrencehallofscience.org/gems/GEM360.html) 2. Decay and decomposers as they relate to soil could be added to the system study. 3. Weather as it affects natural systems: hurricanes, earthquakes, global climate change could be included in the study. 4. Collection of data could be conducted about a system over time. (For example, photographic data that can be compared and contrasted in many ways. Quantitative data, such as number of plants, insects, etc. and qualitative data, such as descriptions of the system) Create a PowerPoint or SB Notebook file of the project. Students can add their own words and photos of the system as they explain the interrelationships..

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