Ecology of Isle Royale and Grand Blanc

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=56 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="011a0a03.jpg"> <div> Ecology of Isle Royale and Grand Blanc</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=135 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="21fa0c01dduajq.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Educators Science and Math Institute Ser"><U><B>Educators' Science and Math Institute Series</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About the Series"><U><B>About the Series</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id117.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Goals"><U><B>Goals</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Institutes"><U><B>Institutes</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="lesson_plans_prepared_by_esmis_participants_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lesson Plans"><U><B>Lesson Plans</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id138.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Albums"><U><B>Photo Albums</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.ed.mtu.edu/search.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.ed.mtu.edu/search.htm"><U><B>Search</B></U></A><A HREF="http://www.ed.mtu.edu/search.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.ed.mtu.edu/search.htm"><U><B> ESMIS</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=424 BGCOLOR="#EEEEEE" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Title</B>:  Learning about and comparing the ecology of Isle Royale and Grand Blanc</div> <div> <B>Submitted by:</B>  Scott Brumwell</div> <div> <B>Class:</B>  Isle Royale Institute - 2002</div> <div> <B>Professor:</B>  Dr. Mary Hindelang </div> <bR> <bR> <div> Most students have some awareness of feeding relationships in the wild.  They may not, however, be aware of the sensitivity of predator/prey relationships to population shifts and various environmental influences.  The following activities take place at the end of a unit on ecology and ecosystems.  The overall objective is for students to gain a deep understanding of ecological balance and the sensitive relationships among organisms within an ecosystem.</div> <bR> <div> These activities address the following Michigan elementary science benchmarks:</div> <bR> <div> C e-1        Generate questions about the world based on observation</div> <div> C e-2        Develop solutions to problems based on reasoning, observation and  </div> <div>               investigation.</div> <div> C e-5        Develop strategies and skills for information gathering and problem</div> <div>               solving.</div> <div> R e-1        Develop an awareness of the need for evidence in making decisions</div> <div>               scientifically.</div> <div> R e-4        Develop an awareness of and sensitivity to the natural world.</div> <div> LO e-4   Compare and contrast food, energy and environmental needs of</div> <div>               selected organisms. </div> <div> LEC e-1 I.D. familiar organisms as part of a food chain or food web and describe</div> <div>          their feeding relationships within the web. </div> <div> LEC e-4  Describe positive and negative effects of humans on the environment.</div> <bR> <div> Background information:  Students will have participated in an investigation of a predator/prey relationship prior to the lesson on the ecology of Isle Royale.  The predator/prey relationship is taught using a game.  The goal of the game is to establish ecological balance within a system students are familiar with.  The game involves owls as the predator and mice as the prey and takes place on a hypothetical farm on which corn is the major crop.  </div> <bR> <div> <B>Activity 1 - Owl and Mouse Predator/Prey Game</B></div> <bR> <div> Game Play - during the first round, an abundance of mouse food (popcorn) is spread out on the gym floor.  All students are assigned the role of mice and told they need 20 units of food to survive the day.  On cue, the mice are told to gather food.  Inevitably, they all succeed in surviving the first day.  Round two (day two) proceeds the same way.  At the end of day two, students are debriefed and asked the following questions:</div> <bR> <div> Teacher: “Everyone has survived day two, this is good.  What is happening to our food resources?”</div> <div> Students: “They are being depleted.”</div> <div> Teacher: “What will eventually happen if the food source does not regenerate?”</div> <div> Students: “The mice will starve!”</div> <div> Teacher: “Are there any other options?”</div> <div> The students will have already read the book <U>Poppy</U> in which a mouse family has to relocate because of scarce food supply.  Someone will state the idea that the mice may simply relocate to another food source. </div> <div> Teacher: “We will assume that on this farm, there is enough food to continue to sustain the mouse population.”</div> <bR> <div> At this point in the game, the predators are introduced.  Five students are assigned the role of an owl.  They are instructed that they need three units of food to survive a day.  A food unit for an owl is, of course, a mouse.  The game is played again, this time with the mice gathering food units (popcorn) and the owls gathering food units as well (mice).  As the mice run around gathering food, Owls hunt and capture their prey by tagging the mice.  After the game, students are again debriefed.</div> <bR> <div> Teacher: “Have all owls survived?”</div> <div> Students: “Yes.”</div> <div> Teacher: “Should we move on to day two?”</div> <bR> <div> Students will realize that all owls will not have enough food units available to survive day two.  At this point in the game, the concept of ecological balance is introduced.  Students are asked to assign a number of owls to the system that they think will enable the system to sustain itself.  Students will usually suggest 1-3 owls.  When asked what happened to the owls that are left out, students will say they died or relocated.  Game play resumes and students see that the system is more sustainable when the number of predators is reduced.  The students are debriefed a final time.</div> <bR> <div> During the ensuing discussion, it's important that students realize the system is still not indefinitely sustainable.  They should propose the idea of mouse reproduction as a way for the system to maintain balance.  </div> <bR> <div> In a written, post-assessment, students are asked to hypothesize how a limited or an abundant food supply for either the mice or the owls will affect the system.  Students are asked questions about other possible effects on the system such as pesticides that harm the owl population, disease that may decimate the mouse population or the possibility that the farmer's fields are left fallow for a season.  This activity sets the stage for a study of the Isle Royale ecosystem.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>How Many Moose Does it Take to Feed a Wolf?</B></div> <div> <B>A fifth grade activity on the primary predator/prey relationship on</B> </div> <div> <B>Isle Royale</B></div> <bR> <div> Objective:  Students will learn about the moose/wolf relationship on Isle Royale through teacher presentation, graph analysis and informational reading.</div> <div> The following activity requires children to use their understanding of predator/prey relationships and ecological balance to investigate the primary predator/prey relationship on Isle Royale.  The attached PowerPoint slide show and anecdotal information from the teacher introduce students to the island and the organisms found there.  After the initial presentation, students are asked to reflect in their science journals on the following questions:</div> <bR> <div> What types of predator/prey relationships are likely to be found on the island?</div> <bR> <div> What might a food web of the islands organisms look like?</div> <bR> <div> <B>Activity 2 - Primary predator/prey relationship on Isle Royale.  </B></div> <bR> <div> Students are informed that a unique feature of Isle Royale ecology is the interaction between the wolf and moose populations on the island.  Students are asked to view the wolf/moose interaction in terms of the owl/mice interactions from the previous activity.  They are told that balsam fir is the moose's primary food.  </div> <bR> <div> In small group discussion, students are asked to hypothesize about the interrelatedness of the moose and wolf populations.  The following lead questions will help students consider the many aspects of the moose/wolf relationship.  </div> <bR> <div> How many wolves do you think are on the island?</div> <div> How many moose?</div> <div> Would animal eating habits change from season to season? How?</div> <div> How many moose does a population of wolves need in order to survive?</div> <div> What would you guess the rate of reproduction is for moose? Wolves?</div> <div> What may cause moose to experience limited or scarce food resources? Wolves?</div> <bR> <div> After a large group discussion, students will use the internet in an open-ended research activity to try and answer the above questions and find other relevant information.  Findings will be discussed, again, in a large group forum.  Next, students are shown the “Moose-Wolf Populations 1959-2000” graph and asked to write informed hypotheses to the following questions in their science journals:</div> <bR> <div> What do you notice about the trend in both wolf and moose populations from about 1973 to about 1980?  What is the possible relationship between the trends?</div> <bR> <div> What happened to the wolf population from about 1980 to about 1982?  What may have caused this?  How may this population change have affected the moose population?</div> <bR> <div> What happened to the moose population between about 1995 and 1997?  How might this have effected the wolf population?</div> <bR> <div> What else do you notice about the graph?  What questions do you have about changes in the populations?  Is there sustained ecological balance in this system?</div> <bR> <div> This provides an opportunity for students to analyze the graph and draw conclusions based on data. Students are reminded of the possible effects disease, limited food resources and human actions may have on an ecosystem.  </div> <bR> <div> The culmination to this activity is an informational reading assignment.  Students are given the “Isle Royale Wilderness World” article as an informational reading selection.  Students should be able to draw conclusions about the graph data from the article and their knowledge about predator/prey relationships.  In discussion afterwards, students are told about canine parvovirus and it's effect on the wolf population in the early `80's and the effect of the severe winters of '96 and '97 on the moose population.  Children will need to use the information gained from this activity in activity three.  </div> <bR> <div> <B>Activity 3 - Grand Blanc and Isle Royale Ecosystem Comparison.</B></div> <bR> <div> Earlier in this unit students will have constructed a “neighborhood food web” based on organisms found in the immediate school/neighborhood environment.  Grand Blanc is a rural/farming turned suburb community.  Students are able to observe an abundance of raccoon, rabbits and skunks in our area.  Most students know there are deer in our community and some may know there are fox in the outlying areas where we live.  When we study our neighborhood ecosystems, we talk about the abundance of rodent/scavengers and lack of predators.  We also discuss human's impact on this system, not as predator or prey, but as providing food sources for the scavenger/rodent populations.  Human development is discussed as a limiting factor for large mammals in the area.   </div> <bR> <div> As a unit culmination, students are asked to compare and contrast the ecosystems of Isle Royale and Grand Blanc.  In small groups, students are asked to create a large Venn diagram comparing the two ecosystems.  Students are asked to compare the following attributes of both environments:</div> <bR> <div>      Geography of each area</div> <div>      Organisms found in each area</div> <div>      Interrelatedness of organisms in the food web of each area</div> <div>      Human impact on each system</div> <div>      </div> <div> In a final written explanation of the Venn diagram, students are asked what factors contribute to or hinder the survival of organisms in each ecosystem.  This piece of writing serves as the final assessment for these three activities.  Students writing should be thorough and site at least three factors that contribute to or hinder the survival of organisms in each ecosystem.  </div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>