Ecology and Evolution: Islands of Change

Richard Benz

Jan 2000 · NSTA Press

About this ebook

This book was designed for middle and junior high school science classes and focuses on island biogeography, ecology, and evolution. Sections include: (1) "Galapagos: Frame of Reference"; (2) "Ecology and Islands"; and (3) "Evolution." Nineteen standards-based activities use the Galapagos Islands as a running theme but are designed to help students make connections to their local environments. In addition to linking to the National Science Education Standards, each activity has assessment suggestions, rubrics, and Internet extensions through the National Science Teachers Association's (NSTA) SciLinks program. Using hands-on activities, games, and research suggestions, students learn how the factors that shape evolutionary processes--adaptation and natural selection--are influenced by ecological pressures. The complex relationship between ecology and evolution is demonstrated and reiterated throughout the book. The activities demonstrate how islands are formed and the role currents play in weather patterns, which in turn affect the climate and the life forms that can survive. Students make food webs under a variety of circumstances, both for a Galapagos marine environment as well as their own local community, then modify those food webs based on factors such as changes in climate (El Nino, for example) or the introduction of competitive alien species. Plant and animal biodiversity and dependent relationships within an ecosystem are discussed in detail. (CCM)