UBD U NIT P LAN O VERVIEW

Unit Topic: Biological Communities

Concept(s): Change over time,

Relationships
Designed By: Julia DiMarco
Subject Area(s): Life Science

Grade Level(s): Grade Seven

Brief Summary of Unit (Including information about the class/students, why the
unit is important to teach, and where it falls in the scope of instruction)
Students will be learning about biological communities and the complex interactions
different populations and ecosystems go through. This unit is important to teach
because students need to know that humans as well as all living things rely on each
other for life, and for balance. With this unit students will gain a basic
understanding of how species survive and thrive in our environment due to
relationships. This unit is important because it will come before several other units
about the earth, for example learning about different climates, biomes, food
production and harvest, climate change and finally natural selection and evolution.
This unit will provide the basis of understanding that the earth is full of organisms
that interact in relationships, and that organisms population will change over time.
Established Goals (State Standards and related CCSS)
LS. 8 The student will investigate and understand interactions among populations in
a biological community. Key concepts include
A. the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in food
webs;
B. the relationship between predators and prey;
C. competition and cooperation
D. symbiotic relationships; and
E. niches

S TA G E 1: Unit Objectives (KUDs) & Essential Questions

As a result of this unit of instruction, students will
Meaning
Understand THAT

Students will understand that

populations rely on one another
through a series of interactions
needed to sustain life (1)
Students will understand that
species have become specialized
over time to occupy niches (2)
Students will understand that
organisms can directly benefit
from other organisms in symbiotic
relationships (3)
Students will understand that

Explore these ESSENTIAL

QUESTIONS
1. How are organisms dependent on
each other?
2. Why do organisms occupy niches?
3. Why do animals form symbiotic
relationships?
4. Why are predator/prey
relationships important to
populations?
5. What kind of factors can affect
predator/prey relationships?

predator, prey relationships are

necessary to keep populations
from going extinct (4)
Students will understand that
there are many factors that can
interrupt the predator/prey
relationship (5)

Know

Acquisition
Be able to (Doinclude Blooms)

Students will know the following terms:

Biological Community (1)

Habitat (2)
Population (3)
o Population density
Predator (4)
Prey (5)
Predator and prey relationship (6)
Food webs (7)
Food chains (8)
Trophic levels (9)
o Producers
o Consumers
o Decomposers
Symbiotic relationship (10)
o Symbiosis
o Host & Symbiont
o Mutualism
o Parasitism
o Commensalism
Ecological niche (11)
o Biotic factors
o Abiotic factors
Competition (12)
o Competitive exclusion
principle
o Resource
o Carrying capacity
Cooperation (13)

Students will be able to classify

relationships between species
(Understanding) (1)
Students will be able to
summarize the trophic levels of
food webs and their defining roles
(Remembering) (2)
Students will be able to predict
problems that will arise in
biological communities if
relationships between populations
are forced to change (Analyzing)
(3)
Students will be able to explain
why populations rise and fall
(Understanding) (4)
Students will be able to explain
outside factors that can affect
predator/prey relationships
(Understanding) (5)
Students will be able to infer how
humans fit into a biological
community (Applying) (6)

S TA G E 2: A SS E SS M E N T E V I D E N CE
Performance Assessment: What will students do to show that they have
achieved the objectives?

Goal: Students will be assigned a final project. This project requires students to
invent a new animal that will be introduced to planet earth.
Role: The inventors will have to write a paper explaining the physical characteristics
of the animal as well as determine its predators, its prey, and its position on a food
chain, trophic level, the resources it requires, other species it will compete with, and
one type of symbiotic relationship it is involved in.
Audience: Students will be presenting their animal model to their classmates.
Students will be required to explain the different attributes to their animals, and
how and why their animal will survive in its biological community.
Situation: Students will have to invent a new species of animal that will be
introduced onto planet earth. However, they cannot just invent any animal, the
animal needs to have a role in a biological community, and students must be
confident in the animals chances of survival.
Performance/Product: The students will make a three-dimensional model of the
animal they invent. The animal can be made from any variety of household items.
(For example, paper mache, paint, Styrofoam, cardboard, pipe cleaners, cloth,
buttons, feathers, etc.) They will write a paper answering all the questions from the
project prompt.

Other Evidence: What formative (ongoing) assessments are used?

1. In three of the five lessons students will be using Journals to answer questions. I will be
able to read over their entries after class and assess how effective my lessons were at
transferring the correct knowledge. I can use their responses to gauge where they are in
their understanding, and see what information I may need to go over.
2. In my lesson on predators and prey, every student will use an index card with an arrow
pointed up or down to answer whether population will increase or decrease in certain
situations. I will be able to see if the entire class is up to speed with what we are learning
and doing.
3. In a couple of my lessons, I will also be taking class votes. Through having every single
student place a vote, I can see which students and getting it and which students are maybe
not getting it.
4. In my lesson about food webs/chains, students will be presenting the food web that they
made on a poster board. During this presentation, every group member will be required to
speak, making sure that every student is engaged in the activity, and learning.
5. In my lesson on food webs/chains, there is a moment in the beginning of class where
students will turn and discuss with their elbow partners.
6. In several of my lessons, while groups are discussing or working on their activities or
worksheets I will be walking around the classroom. I will make an effort to check in and
listen to every group to try and see what students really understand concepts, and which
students are struggling.

Stage 3 Lesson Planning Guide MSSE 370

Lesson #
and Topic

Learn
ing
Goals
KUD

SOL

1) Biological
Communities

K 1-5
U1

LS. 8
intro

2) Food
webs/ chains

K 7-9
U1
D 2,6

LS. 8 A.

Brief Overview of the Teaching and Learning Activities for this

Lesson.
Include an explanation of how the Activities address the learning
goals
To hook students, I will randomly pass out a piece of paper to each
student that is blue, green or yellow. On the paper there will be a type
of organism. Students will then get into groups depending on the
color of their paper, and type of ecosystem they belong to. Students
with blue paper are part of an aquatic ecosystem, students with a
green paper are part of a rainforest ecosystem, and yellow paper
represents a desert ecosystem. Each group must brain storm and
come up with as many ideas as they can about how the different
organisms in their ecosystems connect or relate to each other in any
way. I will have three pieces of large pad paper on the board for each
three ecosystems to come write their ideas. Next I will read to the
class what each group wrote, and ask the kids if they have any more
ideas to add on to each piece of pad paper. Through this activity,
students will begin to see how plants, animals and all types of
organisms connect in biological communities in order to have life.
After this activity, I will give a PowerPoint explaining the basic
vocabulary of biological communities. Students will be given a
graphic organizer for guided note taking that they will continue to fill
out with vocabulary throughout the unit. Students finish class by
writing an exit slip in their journal that will help transition into the
next lesson day about food webs/chains. The question will be how
would humans be affected if all the sudden all plants and animals that
we can eat die.
First to hook students, I will have them individually answer couple
questions in their journals to initiate thinking. Questions like, what do
we eat every day, what do the things we eat, eat themselves, what
happens to us when we die, animals die, plants die? After students

How Formatively Assessed

Describe at least 1 Concrete method and
explain how it assesses the learning goals.

By using an exit slip after this

lesson, I will be able to read a
response from each student, making
sure they are on track with the
beginning of this unit. The Exit slip
question will get students thinking
about the idea of populations relying
on one another in order to sustain
life. For example, humans rely on
plants and animals as our source of
food, which gives us life.

By having students journal at the

beginning class, and walking around
listening while they discuss with
their elbow partners, I will have a

write in their journals, they will talk with their elbow partners about
what they wrote, as I walk around the class. I will then present an
informational PowerPoint about food webs/chains and their trophic
levels. Students will take notes in their graphic organizer, for guided
note taking. I will then put the class into groups, and they will make
their own food webs. Each group will be given a different food
web/chain with components to cut out color and classify (trophic
levels) on a poster board. They will have to connect each component,
making a web or chain. Then each group (every student has to
participate in the presentation) will have to share with the class what
they came up with.
3) Predator
vs. Prey

K 4-6,
12
U 4,5
D 3-6

LS. 8 B.

Initially I will give students the question, Is it important for both

predators and prey to exist and why. Then I will conduct a guided
simulation where students will role-play as different populations.
Nature sounds will be played throughout the simulation. Through the
simulation students will see why and how populations rise and fall
due to natural causes such as disease or competition, human
interference, or natural disasters. After the simulation I will post
several different situations on the board and ask each student to
predict if the situation will cause a specific population to rise or fall.
They will indicate what they think by holding an up or down arrow
index card. I will then show a PowerPoint that will go over what we
just did in class, explain the vocabulary terms we learned through the
simulation, for example predator, prey, competition, competitive
exclusion principle, resource, and carrying capacity. They will be
given a graphic organizer to fill out and take notes on while I am
presenting. To end the class, students will write a response in their
journals to the same question I asked at the beginning of class.

4) Niches

K 11
U3
D3

LS. 8 E.

First, students will be given a grade seven friendly article to read

individually. In general, the article will explain how in biological
communities populations have limited resources and therefore must

solid pre assessment of what they

already know about food chains and
the different parts of them. This will
help me understand how in depth I
need to go into our vocabulary terms
during the informational
PowerPoint. Also by having each
student participate in making, and
presenting a food web, I can see if
every student is actively involved
and understanding the levels of the
food chain.
Formative assessment is used when I
will have each student predict
whether population will rise or fall
in certain scenarios with their index
card. Since each student will answer
I will be able to see if the whole
class understands how and why
populations are affected in different
ways. Part of the goal of the
simulation is to show students why
both predator and prey are necessary
to control population growth and use
of resources in biological
communities. By having the each
student journal at the end of class I
will be able to asses if that message
was transferred to students
successfully.
Walking around the classroom, I will
make sure to check with every group
to see if they understand what a

5) Symbiotic
relationships

K 10,
13
U2
D1

LS. 8 D.

occupy niches in order to survive. It will also explain how no two

organisms can hold the same niche. After reading the article, students
will complete a worksheet with a few questions that go along with
the article with one or two partners. I will walk around, observe and
answer any questions students may have. Students will also have to
fill in the new terms they learned from the article to their graphic
organizers. Next, we will play a game called Are You My Niche as
a class. On a PowerPoint I will have a type of animal and I will
present two different ecological niches, and students will have to
guess which one belongs to that animal through a vote. For some of
the rounds, I will make the niches somewhat similar in order to show
some niches are similar but never exactly the same. I will have the
game prepared for several different animals, and play the game until
the bell rings.
This lesson will start off with a brief introduction of vocabulary, and
students will fill in their graphic organizer with definitions from the
lecture. Words such as symbiosis, mutualism, parasitism, and
commensalism will be explained and defined. Students will then
make their own graphic organizer with a square for mutualism,
parasitism, and commensalism, and a space to write multiple
examples for each. I will then show a video about symbiosis in coral
reefs, and students will write examples in the appropriate square. (Ex;
clown fish and anemones, coral and algae, Christmas tree worms and
plant life, Remora fish, and whale sharks) I will then put more
common examples on the board, such as ticks on cattle, fleas on our
dogs, flowers and honeybees, humans taking cows milk, and
mosquitoes and humans. We will have class discussion/debate for
each different relationship trying to decide what type of symbiotic
relationship is taking place. We will then take a vote to classify each
relationship, by a show of hands. After each vote is concluded,
someone will have to justify why the class voted the way they did.
The last activity of the lesson will be for the students to try to come
up with another symbiotic relationship that we wont have talked

niche is, and why species specialize

over time to occupy them, from the
reading alone. This will help me
make sure the reading is at the
appropriate level and getting across
the proper information. During the
game, each student will have to vote
each round, which ensures full
participation, while giving me a
chance to see what every student is
thinking. This game will also show
how important it is to know that no
two species can hold the same niche
successfully.
After getting some examples of each
type of symbiosis through the video,
students will then be given more
examples but will have to classify
the relationships themselves. They
will have to do this as a class by
discussing/ debating and then taking
a vote. By having everyone
participate in class discussion and a
final vote, each students opinion
will be seen and heard. By having an
exit journal, I will also be able to see
if students can take this lesson and
come up with their own example,
which should be somewhat easy if
they really understood the lesson.

about yet, and record it in their journals.

Unit Reflection
In 2-3 paragraphs, describe (being as specific as possible) how your interactions with your 371 student
influenced the design of this unit. Remember that a deep understanding of both students and content drives
instructional design, and so your response should show evidence of this course understanding.

Through interacting with students during MSSE 371, I was able to get a first hand account of exactly how middle school students
behave in the classroom. My take away, was that middle school students are very active, they want to have fun, and they like to be social.
During my avid tutoring, my seventh and eighth grade students were constantly talking to each other, making jokes, and trying to get to know
my personality as I was working with them. I noticed that my students liked to work together to solve problems, by looking at each others
notes and collaborating, instead of trying to figure out problems on their own. With those attributes in mind, I tried to create lessons with as
much activity, group work, movement and fun as possible, while still trying to focus on the content of my unit.
I think middle school students come to class each day with loads of enthusiasm, and I want my lessons to not dull that enthusiasm, but
transfer it to the learning of content. I want each lesson to be fun, and get students excited about the learning they are doing. For example, three
out of five of my lessons involve students having to move around the classroom, or join different groups in order to complete different
activities and tasks. The other two lessons involve doing fun things like watching a video, or playing a game. I think being a middle school
teacher is tricky because you want your students to have fun while they are learning, but you cannot forget that middle school students can get
an inch and take a mile. What I mean by this is if youre doing fun interactive activities everyday, it could be easy to lose control of the
classroom. As the teacher of a middle school classroom, you need to be in control, and cultivate a learning environment where your students
respect you, and listen to you. In order to make sure I will have control of my classroom during this unit, I have also added some individual,
silent journaling and note taking to have some serious and reflective moments to add balance.