Addressing the ecological crisis

Description

Students are introduced to the Arid Recovery program as one way that ecologists are trying to address the ecological crises. They learn that viruses have been intentionally released as a form of biocontrol and use data on rabbit numbers to draw a graph showing the dramatic decline in rabbit numbers. They consider how foxes may have responded to such a sudden decline in prey. Through answering questions on this example, students learn that disease and prey numbers effect the size and density of a population of a particular species.

VCE Biology (2016-2020)

Unit 1, Area of Study 2, Outcome 2, VCE Biology Study Design

VCE Key knowledge

Relationships between organisms within an ecosystem

• The distribution, density and size of a population of a particular species within an ecosystem and the impacts of factors including available resources, predation, competition, disease, chance environmental events, births, deaths and migration

Key science skills

• Organise, present and interpret data using schematic diagrams and flow charts, tables, bar charts, line graphs, ratios, percentages and calculations of mean
• Access secondary data, including data sourced through the internet that would otherwise be difficult to source as raw or primary data

Student learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students will:

• Describe how ecologists work towards the conservation of species and ecosystems
• Explain how viruses are used to control rabbit numbers
• Compare a wide range of biotic and abiotic factors and explain how they influence the size and distribution of the population of a particular species

Duration

30-45 minutes

Learning activities

Step 1
Show short video - Dingo: Wild Dog At War (between 31.52 to 34.24)

Step 2
Student worksheet: this worksheet includes students finding information on why Arid Recovery began, what its aims are, what it is. 1 short video is embedded in worksheet (could be shown to the whole class instead). Students are given data on the decline in rabbit numbers which they graph, and asked to consider what impact this would have had on foxes (state: disease and available resources (prey) impacts a population)