Reconstructing the past

Description

Students are introduced the arid zone by constructing a food web and pyramid to represent the pre-European ecosystem. Students learn that ecosystems can be represented in different ways, and that there are different kinds of relationships between species, including a variety of symbiotic relationships and predation. Using a food pyramid model as well as a food web model illustrates the approximate ratios of species in different trophic levels.

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

• Interdependencies between species as represented by food webs, including impact of changes to keystone species
• The beneficial, harmful and benign relationships between species including amensalism, commensalism, mutualism, parasitism and predation

Student learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students will:

• Construct food webs and food pyramids as ways to represent relationships in an ecosystem
• Describe how energy flows through an ecosystem and is represented by trophic levels
• Identify and describe a range symbiotic and predatory relationships between species

Duration

90-120mins

Learning activities

Step 1: pre-European
Watch short film on arid zone ecosystem.

Step 2: food web refresher
Look at example food web.

Step 3: reconstructing the food web
Reconstruct a food web for the arid zone as it would have looked pre-European colonisation.

Step 4: helping each other
Watch film on symbiosis, write definitions in books, identify and annotate examples in your food web.

Step 5: eating each other
Watch film on predation, define terms in books, identify and annotate examples in your food web.