Ecosystems and the Circle of Life

To accomplish your task you will go through the following steps:

1. First you'll be assigned to a group of three students.
2. View the ecosystem power point to lean more about food chains and food webs.  Complete the food chains and food webs.  Make sure you take the frog out of the food chain to determine what happens when an organism is taken out of a food chain.
3. Next your group will choose one of the following ecosystems: salt marsh, desert, rain forest, ocean, prairie, swamp, wetlands.
4. Research your ecosystem to write a one page summary.  Include information about the organisms present (pick a minimum of fifteen), if there is any human interaction in the ecosystem and if it is beneficial or detrimental to the ecosystem, what happens if a 1st level consumer is removed from the ecosystem (all listed in number 5 below), and any other interesting information you located during your search.
5. Create a food web (with at least fifteen organisms and hand drawn).  Then choose a level 1 consumer and delete it from the ecosystem.  a) Determine the result of the absence of this consumer on the plants.  b) Determine the result of the absence of this consumer on the other level 1 consumers. c) Determine the result of the absence of this consumer on the upper level consumers.  d) Determine the result of the absence of this consumer on the decomposers.
6. Next, use your imagination and create a board game on your ecosystem.  Make sure to have a variety of producers and consumers.  It would also be good to have an introduction of a foreign organism into your ecosystem.  Another obstacle could be weather conditions and natural disasters.  Whatever you decide, there must be both obstacles and items that promote the health of your ecosystem in the game.  Some possible formats to use are Monopoly type, Clue type, or Sorry type games.
7. One person needs to write a persuasive letter to the newspaper's editorial section regarding an environmental issue that is currently occurring in your ecosystem.  Use facts obtained by you in your quest.  This needs to be a two to three paragraph letter.  Discuss it as a group.
8. Lastly you will need to complete a ten slide power point presentation on your ecosystem.  This presentation needs to have pictures and written text.  The first slide is your beginning slide with a title and the last slide must list all of the sources you used for your information and pictures.