MangroveWatch - Identifying Variables

Australian curriculum content descriptions:

Year 9 Science:

• Ecosystems consist of communities of interdependent organisms and abiotic components of the environment; matter and energy flow through these systems (ACSSU176)
• Formulate questions or hypotheses that can be investigated scientifically (ACSIS164)

Year 10 Science:

• The theory of evolution by natural selection explains the diversity of living things and is supported by a range of scientific evidence (ACSSU185)
• Formulate questions or hypotheses that can be investigated scientifically (ACSIS198)

Year 11 and 12 Science – Biology

• Identify, research and construct questions for investigation; propose hypotheses; and predict possible outcomes (ACSBL001)
• Ecosystems are diverse, composed of varied habitats and can be described in terms of their component species, species interactions and the abiotic factors that make up the environment (ACSBL019)
• In addition to biotic factors, abiotic factors including climate and substrate can be used to describe and classify environments (ACSBL021)
• Human activities (for example, over-exploitation, habitat destruction, monocultures, pollution) can reduce biodiversity and can impact on the magnitude, duration and speed of ecosystem change (ACSBL028)
• Models of ecosystem interactions (for example, food webs, successional models) can be used to predict the impact of change and are based on interpretation of and extrapolation from sample data (for example, data derived from ecosystem surveying techniques); the reliability of the model is determined by the representativeness of the sampling (ACSBL029)

Syllabus outcomes: SC5-14LW

General capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Literacy, Personal and Social Capability

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.7, OI.9

Relevant parts of Year 9 Science achievement standards: Students design questions that can be investigated using a range of inquiry skills. They analyse how biological systems function and respond to external changes with reference to interdependencies, energy transfers and flows of matter.

Relevant parts of Year 10 Science achievement standards: Students describe and analyse interactions and cycles within and between Earth’s spheres. They develop questions and hypotheses.

Year 11 and 12 students:

• understand that ecosystem diversity and dynamics can be described and compared with reference to biotic and abiotic components and their interactions.
• understand how theories and models have developed based on evidence from multiple disciplines; and the uses and limitations of biological knowledge in a range of contexts.

Unit of work: MangroveWatch – Years 9 to 12.

Time required: 120 minutes

Level of teacher scaffolding: This lesson should be completed in students’ own time.

• Student Worksheets – one copy per student
• Device/s capable of enabling students to work independently
• Devices capable of presenting to the class: YouTube, enlarged ecosystem flow chart and photographs

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

• Communication
• Community engagement
• Creativity
• Critical thinking

The lessons in this unit have been developed in partnership with Earthwatch and MangroveWatch. Earthwatch is a global not-for-profit organisation that uses citizen science to empower people to save the natural world, and works with all sectors to create a society that lives in balance with nature. MangroveWatch is a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on the research, education and conservation of mangrove and tidal wetland environments globally.