Hello Everyone,
I hope by now that everyone has been able to get on to the Trunity website and has access to the Ecology for Teachers book. If there are any problems please let me know ASAP (I am sorry that this has been such a hassle!!!). The semester is rapidly moving along now which means that we are now getting to the "meat" of this course. A typical introductory ecology course will focus on population, community, and ecosystem ecology.
I hope that you are becoming more comfortable with the material relating to population ecology. Please feel free to ask me any questions that remain. The last topic that I like to talk about related to population ecology is human population growth. I personally feel that human population growth is one of the most important issues facing humans today. I find that most of my students from West Texas have little idea about what is going on in the rest of the world so it is worth taking some time to discuss this issue. Thus, this week I would like you to look at the section on Human Population Growth in the Ecology for Teachers book.
The next topic that we are going to look at is Community Ecology. One of the fun parts about studying community ecology is that you get to talk about some of the cool ecological interactions, e.g., competition, predation, and mutualisms, that take place in communities. This week I would also like you take a look at the section on competition in the Community Ecology section of the Ecology for Teachers book.
Upcoming Assignments
Midterm Exam. Because this is a college class I need to assess that you are actually learning something. The syllabus says that you will have a midterm due February 28th. This exam (which you will submit to me online) will focus on 1) the physical environment, 2) natural selection, 3) population ecology, and 4) community ecology.
I have not figured out the exact format of the exam, but I promise that it will not be too overwhelming. Instead it is just a chance to make sure that some of the info that I have thrown at you has managed to stick. I will send the questions to you on the weekend before the exam is due. More details to come (as I make them up).
Encyclopedia of Earth Articles. I think that community ecology provides many great topics that you could choose to write about. In addition, this is the section where a number of basic articles are needed so there are plenty of "empty niches" (see how I cleverly inserted an ecological concept here?!?).
Basic topics that are lacking include (but are definitely not limited to)
- niche differentiation
- interference competition
- competition in (name your favorite group of organisms)
- niche partitioning
- anti predator adaptation in (name your favorite group of organisms)
- examples of specific mutualisms
There might also be some interesting articles to be written about human population growth if that was a topic that interests you.
In the next couple of weeks you should start to think about what you would like to write about. It is OK if you don't feel like you are the "world's expert" because I can help you do the research you need to do to feel confident writing a basic article. Please let me know about any ideas you have or if you feel completely stumped.
I think the lesson on human population growth and community ecology is very relevant in the BIO TEKS for TAKS and STAAR. My students do rate low in this objective especially in the interdependency of organisms. I have in the past used "manipulatives" so my students can play match cards with interdependency. I have used this in our TAKS Review Academy. If students actually get to see more pictures of, for instance, a predator chasing a prey it was easier for them to identify the relationship, compared to a tick landing on a hippo. I think this is one skill that most students lack is the capacity to analyze various situations.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what I have found useful in my class is to use emoticons (smiley versus sad face) to show relationships among organisms. As pointed out on the text for Ecology for Teachers, a + or - sign is being used -> which is kind of a similar concept from what I have used to describe or help my students remember mutualism, predation, commensalism, competition, and parasitism. Basically this is the actual TEKS: to interpret relationships, including predation, parasitism, commensalism, mutualism, and competition among organisms. This particular TEKS is also a Readiness Standard.
With regards to the articles we want to write, are the topics you mentioned on a first-come-first-serve basis?
ReplyDeleteAlso, is NICHE PARTITIONING the same as SPATIAL PARTITIONING?
Thanks!
Mark,
ReplyDeleteLooking over your topics which offered (below):
Basic topics that are lacking include (but are definitely not limited to)
- niche differentiation
- interference competition
- competition in (name your favorite group of organisms)
- niche partitioning
- anti predator adaptation in (name your favorite group of organisms)
- examples of specific mutualisms
Some of these sound interesting, but my background is in physical science. Outside of cell biology last summer my only other experience in biological sciences was my sophomore year in high school c. 1969. I am fairly confident that I can write a relative good article by some through research, but I think I will really need some more specific direction. The topics seem so broad, as I don't feel knowledgeable enough to even narrow as specifically as will be needed. Maybe some specific suggestions in the form of some questions to answer, such as "What is the relationship...", or "How this organism...", or "Why is this...". Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Charity, Because I don't imagine that there is going to be great competition for topics I think we can use the "first come first served" rule for choosing topics.
ReplyDeleteNiche partitioning is a broad term. One way that organisms can partition space is by partitioning "space", i.e., feed in different locations. I think there could be an article in niche partitioning in general and on spatial niche partitioning.
I've decided to work on INTERFERENCE COMPETITION. I will consult with you once I have a rough draft. Thanks.
DeleteHi Gordon, You have raised a good issue. I am confident that you are all capable of writing a good EoE article with the proper research and guidance. However, if you field of expertise and interest is not in ecology then it might be difficult to know where to start.
ReplyDeleteIt might be helpful to give some examples. Here is a link to an article entitled "Desert Birds" written by Kelly Atkins, a former TTU undergraduate.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Desert_birds
In this article she outlines some of the challenges that birds face while living in the desert and the gives examples of interesting birds that live in deserts of the US.
"Insect Adaptations to Stream Systems" was written by Eric Singletary, a former TTU undergrad.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Insect_adaptations_to_stream_systems?topic=49548
In this article he discusses some of the problems that insects face while living in streams and discusses some adaptations to deal with these problems.
"Riparian Zones" written by Alicia Freitag discusses the environment of riparian zones.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Riparian_zone
For those of you for whom biology is not your strongest subject perhaps writing an article like "Adaptations of (name your favorite group of animals) to (name your favorite environment or environmental pressure). Here are some possible examples.
Adaptations of plants to attract pollinators.
- could discuss the adapations such as flower color and flower size that are used to attract particular kinds of pollinators.
Adaptations of organisms to allow them to fly.
- could discuss adaptations of different organisms that allow them to fly (i.e., wings of bats, birds, and insects are quite different).
Adaptations that reptiles and amphibians use to escape predation.
- could talk about shells of turtles, poison skin of frogs, amphibians losing their tails, etc.
Obviously, these articles could be written at a level intended for experts in the field or could be aimed at an interested high school student. Obviously, the level of detail that you would be to include will vary greatly with the interest and knowledge level of your audience.
I think that it will be easiest and most beneficial for you to write an article that you think might be useful to your students (even if not during your class, during their bio class).
I hope this has been helpful. I would like you to choose an topic that you are interested in learning more about and sharing with your students. Please let me know how I can help you narrow down your choice.
Thanks. Also check my latest post.
DeleteMark, has there been an article written about temperature dependent sex determination?
ReplyDeleteHi Lauren, temperature dependent sex determination would make a good topic for an article. Let me know if you have any questions.
ReplyDeleteMark, I just read an article regarding altruism in plants (yes, plants). I was thinking about doing an article about altruism in animals. Would this been a reasonable topic. Attached is a link to an article which was quite amazing. http://bit.ly/14H5FgO or http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130201132334.htm
ReplyDeleteI have also posted a portion of the text of the article below this in case the link did not work.
The other topic which I though about was the importance of upwelling in the ocean to particular food chains. Please let me know what you think.
Some Plants Are Altruistic, Too, New Study Suggests
Feb. 1, 2013 — We've all heard examples of animal altruism: Dogs caring for orphaned kittens, chimps sharing food or dolphins nudging injured mates to the surface. Now, a study led by the University of Colorado Boulder suggests some plants are altruistic too.
The researchers looked at corn, in which each fertilized seed contained two "siblings" -- an embryo and a corresponding bit of tissue known as endosperm that feeds the embryo as the seed grows, said CU-Boulder Professor Pamela Diggle. They compared the growth and behavior of the embryos and endosperm in seeds sharing the same mother and father with the growth and behavior of embryos and endosperm that had genetically different parents.
"The results indicated embryos with the same mother and father as the endosperm in their seed weighed significantly more than embryos with the same mother but a different father," said Diggle, a faculty member in CU-Boulder's ecology and evolutionary biology department. "We found that endosperm that does not share the same father as the embryo does not hand over as much food -- it appears to be acting less cooperatively."
A paper on the subject was published during the week of Jan. 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Co-authors on the study included Chi-Chih Wu, a CU-Boulder doctoral student in the ecology and evolutionary biology department and Professor William "Ned" Friedman, a professor at Harvard University who helped conduct research on the project while a faculty member at CU-Boulder.
Diggle said it is fairly clear from previous research that plants can preferentially withhold nutrients from inferior offspring when resources are limited. "Our study is the first to specifically test the idea of cooperation among siblings in plants."
"One of the most fundamental laws of nature is that if you are going to be an altruist, give it up to your closest relatives," said Friedman. "Altruism only evolves if the benefactor is a close relative of the beneficiary. When the endosperm gives all of its food to the embryo and then dies, it doesn't get more altruistic than that."
In corn reproduction, male flowers at the top of the plants distribute pollen grains two at a time through individual tubes to tiny cobs on the stalks covered by strands known as silks in a process known as double fertilization. When the two pollen grains come in contact with an individual silk, they produce a seed containing an embryo and endosperm. Each embryo results in just a single kernel of corn, said Diggle.
The team took advantage of an extremely rare phenomenon in plants called "hetero-fertilization," in which two different fathers sire individual corn kernels, said Diggle, currently a visiting professor at Harvard. The manipulation of corn plant genes that has been going on for millennia -- resulting in the production of multicolored "Indian corn" cobs of various colors like red, purple, blue and yellow -- helped the researchers in assessing the parentage of the kernels, she said.
Hi Gordon,
ReplyDeleteI think that altruism would be an interesting topic. I have written a very basic and brief articles on Altruistic Behaviors
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Altruistic_behaviors?topic=58074.
There are obviously lots of ways to go with the topic of altruism. I don't know whether it would be more useful for you to just add on to the article that I have already started or to write a separate articles with a more narrow focus. What do you think?
Upwellings would make a good topic as well.
Thanks for the link to the article about altruism in plants. My Ph.D. research focused on the factors that affect seed size, so I am interested in learning more about their study. Sometimes, plants can be pretty darned interesting.