According to James Minstrell and Pamela Kraus in How Students Learn: Science in the Classroom, “Research and best practice suggest that, if we are really clever and careful, students will come more naturally to the conceptual ideas and processes we want them to learn.” This Teacher Resource Book Unit entitled, “Population Dynamics” was developed to incorporate activities to help children naturally learn about ecosystem interactions and population fluctuation.
Many of the lessons put the student in the place of a functioning element in an ecosystem, and require them to analyze their purpose and interaction with other elements. Students are required to care for their own model ecosystems in “Worming Around”, and to gather data concerning the changes that occur within them. By taking an active part in investigating ecosystems, organism behavior, interdependence, and the cycling of matter and energy, it is hoped that the students will develop a greater understanding of the content.
“Opportunities to learn science as a process of inquiry…has important advantages. It involves observation, imagination, and reasoning about the phenomena under study. It includes the use of tools and procedures, but in the context of authentic inquiry, these become devices that allow students to extend their everyday experiences of the world and help them organize data in ways that provide new insights into phenomena.” (Bransford, J. and Donovan, M.S., 2005)
Donovan, M.S. and Bransford, J., How Students Learn: Science in the Classroom, 2005. National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.
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Rationale for Population Dynamics Unit
According to James Minstrell and Pamela Kraus in How Students Learn: Science in the Classroom, “Research and best practice suggest that, if we are really clever and careful, students will come more naturally to the conceptual ideas and processes we want them to learn.” This Teacher Resource Book Unit entitled, “Population Dynamics” was developed to incorporate activities to help children naturally learn about ecosystem interactions and population fluctuation.
Many of the lessons put the student in the place of a functioning element in an ecosystem, and require them to analyze their purpose and interaction with other elements. Students are required to care for their own model ecosystems in “Worming Around”, and to gather data concerning the changes that occur within them. By taking an active part in investigating ecosystems, organism behavior, interdependence, and the cycling of matter and energy, it is hoped that the students will develop a greater understanding of the content.
“Opportunities to learn science as a process of inquiry…has important advantages. It involves observation, imagination, and reasoning about the phenomena under study. It includes the use of tools and procedures, but in the context of authentic inquiry, these become devices that allow students to extend their everyday experiences of the world and help them organize data in ways that provide new insights into phenomena.” (Bransford, J. and Donovan, M.S., 2005)
Donovan, M.S. and Bransford, J., How Students Learn: Science in the Classroom, 2005. National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.