Middle School Lesson - Carrying capacity at different scales
Carrying capacity at different scales
Lesson description: Students will explore their outdoor school campus to make observations regarding the Eastern Gray squirrel population at their school. They will then connect those observations to the online platform iNaturalist. They will engage with this platform to help record sightings of the squirrels, which in turn will help map populations and provide data to the larger scientific study they are a part of. Also, students will draw conclusions regarding the important biotic and abiotic factors that influence the survival, or lack thereof, for these populations.
Grade Level: middle school (grade 8)
NYS Standards: HS-LS2-1; MS-LS2-1; MS-LS2-4
21st century skills: collaboration, creativity, communication, critical thinking & problem solving, information literacy
Created by: carly hein & sheena britton
objectives: The student will be able to…
identify biotic and abiotic factors that affect the squirrel population
record observations and identify differences between urban and rural environments
identify and describe similarities and differences between the Eastern Gray squirrel and its color morph(s)
identify patterns within data that describe differences in black and gray squirrel populations between urban and rural environments