As part of our transition from the Great Salt Lake toward a study of cell membranes, students are continuing to engineer solutions to the ecological changes caused by the Great Salt Lake causeway. Our work is supporting the Next Generation Science Standard HS-LS2-7 which requires that students: Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity. Yesterday, students worked hard in small groups to design one or more solutions. Today, students spent the first part of class to work on their designs and then shared their designs with the class so all students could evaluate the risks and benefits of the design options. Tomorrow, students will continue to work in their groups to refine their engineering solutions based on the feedback they received. The deliverable tomorrow will be the preparation of a short presentation to be shared with the class on Friday. Throughout the engineering process, students are also being pressed to think about how organisms in the Great Salt Lake would be affected by a change in salinity at the microscopic level (focusing specifically on activity at the cell membrane). Concepts of osmosis, diffusion, and transport will be covered in depth next week.
Category Archives: Homeostasis
Cells and Homeostasis: Causeway Solutions
I was at a district-wide high school biology teacher meeting this morning during periods 1-3. Below is the lesson plan my substitute shared with the students:
Yesterday we learned about how the construction of a causeway across the Great Salt Lake dramatically affected the ecosystem of the Great Salt Lake.
Entry Task: In your lab notebook, describe how the causeway resulted in the north arm of the lake appearing purple compared with the blue south arm. You have 5 minutes.
Group work: Working with your extreme environment group, your job is to solve the problem of the GSL railroad causeway. Your team must devise a solution to undo the ecological changes of the causeway on the ecosystem of the Great Salt Lake. Your group’s report must include the following:
- A model of how altering the causeway will affect the populations of each of the 8 GSL organisms.
- Application of the concepts of osmosis, diffusion, and active transport in your model.
- Initial ideas on how GSL organisms will be immediately affected by a change in the salinity of the GSL upon changing of the causeway. You must include a discussion of water and/or salt moving across cell membranes for full credit.
- Research! Slides 15-20 from yesterday’s lesson (on the class website) may be a useful starting point. Be sure to cite any references used when making claims about GSL salinity (before and after causeway changes) and any references used to learn which organisms can survive at the salinities found in the GSL after the causeway is removed. Please use electronic resources appropriately.
- Your analysis should include a written discussion of the risks and benefits of altering the causeway, both to the railroad and to the organisms that live in the Lake.
Exit Ticket: Turn in group work with names of all students who actively engaged in the work for the entire class period.
Cells and Homeostasis: GSL Case Study
We kicked off our first big lesson of the unit with a case study of the Great Salt Lake. Back in the 1950s, a causeway was built across the Great Salt Lake, phyiscally separating the lake into two arms (the North and South Arms). As a result, the ecosystem of the North Arm of the lake is quite different from the South Arm. In the case study, students learned how various biotic and abiotic factors contribute to the appearance of the lake. Within the case study, the concept of osmosis is presented, and students were assigned as homework to find the biology definitions for osmosis, diffusion, and active transport. Students turned in the case study worksheet at the end of class.
Tomorrow, students will apply their understanding of the causeway, and the vocabulary words they learned as homework, to work in groups to devise a solution to the ecological changes caused by the causeway. I will be in a meeting during periods 1-3, and students should work efficiently with their extreme environment groups to complete the work.
Science with Swart 