Worms

The students still have questions.  They don't think that they have completely solved the trout mystery.  They cannot explain why the the trout, sea lamprey and chub populations all decreased between 1960-1970.  They are investigating possible abiotic factors now.  Do abiotic factors change populations?  Here is their first investigation.  

Do the night crawlers prefer a wet environment or a dry one?

Does the Sea Lamprey have a major impact as a predator?

Students have figured out that YES, the sea lamprey is impacting the trout as a predator/parasite and competitor.  

They virtually dissected the lamprey and trout and had lengthy discussions to come to this conclusion.  Great work by all!

Symbiosis

Students have been researching different examples of symbiotic relationships and presented them to the class.  Here are a few examples.

Competition

Look at some pictures of our competition simulation.  We figured out that when organisms compete for the same resources, it can be difficult to survive.  

We have been graphing on google sheets often.

Interactions

This week we used video to figure out that their are 5 main interactions that organisms have with other species.  We started investigating predator and prey relationships first.  Students participated in a simulation in which fox are the predators and rabbits are the prey.  So far, they have only gathered evidence.  Next week we will analyze the evidence.