One of the most effective aspects of the ecology unit was the first
activity I did with the students in order to demonstrate the concept of
carrying capacity. The
understanding of this concept is essential to the study of ecology and is
referred to throughout the unit. While
the term can be stated very simply as ‘the maximum number of individuals
that an ecosystem can support,’ it is one of those concepts that can be
rather tricky for the student’s to envision without seeing real world
examples. It therefore lends
itself readily to a hands-on activity, which I adapted from the Project Wild
curriculum. The supplies
necessary were simply a bag of dried beans.
The most integral part of the activity is explaining the roles of the
students and the scenarios in which they are acting.
The students had to pretend to be deer feeding on a specific amount of
food under a given set of environmental and population conditions.
It was my job as facilitator to adequately explain the scenarios and
then guide the students through the activity.
After we had completed several of the scenarios provided, the students
became so involved that they began developing, and then acting out, scenarios
of their own. By having actual
food for them to take, it was also very easy for them to see the immediate
effects of their prescribed actions on their food supply.
This provided instant, visual gratification as they were able to see
the various scenarios unfold and the immediate results of each.
Overall
I feel the activity was a success. The
students were able to directly see the concept they had learned in lecture.
They also learned to manipulate the variables of the concept and then
predict what the outcome would be. As
a group, we talked about each scenario before and after to see if our
predictions came true and then reasoned as to why or why not they held true.
Although we discussed each scenario and I asked questions regarding
what had occurred and how it related to the lecture, it would be beneficial in
the future to develop a follow-up assignment, perhaps for homework, to
reinforce the concepts and keep the activity fresh in their minds.