Transcript Species Niche and Biodiversity

Description:
Use student diversity and career choices as an analogy to the
importance of species’ niches being fulfilled through biodiversity.
Goals:
•Examine how interactions between a species
and its environment define a species niche.
•Explain how a species adapts to its niche.
Objectives: Day 9
•Relate
social diversity to that of
ecological diversity.
•Invent analogies of human careers
and niches that various species
fulfill.
Warm Up – “When I Grow Up”
Q = If you could have any job/career, what
would it be?
(Consider up to 3)
A = [answers will vary]
“What’s the Point”
What is the purpose or role that your
career(s) have in our society?
Think about:

◦
◦

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What services it offers the population
How it helps, supports, or advances our culture /
technology
Why did you chose your career?
Consider things such as abilities and skills
needed, interests and/or background.
Finding your place

Raise your hand to share your career choice and
its purpose.

As a class, we’ll classify each career into its
industry.
It may be helpful to add a list and brief description of the
different industries to your “What’s the Point” column
“Consider the following…”
Working with your neighbor list the following:
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What industries / careers were not chosen?
What purpose does each one serve?
Why didn’t you chose one of these
careers?
Consider things such as abilities and skills
needed.
Interest or background needed.
“Would we Survive”
Continue working with your neighbor
Considering the careers we didn’t
choose:
◦
Would we survive without them and what
parts of society would be most affected
without it?
◦
Why are these important to the structure of
our society?
“Niche Analogies”
1.
What human careers would be affect by the
organisms in the video?
2.
Of the many careers we’ve analyzed, what
would be their analogues in an ecosystem?
3.
Consider trophic level roles, symbiotic types,
and abilities of different kingdoms
◦
e.g. decomposers = waste managements
Tomorrow’s Lab.
Tomorrow we will be inspecting our corn plants for
development.
This lab will be mostly observation based with some
basic questions about genetics and determining
ratios of traits being passed.
Objectives: Day 9
•Relate
social diversity to that of
ecological diversity.
•Invent analogies of human careers
and niches that various species
fulfill.
Extending our Understanding:
Are some people more fit for specific jobs than
others? Explain.
Are some organisms fit for some specific tasks than
others? Explain.
Genetics

Some diseases are more common in certain ethnic
backgrounds. For example:
◦ Canavan Disease — This condition is most common in people of
Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, with a carrier incidence of 1 in 40.
◦ Fragile X Syndrome — The Fragile X syndrome is not specific to a
certain ethnic background but is more sever in males.
◦ Sickle Cell Disease — This condition is most common in persons
of African-American, African, Mediterranean, Hispanic and South
American ancestry, with the carrier risk ranging from 1/10 to 1/40,
depending on your ethnic background.
◦ Tay Sachs Disease — People of both Ashkenazi Jewish and French
Canadian ancestry have the greatest chance of being carriers of Tay
Sachs disease, about 1/30 versus 1/250 in the general population.
◦ Thalassemia — Individuals of Mediterranean, Southeast Asian and
African ancestry have the greatest chance — 1 in 3 and 1 in 30,
respectively — of being carriers for thalassemia.
Genetics – think about it…
How do genes get passed from on person to
offspring?
Why do you think some ethnicities have specific
diseases not found or rarely found in others?
Is there a possible way of decreasing risk of
passing/obtaining genetic diseases?
Objectives: Day 9
•Relate
social diversity to that of
ecological diversity.
•Invent analogies of human careers
and niches that various species
fulfill.