Shared ScienceRevised 7/14/14

2014 Summer Session Week 1 – Minecraft LEGO style – Environmental Design

Day Three Time Allocated Start TimeArrival Activity: LEGO Minecraft Creatures 20 min 9 amIntro: From Weathering/Erosion to Pond/Land Succesion.

30 min 9:20 am

Build: the LEGO process of succession 20 min 9:50 amSNACK BREAK 10 min 10:10 amFlow of Energy in a EcosystemBuild: LEGO creatures and Food Chain Game 50 min 10:20 amBuild: Transition to forests 35 min 11:10 amWrap Up 15 min 11:45 am

Ends at 12p

Essential Question: How do animals respond to a changing environment?

Arrival Activity: As students arrive at Rogers Library and wait for the class to begin. They can make LEGO Minecraft Creatures. Need: free-play LEGO. Instructor to remind students about camp rules, identify where restrooms are at Rogers, and class management structure once everyone has arrived. Instructor will remind how the “minecraft minifig rewards” game will work for the week.“In the Minecraft world, adventurers explore the surface of the world including forests, grassland plains, jungles, deserts, snowy terrain, and swamps. How do these biomes get formed? What are some of your favorites? On Earth, once land is formed through volcanic activity, the rock cycle, and other environmental interactions like we discussed the other day, different ecosystems form. Once again, it doesn’t happen quickly but can take millions of years. An ecosystem can even change to another type of ecosystem over time and different creatures come to live there.” “Today we’ll talk about the process an environment undergoes to form a forest, why creatures are attracted to particular habitats, and how they are all interconnected in food webs. Engineers can learn a lot from the natural environmental processes on Earth. Just like engineers use a process to build a house in your neighborhood or you use in Minecraft, there’s a process to building a forest or special ecosystem.” USE analogy: foundation is rocks/soil, frame is grasses, walls are plants, furniture are the trees. Oikos=House. “Ecology” coined in 1866 by German Ernest Haeckel based on Oikos and found also in the word economy.

Intro: From Weathering/Erosion with Pond to Land Succession (30 minutes)Q1: How does a pond/lake become a forest?The instructor will pass out a quartered piece of paper to write their animals strengths, weaknesses, environment and the food it eats. If there is time they can draw their animal. Have the students create any animal that they want they would possibly live in the MineCraft world. While students are creating their animals, the instructors will distribute the weathering and erosion models to the students with a cup of plants and animals. Instructor will review weathering and erosion from the rock cycle and water cycle. Instructor will show a video on pond succession. Instructor will play the video and stop and each new stage. The students will replicate these steps with the lego model.

Step 1: Weathering and erosion with small grey legos.Step 2: Small fish enter the pondStep 3: Small plants (flower stems).Step 4: Water lilies and frogs.Step 5: CattailsStep 6: Swamp (Brown Plates with flower stems).At each step the instructor is asking the students how their animal would do in each stage of succession. After the weathering and erosion model, the students will use the land succession model. The instructor will continue to ask the students how their animals will live and/or adapt in these environments. Have the students use and reference this worksheet as they make their predictions about their animals.

Video1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsiEcapJ3KU (Pond Succession)Video2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hiANEUO-Us (Swamp Biome)Video3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IGDCMqdzc4 (Birch Forest)Video4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnYflPpQYDo (Jungle Biome)

SNACK BREAK – encourage parent volunteer to oversee portion control and clean-up.

Food Chain and Transfer of Energy (25 min): Q2: How do food chains/webs change over time during succession? (10 minutes this section) “In the Minecraft world, what are some of the creatures you encounter? What type of creatures did you build this morning? What does your Minecraft creature need to survive in the game? On Earth, creatures also must satisfy specific needs to survive. Who feeds

on what? Let’s discuss food chains and how they work within ecosystems, habitats. Instructor defines types of creatures: herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, detritivore, detrivore, decomposers. Instructor uses food chain worksheet to guide discussion.Students will create another animals, but this time it is not of the same category. For example, if they have built a carnivore, then they will build a herbivore or a omnivore. Using the model above, have the students identify which animals they have and how they would arrange them in a food chain. Instructors will pass out the worksheet below and relate the student's food chain with the one on the worksheet. The students will complete the food chain on the worksheet. Instructor will introduce how energy is transferred from one animal to the next. Then, the students will transfer the organisms

from the food chain into the food pyramid.

Build: LEGO Creatures(15 min): Students are to complete their food chain or to create a food web by building more animals. Once students are done, they are to order their creatures in a food chain or web. Then, draw a energy pyramid in a piece of paper to show how energy is transferred in your biome.

Animal Interactions Q3: What types of interactions are these animals having as their environment over time.

Video1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPXrJwQ5lqQ (1:30 - 2:00 min.) Competition. Video2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcBmMPJrrKk (2:19 min.) Predation Video3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm2qdxVVRm4Video4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLWwDST_-gk (Animals)

Resources of the Forest:Q4: What are the resources in the forest that can be useful to our survival?The types of wood that can be found in different biomes of MineCraft are oak, spruce, birch, jungle wood, acacia and dark wood. The sprinkling of bonemeal on the saplings will make them grow faster. Combining different types of wood with other materials such as ore, one can make weapons and armor. In addition, the wood from the trees can be use to create a home or structure. Some of these structures can get pretty inventive. More tomorrow on houses.

Build: Minecraft Transitioning Forest Environment (35 minutes)Students will choose from specific LEGO parts to construct their “square” plot of land to illustrate a changing from volcanic to forest environment based on the day’s lessons: bare rock, small grass to large trees, to creatures. Tape name to blue plates.

Clean-Up & Free PlayAs time permits, students may clear their areas and participate in free build.

Below: Day One--Volcano, Day Two--Forest, Day Three--Ocean Floor

Types of Species Interactions Between Two

SpeciesDirections: Circle the interaction between Species A and Species B from reading the description on the right. Then, student will find the picture examples below. Students will use information from the models to make their decision.

Interaction Species A Species B Description

Competition Harmed Benefit Unaffected

Harmed Benefit Unaffected

Each species negatively affects the other.

Harmed Harmed Species A feeds on

Predation Benefit Unaffected

Benefit Unaffected

Species B.

Parasitism Harmed Benefit Unaffected

Harmed Benefit Unaffected

Species B feeds on Species A.

Mutualism Harmed Benefit Unaffected

Harmed Benefit Unaffected

Each species is helpful to each other.

Commensalism Harmed Benefit Unaffected

Harmed Benefit Unaffected

Species A benefits from Species B, but Species B is unaffected.