During this CELL, students will explore the fascinating and highly relevant science of Ecology. They will specifically focus on the concept of ecosystems and the adaptations made by organisms to survive in them.

Through experiments aimed at modeling food chains and food webs, students will begin to understand how a disturbance in one segment of an ecosystem can affect other, if not all, segments of that system. They will learn that food webs consist of different levels of organisms that all contribute to the total biomass of an ecosystem. They will see how important the plant producers are since they are able to directly harness energy from the sun through photosynthesis, converting it into forms that feed the entire ecosystem.

Students will come to appreciate that plants and animals in ecosystems are directly and indirectly affected by non-living components of the system, such as soil, precipitation, and temperature. By performing experiments, they will see that certain adaptations are required for plants and animals to survive in one ecosystem (wetlands, for example) versus another (forests, for example).

The concept of adaptation is further developed in experiments in which students will find that specific body structures can provide one species with a survival advantage over other species. In these same experiments, students will see that over long periods of time the environment in which organisms live may change and that organisms that cannot adapt to the changes may lose in competition to other species and become extinct. Further, the concept of extinction events in the fossil record is introduced in analyzing their experimental results.

Following further with the concept of adaptation in terms of a changing ecosystem, students will perform experiments that model the impact of the introduction of pollutants into the environment. Through analysis, students will ascertain the effect of lethal levels of toxins on animals that consume contaminated plants. They will also see how the impact of pollution moves up the food chain, from contaminated plant producers to herbivore consumers, and finally to carnivorous predators.

The ultimate goal of this CELL is to have students begin to understand and appreciate how fragile and interconnected ecosystems are. Ultimately, through experiments involving pollution, students will see that human beings are important members of ecosystems and that they can damage ecosystems and their own environment. They will appreciate that they themselves are interconnected to other organisms and non-living components of the ecosystems in which they live.