Download File - The Building Blocks For Learning

Shared Science
Revised 7/14/14
2014 Summer Session Week 1 – Minecraft LEGO style – Environmental Design
Day Three
Arrival Activity: LEGO Minecraft Creatures
Intro: From Weathering/Erosion to Pond/Land
Succesion.
Build: the LEGO process of succession
SNACK BREAK
Flow of Energy in a Ecosystem
Build: LEGO creatures and Food Chain Game
Build: Transition to forests
Wrap Up
Time Allocated
20 min
30 min
Start Time
9 am
9:20 am
20 min
10 min
9:50 am
10:10 am
50 min
35 min
15 min
10:20 am
11:10 am
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 pond
Step 3: Small plants (flower stems).
Step 4: Water lilies and frogs.
Step 5: Cattails
Step 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=Xm2qdxVVRm4
Video4: 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 Play
As 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 Species
Directions: 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
Competition
Species A
Species B
Description

Harmed

Harmed
Each species

Benefit

Benefit
negatively affects
Predation
Parasitism
Mutualism
Commensalism

Unaffected

Unaffected
the other.

Harmed

Harmed
Species A feeds on

Benefit

Benefit
Species B.

Unaffected

Unaffected

Harmed

Harmed
Species B feeds on

Benefit

Benefit
Species A.

Unaffected

Unaffected

Harmed

Harmed
Each species is

Benefit

Benefit
helpful to each

Unaffected

Unaffected
other.

Harmed

Harmed
Species A benefits

Benefit

Benefit
from Species B,

Unaffected

Unaffected
but Species B is
unaffected.