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Plankton Play Study Guide, Eye
Eye of theEyeCyclops
of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide Video
Teaching
Guides
of
theSeries
Cyclops
Study
Guides
Pond Ecology:
PlanktonOpen
Play Water
Copyright
2007BioMEDIA
BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Copyright
2000
ASSOCIATES
Environment: a freshwater pond
Habitat: the open water
is given
Contents
this
Permission
to copy orof
print
this guide...
guide for use within institutions that have purchased the Plankton Play
video program.
images
are property
of BioMEDIA
ASSOCIATES and cannot
be resold
•All
The
Cyclops
Micro
Submersible
page
2 without permission.
• About the organisms of the Open Water page 3
Contents
of
thisProcess
guide...
• The
of Photosynthesis
page 6
•
About
the
organisms
seen
in
Plankton
Play
3...
• The Beginning of a Food Chain
pagepage
7
• •Teacher’s
to Plankton Play
6...
Teacher’s guide
Guide
pagepage
9
• •Student
ConceptResearch
Words
pagepage
10 11...
• •Plankton
Gallery
Student Research
pagepage
11 12...
• Organism Key
In this episode...
page 13
Synopsis... Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers dive into open water where they get
Cyclops and its an
intrepid
crew of explorers
dive into
where
they get barely
an uncomfortably
close view of
uncomfortably
close view
of aopen
filterwater
feeding
copepod,
escaping its
a filter feeding copepod,
escaping
its powerful
feeding
currents.
They
next have
a lyrical
encounter
with
powerfulbarely
feeding
currents.
They next
have
a lyrical
encounter
with
Volvox,
a
Volvox, a beautiful
colonial
alga,
and
survive
a
collision
with
Daphnia
the
water
flea,
leading
to
unique
views
of
beautiful colonial alga, and survive a collision with Daphnia the water flea,
an animal’s internal
organs
in actionviews
and itsofspecial
adaptations
for living
in suspension.
Theits“debriefing”
leading
to unique
an animal’s
internal
organs
in action and
special details
all that has beenadaptations
learned aboutfor
these
organisms,
their
adaptations
for
open
water
life,
their
reproduction,
living in suspension. The “debriefing” details all that has been and the
roles they play in
the pond
ecosystem.
learned
about
these organisms, their adaptations for open water life, their reproduction, and the roles they play in the pond ecosystem.
Later, a single algae cell is rescued and its green secrets revealed through experiments performed on board the
Cyclops. The ship’s naturalist discovers that, given light, the green cell generates oxygen (something the crew
is in dire need of at the time) along with several kinds of food molecules. Swimming outside, the micronauts see
vast numbers of green photosynthetic cells. Larger cells show up and start gorging on the algae, creating a food
chain that ultimately sustains the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and around the pond.
Back to Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide VehicleDimensions
LENGTH
BEAM
Plankton Play Study Guide, 2
Cyclops
VehicleMission
Maximum speed
Maximum depth
Mission duration
mm
.6 mm
0 centimeters per minute
2. meters
0 days
The microsubmersible Cyclops is designed for extended exploration of
freshwater ponds and streams. The vehicle carries a crew of four. There are
two onboard auxilary craft: a diving bell and a terrestrial crawler (disassembled). Imagine what the pond environment looks like to these explorers
(only 0 microns tall). What unique problems might the crew encounter?
How would they acquire building materials, such as glass? Where would
they find fuel and oxygen?
engine room
airlock
observation/pilothouse
diving room
diving bell
laboratory
bunkhouse
emergency escape hatch
storage modules
grabber claws
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Back to Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide Plankton Play Study Guide, 3
About the Organisms
What is plankton?
Plankton is the name given to all of the freely drifting organisms found in the open
water habitat of lakes, ponds, and oceans. Biologists often refer to planktonic animals
as “zooplankton” and to plant-like organisms as “phytoplankton.” Food chains begin
with tiny photosynthetic organisms that make up phytoplankton. These are harvested
by zooplankton, and zooplankton becomes food for small fish and so on up a food
chain.
Copepods
Copepods are relatives of crabs and
shrimp.
They have a hard shell-like cover on their
bodies and jointed appendages.
The largest copepods live in the ocean and
are about 1 cm long.
Most copepods in ponds are 4mm or less.
Copepods feed on tiny green cells (algae)
that are also present in the pond.
Copepods that live in the open water hold
their antennae out to slow their rate of
sinking.
They swim on their backs using five pairs
of legs for swimming.
Their fan-like mouth parts create the
currents that bring in food.
Scale comparison to microsubmersible Cyclops.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide
Intro
Back to
Plankton Play Study Guide, Volvox
Great blooms of Volvox occur when nutrients wash into a pond during Spring runoff.
The individual cells making up a Volvox
colony carry out photosynthesis.
The spherical colonies measure about 500
micrometers in diameter—half a millimeter,
and some Volvox get much larger, reaching
2-3 millimeters across.
Volvox reproduces asexually by producing
daughter colonies.
The daughters begin as reproductive cells
that divide to form a hollow ball of cells
with a small pore on one side. Part way
through development, the daughter colony
turns itself inside out through the pore.
When daughters break out, they leave their
parent an empty hulk.
Before its pond dries or freezes, Volvox
produces eggs and sperm.
The fertilized eggs (zygotes) develop a thick
outer wall that protects the egg from
freezing and drying.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide
Back toIntro
Plankton Play Study Guide, Daphnia
The Water Flea...
Daphnia belongs to a group of crustaceans known as Cladocerans, animals
with outer shell-like covering containing the swimming legs.
Under a microscope Daphnia’s clear body
shows many features common to all advanced
animals:
• An eye controlled by muscles with nerve
connections to the animal’s brain...
• A heart that pushes clear circulatory fluid
around the body...
• Special organs for oxygen uptake (pads on the
rapidly moving swimming legs)...
• Jaws for grinding microorganisms captured
on currents produced by the swimming legs...
• An intestine where the ground up food particles are digested...
• A protective outer shell...
• A brood pouch for incubating young that
hatch from large yolk filled eggs.
Like copepods, cladocerans become food
for the larger predators of the pond.
Watercolor illustrations of
microorganisms courtesy of
the artist, Leslie Russell
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide The Process of Photosynthesis
Back To Intro
Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy
intoBegins
chemical
energy useful
to
Food Chains
with Photosynthesis
Study Guide,
living
things.FOOD
It occurs
in green
plants,
algae,OF
yellow
and red algae, and in certain
ABOUT
CHAINS
AND
THEgreen
PROCESS
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
kindsPhotosynthesis
of bacteria. is the process of converting light energy into chemical energy useful to
living things. It occurs in green plants, green algae, yellow and red algae, and in certain
kinds of bacteria.
Chloroplasts are filled with stacks of discs covered with
chlorophyll molecules that absorb blue and red wave
lengths, reflecting away the green.
In plant leaves, and in algae, the cells contain
many particles often shaped like green jelly
beans, but in the cell captured by Lyra, the
green particle was bent around the cell
nucleus like a horseshoe. These particles
are called chloroplasts, because they
contain chlorophyll molecules. Chlorophyll molecules absorb light energy in
the blue and red regions of the spectrum and reflect away green—which
explains why plants appear green.
The organism captured by
Lyra, has a horseshoe-shaped chloroplast.
3
Back To Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, The Beginning of a Food Chain
In ponds, algae cells are used as food by all sorts of small animals and protists.
In this episode of Eye of the Cyclops the crew witnesses an attack by Paramecia and other
ciliated protists on a swarm of small green cells. The abundant green cells create an unusual feeding opportunity for Paramecium which usually subsists on a bacteria diet.
The paramecia, in turn, become
food for small pond animals such
as baby fish, mosquito larva, water
worms, and colonies of filterfeeding animals known as the
bryozoan colony seen at the end of
the episode. Dead organisms and
waste materials fall to the pond
bottom where they are digested by
bacteria. Bacteria are eaten by
protozoans. The protozoans are
eaten by small water animals and
so on.
The always adventurous Lyra is caught in the feeding currents
produced by Paramecia (a frame from the video program).
At each step in the food chain, only part of the energy contained in the organism being
eaten is stored in the cells and tissues of the eater. A rough rule is that only about 10% of
the energy moves from one food chain step to the next. Using the 10% rule try creating an
“energy pyramid” if the top consumer is a Great Blue Heron that weighs ten pounds. The
food chain steps, working backward from the Heron would be—Heron eats fish, fish eats
mosquito larva, mosquito larva eats Paramecium, Paramecium eats single cell green alga.
Calculate how many pounds of algae are represented by that 10 pound Heron.
Food chain terminology:
producer: an organism that manufactures biological molecules from raw
materials using light energy (photosynthesis), or energy stored in inorganic molecules (chemosynthesis).
first level consumer: An organism that eats the producer. In this case
Paramecium was acting as a first level consumer when it engulfed the
green photosynthetic cells.
second level consumer: An organism that feeds on first level consumers,
and so on.
Back To Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, Building the pyramids ...
At each step in the food chain, only part of the energy contained in the organism being
eaten is stored in the cells and tissues of the eater. A rough rule is that only about 10% of
the energy moves from one food chain step to the next. Using the 10% rule try creating an
“energy pyramid” if the top consumer is a Great Blue Heron that weighs ten pounds.
heron
fish
insect larva
Paramecium
algae
?
The food chain steps, working backward from the heron would be—heron eats fish, fish
eats mosquito larva, mosquito larva eats Paramecium, Paramecium eats single cell green
alga. Calculate how many pounds of algae are represented by that 10 pound heron.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide Teachers’ Guide to Open Water
Use the Pond: Open Water video chapter to excite your students with the idea of visiting a local pond or wetland in order to discover and study the freely drifting life forms (plankton) that inhabit the open water.
Relevant National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8
Reproduction and Heredity
Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever, reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually. Other organisms reproduce sexually.
Copepods reproduce through sex. Mating result in eggs carried by females as seen in the program. Males and females of
each species have mating appendages that fit like lock and key, preventing mating with the “wrong species.” The production of daughter colonies by Volvox is a form of asexual reproduction. Volvox also produces eggs and sperm. Fertilized
eggs over-winter assuring next season’s Volvox population.
Females make up most of the Daphnia population. They produce babies asexually (no male required). Sexual reproduction results in the resistant eggs that carry the Daphnia population through periods of freezing and drying when all of the
adults perish.
Regulation and Behavior
Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral response
requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.
Volvox moves toward a light source. This behavior is the direct result of how light affects the flagella of the cells lining
the sphere. As the colony turns, the cells entering the side away from the light speed up their flagellar beat. Rolling around
to the sunny side, the flagella slow their beat. Stronger flagellar action on the side away from the light pushes the colony
toward the light. Similar automatic processes guide much of the behavior seen in copepods and cladocerans such as Daphnia.
Populations and Ecosystems
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and some micro-organisms
are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are consumers, which obtain food by eating
other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms
for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by producers
into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs.
Volvox is a “producer”— an organism that manufactures the molecules of life from simple raw materials using sunlight
as an energy source (process of photosynthesis). These materials and a portion of the energy acquired from sunlight are
transferred to any small animal the feeds on Volvox. The planktonic crustaceans seen in this program feed on micro algae.
They, in turn, are eaten by insects (like the phantom midge larva—the insect with the two floatation bubbles and a huge
mouth hook used for trapping Daphnia and copepods). Small fish also consume planktonic microcrustaceans. Planktonic
organisms are vital links in the food chains that make possible the existence of fish, amphibians, birds and mammals associated with wetland habitats.
With observation, students should be able to identify local organisms (including small life) as producer, or assign the
organisms to a consumer level. They should be able to create energy pyramids for local ecosystems.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide 10
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the
selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures,
behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.
One of the main themes developed in Eye of the Cyclops video series is that in living things structure is related
to function—a key concept in understanding the process of adaptation. Each structure, behavior, or physiological process observed can be understood in terms of its survival value, and this forms a basis for discussion of
natural selection, the principle that explains how these structures, behaviors, and processes came to be.
Student should be able to list a number of adaptations used in feeding.
Concept Words used in this Program
Habitat: the place where an organism lives.
Unicellular algae: single celled photosynthetic organisms.
Protist: general name for unicellular life.
Enzymes: protein molecules that catalyze reactions such as the digestion of largeorganic molecules, breaking
them down into their molecular building blocks.
Phagocytosis: the engulfment for food particles (other organisms) by cells.
Food vacuoles: membrane bubbles within cells where digestion occurs.
Chloroplast: the green organelles found in plant cells and in green algae. Chloroplasts carry out the process of
photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis: the fundamental energy transforming process on which almost all living things depend. The
process of converting light energy into the chemical bond energy contained in organic molecule.
Ecosystem: all of the organisms the interact with each other living in a particular environment. Examples: a
pond ecosystem, a stream ecosystem, a forest ecosystem.
Food chains: description of who eats whom.
Producer: an organisms that gets energy from light or from inorganic chemicals.
Consumer: an organism that obtains energy by eating other organisms.
Decomposers: organisms such as bacteria and fungi that break down organic molecules in the environment .
Ecological pyramid: a graphic presentation that shows the relationship of producer organisms to consumer
organisms. These graphs show at a glance the amounts of energy transferred through a food chain.
Adaptation: a structure, behavior, or physiological process that fits the organism to its niche. A structure that
has survival value.
Microorganisms: Small living things that can only be adequatelyobserved with the aid of magnification.
Macroorganisms: Organisms that can seen without magnification (although enlargement may be needed to see
their structures)
Plankton: All of the freely suspended life in the open water of lakes, ponds and oceans.
Suspension feeding or filter feeding: refers to organisms that filter small food items from the water, often by
creating powerful feeding currents.
Crustacean: A type of arthropod (jointed legs, hard exoskeleton). The two types of crustaceans shown in this
episode are copepods and cladocerans. Daphnia is a common planktonic cladoceran.
Micro-algae: single, photosynthetic cells or colonial organisms such as Volvox that carry out photosynthesis.
Back to Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide 11
Student Research
Plankton Play Study Guide, Collecting plankton
Almost any park pond, roadside puddle, lake, bay shore, wetland marsh, or unused swimming pool, will
have a lively plankton community. It’s very easy to collect and study these fascinating inhabitants of the
open water if you make a fine mesh net.
A plankton net can be made from an old nylon stocking fastened to a wire frame or cut off drink bottle. For
easy transfer of your catch, cut a small hole in the toe, just big enough to slip in a plastic pill bottle. Cut the
bottom out of the pill bottle and hold it in the stocking by rubber bands, or by wrapping it with string. With
this net, you can make a collection, open the pill bottle lid to transfer your catch to a jar of pond water. (Clean
plastic bags also make good plankton containers.) Examine collections in the field using a hand lens, or
DiscoveryScope. If nothing interesting shows up, try another area of the pond, a deeper sample, or try
passing your net through the pond weeds. A drink cooler with some ice will assure that your plankton
sample will stay lively for the trip to home. To identify the organisms that make up your local plankton, use
the plankton section in Guide to Microlife.
How do copepods reproduce?
Look through your field collections. See any mating copepods? Are there any females carrying eggs masses?
Use an eyedropper to nab a female with eggs and transfer her to a small plastic dish (your class may have
small, disposable plastic lab dishes). Add a few squirts of pond water and keep the dish covered to prevent
evaporation. Over the next few days watch for hatching and describe the larva. Keep records of the stages
the larvae go through on their way to becoming mature adult copepods. We think you will be surprised at
what you discover.
How does light affect Volvox behavior?
Volvox is a very easy organism to work with. The question is—How do these green spheres find the right
amount of light for photosynthesis? Too much light can damage cells due to ultra violet radiation—the same
high energ radiation that causes that painful sunburn, you may have experienced. Too little light and
photosynthesis can not occur. See if you (or your research group) can devising an experiment that can answer
this question?
How does temperature affect daphnia’s heart rate?
Daphnia makes an excellent subject for investigating the relationship between biological processes and
environmental factors such as temperature.
When they were swimming over the heart, the Cyclops explorers could have easily counted the beats per
minute. You can do the same with a Daphnia lightly held in a plastic zip-lock bag submerged in a dish
containing enough water to just cover the bag. Count the heart rate under the low power objective lens of a
compound microscope.
Make predictions and then make heart rate counts over a range of temperatures (use chips of ice to lower the
water temperature). What other factors might affect Daphnia’s heart rate? Run your tests—become a Daphnia heart specialist.
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 9
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide 12
Student Research
More Student Research
Looking for green jelly beans with a microscope
This is your chance to observe the particle on which almost all life depends—the
chloroplast.
Try examining subjects you think might contain chloroplasts. The best ones will be
very thin so that light can pass through the subject.
Some suggestions: tiny moss leaves placed in a drop of water and pressed flat with a
coverglass; a leaf of elodea, a common aquarium plant; any bright green algae
scraped from a damp wall or found in a pond or stream.
Can Earth support more rice eaters, or hamburger eaters?
Using the 10:1 conversion ration, estimate how many pounds of cattle food a growing
100 pound person who eats nothing but hamburgers represents.
Let’s go live on the moon—This is a sit down research problem requiring no field work or laboratory experiment.
Working with what you have learned from this video program create what you
consider would be the most efficient life support system for a self sufficient colony of
humans on the moon. Consider the type of food needed to support the colony, what
you would do with waste materials, where would oxygen needed for life be obtained, and any related questions that come to mind. Tip—ecologists often use diagrams with arrows assigned to products, to depict such close systems.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water StudyBack
Guide
13
to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 0
Key to Organisms
2
Copepod
3
1. antennae, for suspension
2. eyespot
3. feeding appendages
4. intestine
. swimming legs
6. caudalsetae
6
2
Volvox
1. individual photosynthetic cells
2. flagella (two on each cell)
3. escaping daughter colony
3
7
2
3
6
Daphnia
1. antennae, for suspension
2. compound eye
3. swimming feet
4. gut
. summer eggs in brood chamber
6. carapace (shell)
7. heart
8. anus
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond -Plankton
Open Water
Study
Guide
Play Study
Guide,
2 14
Plankton Gallery
These organisms were collected from a small pond using a
plankton net. As a biologist interested in classification,
organize this set of organisms into what you would consider
to be groups of relatives. Answers posted on our web site.
2
9
6
3
7
0
All images copyright 2000
BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Photography by Bruce J. Russell
All images copyright 2007 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
Back To Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide 15
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 0
Photosynthesis Gallery
Chloroplasts in plants are spheres or bean shaped (seen in the moss leaf cells). Chloroplasts in algae
take on different shapes. All have the same internal structure seen in the electron micrograph. Which
photo shows a first level consumer? Answers and key are posted on our Galleries web section.
2
3
6
All images copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
All images copyright 2007 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued and its green secrets revealed through experiments
performed on board the Cyclops. They discover how algae start food chains that ultimately sustains
the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and around the pond.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Open Water Study Guide
Protozoans and Algae (15 minutes)
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
Other Pond While
Studyengrossed
Resources
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
Field Guide Text:
White Water
(15 minutes)
Rainis and Russell,
GuideAdventure
to Microlife,
Franklin Watts Publisher (identification, color photos, and life
Trying
to return
to duck
weed base,
the Cyclops
is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
descriptions of
common
forms
of microlife
including
plankton)
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Video Program:
The Biology of
Lakes, Ponds,
Streams,
and Wetlands,
BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Discovering
a Forest
Microcosm
(15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
eBioMEDIA • P.O. Box 1234 • Beaufort, SC • 29901-1234
ORDER/INFO: (877) 661-5355/(843) 470-0236
FAX: (843) 470-0237
16
Eye
Decomposers Everywhere! Study Guide, Eye of the Cyclops
ofSeries
the Cyclops
Teaching Study
Guides Guides
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Bottom Ooze Study Guide Pond
Ecology:Everywhere!
Bottom Ooze
Decomposers
Copyright 2007 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Environment: a freshwater pond
Habitat: the open water
Permission is given to copy or print this guide for use within institutions that have purchased the Decomposers
Everywhere! video program.
All images
are property
of BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES and cannot be resold without
Contents
of this
guide...
permission.
• The Cyclops Micro Submersible
of this
• Theguide...
organisms of the Bottom Ooze
Contents
• Teacher’s Guide
• About
Decomposers
Everywhere!
•
Concept
Words
• Teacher’s guide with national science standards
• Student Research
• Student
Research
Problems
•
Gallery
of
Organisms
• Decomposers Gallery
In this episode...
Synopsis...
page 2
page 3
page
4 3...
page
page
5 4...
page
page
6 7...
page
page
8 8...
page
Settling their craft into the bottom, the Cyclops’ crew discover that the bottom ooze is populated
Settling theirbycraft
into the bottom, the Cyclops’ crew discover that the bottom ooze is populated
bacteria, thousands per cubic millimeter. They capture one and investigate the chemical
by bacteria, methods
thousands
per cubic
millimeter.
They
capture one and enzymes
investigate
the chemical
it uses
to decompose
organic
material—digestive
secreted
through tiny pores
methods it uses
decompose
material—digestive
enzymes
secreted
pores
in itstoouter
covering.organic
The debriefing
discussion shows
the many
kindsthrough
of living tiny
bacteria
that
carry
out
decomposition—rods,
a
variety
of
spiral
shaped
cells
with
flagellar
propellers
at
in its outer covering. The debriefing discussion shows the many kinds of living bacteria that each
end, and spirochetes—an
unforgettable
introduction
living bacteria.
carry out decomposition—rods,
a variety
of spiralvisual
shaped
cells withtoflagellar
propellers at each
end, and spirochetes—an unforgettable visual introduction to living bacteria.
Back to Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Bottom Ooze Study Guide VehicleDimensions
LENGTH
BEAM
Plankton Play Study Guide, 2
Cyclops
VehicleMission
Maximum speed
Maximum depth
Mission duration
mm
.65 mm
0 centimeters per minute
2.5 meters
50 days
The microsubmersible Cyclops is designed for extended exploration of
freshwater ponds and streams. The vehicle carries a crew of four. There are
two onboard auxilary craft: a diving bell and a terrestrial crawler (disassembled). Imagine what the pond environment looks like to these explorers
(only 50 microns tall). What unique problems might the crew encounter?
How would they acquire building materials, such as glass? Where would
they find fuel and oxygen?
engine room
airlock
observation/pilothouse
diving room
diving bell
laboratory
bunkhouse
emergency escape hatch
storage modules
grabber claws
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Bottom Ooze Study Guide Back to Intro
About the organisms
Decomposers Everywhere! Study Guide, 3
POND BACTERIA
The layer of loose organic material covering a pond bottom is swarming with life. This
bottom ooze is where organic material is broken down and its vital elements recycled. The
agents responsible are decomposer bacteria, including some of the largest and most interesting representatives of these tiny cells.
Live bacteria from pond bottom sample.
The kinds of bacteria are often thought of as the familiar spheres, rods and spiral bacteria
seen in medical text books. However, a pinch of soil will contain millions of bacterial cells
representing hundreds and possibly thousands of different kinds. Very little is known
about these “wild” bacteria, and only a small percentage have been cultured and named.
With enough effort, it’s likely that several million different kinds could be described living
in soil and in wetlands. Also each species of animal, plant, and fungi has its own types of
bacteria. Just think of how that increases the number of bacteria species.
Because bacteria can have many generations a day, their evolution into distinct new types
can occur quite rapidly. Disease causing bacteria, for example, quickly evolve antibiotic
resistant strains, keeping medical science on a constant search for new antibiotics.
Decomposer bacteria secrete digestive enzymes into their environment. The enzymes
attack dead organic material breaking it down into simple building-block molecules.
Bacteria absorb these building blocks and use them for energy and also to build new bacterial proteins, fats, carbohydrates and nucleic acids.
Bacteria become food for bacteria feeding protists such as Paramecium, beginning food
chains based on decomposition.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Bottom Ooze Study Guide Teacher’s Guide
Use Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Bottom Ooze to excite your students with the idea of visiting a local pond or
wetland in order to discover and study naturally occurring bacteria, and through these activities to better understand the ecology of these habitats.
Reproduction and Heredity
Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever, reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually. Other organisms
reproduce sexually.
Bacteria reproduce by simple division, and are the most rapid reproducers found in nature. They also come
together and exchange genetic material, one of the qualities of sexual reproduction.
Regulation and Behavior
Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral
response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole
organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.
Motile bacteria respond to chemical signals that keep them near their food supply.
Populations and Ecosystems
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and some micro-organisms are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are consumers, which
obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste
materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and
decomposers in an ecosystem.
This is a main theme of the Bottom Ooze portion of our Eye of the Cyclops program.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the
selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures,
behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.
What adaptations (structures or behaviors that function to promote the organism’s survival ) can be listed for
the bacteria found by Cyclops?
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Bottom Ooze Study Guide Concept Words used in this Program
Habitat: The place where an organism lives.
Microorganisms: Small living things that can only be adequately observed
with the aid of magnification.
Macroorganisms: Organisms that can seen without magnification (although
enlargement may be needed to see their structures)
Bacterium: A simple single celled organisms lacking nucleus and organelles.
Cyanobacteria: A branch of Bacteria composed of species that carry out watersplitting photosynthesis.
Enzymes: Large proteins that act as catalysts to promote specific chemical
reactions.
Digestion: Enzymatic breakdown of large organic molecules into their molecular building blocks.
Fermentation: A type of anaerobic (no oxygen required) respiration in which
sugar molecules are broken down into carbon dioxide and two carbon compounds such as alcohol.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Bottom Ooze Study Guide Student Research
To study bacteria in their natural environment, create a “stinking brew culture.”
Place a handful of decomposing leaves into a jar and cover with aquarium or pond water.
This is one of the best ways to culture vast numbers of very large bacteria, including many
kinds that are easily observed with a student microscope. Text books often suggest that the
only way to see bacteria is to kill and stain them on a microscope slide. This is the correct
approach for bacteria that cause disease, but when used to study decomposer bacteria, it
misses the most interesting aspects of these amazing microbes—their behavior.
TIP: When viewing living unstained bacteria close your microscope’s
iris diaphragm more than the normal amount in order to increase contrast. If your microscope has diaphragm holes, try the smallest hole.
The increase in contrast is at the expense of resolution, but this tradeoff is often required when viewing clear, unstained subjects.
See Rainis and Russell’s Guide to Microlife, Scholastic Publishers for
a method of adapting a laboratory microscope for “dark-field” viewing, a very effective way to observe bacteria and other transparent
cells.
And you thought rabbits were rapid multipliers!
Here is an interesting mental experiment: Begin with a bacillus (a rod shaped bacterium)
10 micrometers in length and give it an unlimited food source and optimum temperature
so that it can divide every 30 minutes. Calculate how long it would take for a string of
these rapidly multiplying rods to reach around the world.
They wiggle, they jiggle, they slide and they glide. Bacteria from the natural environment show a variety of shapes including long filaments,
gliding strands, chains and long and short rods with all degrees of twists. See how many
different body forms you can find in your “stinking brew” culture. Compare their movements. What survival advantages might be conferred by a bacterium’s shape and its motions?
What are the simplest cells of all?
Observe and compare. Based on your own observations make a list of the differences
between bacteria and protozoans.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond
- Bottom
Ooze Study
Guide
Decomposers
Everywhere!
Study
Guide, 8
Decomposers Gallery
Bacteria • Fungi • Protists
Decide which organisms are bacteria, fungi, or protists. Which organism is not a
decomposer. Answers will be found in the gallery section of our web site.
4
2
5
3
6
All images copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
All images copyright 2007 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
Protozoans and Algae (15 minutes)
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Bottom Ooze Study Guide Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
White Water Adventure (15 minutes)
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Discovering a Forest Microcosm (15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
eBioMEDIA • P.O. Box 1234 • Beaufort, SC • 29901-1234
ORDER/INFO: (877) 661-5355/(843) 470-0236
FAX: (843) 470-0237
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide Eye of the Cyclops Study Guides
Pond Ecology: Weedy Shallows
Copyright 2007 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Environment: a freshwater pond
Habitat: the weedy shallows
Contents of this guide...
• The Cyclops Micro Submersible
• The organisms of the Weedy Shallows
• Teacher’s Guide
• Concept Words
• Student Research
• Organism Key
• Gallery of Organisms
page 2
page 3
page 8
page 9
page 10
page 13
page 15
Synopsis...
Entering the weedy shallows, the Cyclops crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming by the observation ports. They set about filming a variety of single-celled organisms: some that live attached to the plant
stems, and others with green algae cells that are the primary food source for the pond’s larger herbivores.
Later, while engrossed in observing the food-capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms, the
Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra. Using the diving bell, the ship’s naturalist ventures
inside the monster to observe the digestion of its victim, gaining new insights into the chemical processes involved in the breakdown of prey animals.
Back to Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide VehicleDimensions
LENGTH
BEAM
Plankton Play Study Guide, 2
Cyclops
VehicleMission
Maximum speed
Maximum depth
Mission duration
mm
.5 mm
0 centimeters per minute
2.5 meters
50 days
The microsubmersible Cyclops is designed for extended exploration of
freshwater ponds and streams. The vehicle carries a crew of four. There are
two onboard auxilary craft: a diving bell and a terrestrial crawler (disassembled). Imagine what the pond environment looks like to these explorers
(only 50 microns tall). What unique problems might the crew encounter?
How would they acquire building materials, such as glass? Where would
they find fuel and oxygen?
engine room
airlock
observation/pilothouse
diving room
diving bell
laboratory
bunkhouse
emergency escape hatch
storage modules
grabber claws
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Back ToIntro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide
About the Organisms
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 3
What are protozoans and algae?
Protozoans and algae are general names given to the complex single celled life one finds in
ponds and wetlands. They are cells that have a nucleus and cellular organelles. Bacteria,
the other branch of single celled life, are much simpler cells. Bacteria are cells without
nuclei. On the tree of life, protozoans and algae are much more closely related to animals
and plants than are bacteria.
In this Cyclops episode the crew attempts to film the protozoans and algae encountered as
they travel a few centimeters through the weedy shallows of their pond. This is a log of
what they found.
Vorticella is a ciliated protozoan that attaches to objects in the water by a contractile stalk.
Vorticellids are found in clusters often large enough to be visible to the naked eye.
Gonium is a simple colony made up of identical cells. Gonium is photosynthetic, getting its energy
from light.
Euplotes is a ciliate that uses tendril-like structures (fused cilia called “cirri”) to “walk” over surfaces. Euplotes feeds on small green cells (Chlamydomonas) holding them in its “food trap” prior to
engulfment.
Spirogyra is a common thread alga made up of chains of cells, each with a spiraling
chloroplast and clearly visible nucleus.
Illustration of Spirogyra reproducing
Back To Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, More Organisms...
Urocentrum turbo is a ciliated protozoan that remains in its feeding station by producing a very thin tether—too thin to see with a light microscope.
Diatoms are algae cells that have yellow pigments and a surrounding house made
from silica—glass.
Amoeba moves and engulfs food by
cell extensions called pseudopodia.
There are many different kinds of
amoebas, some very tiny, others
large enough to see with the naked
eye.
Arcella is one of many kinds of amoebas that produce shells.
Peranema is a flagellated protozoan that uses the tip of its flagellum like a propeller.
Euglena is a photosynthetic flagellate.
There are many kinds (species) of
euglinids found in virtually all aquatic
environments.
Back To Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 5
More Organisms...
Bursaria a giant cell easily visible to the naked eye. Bursaria travels mouth first,
engulfing smaller cells in its path.
Paramecium bursaria, the green paramecium, is filled with symbiotic
algae cells.
The algae make food molecules by
photosynthesis and share some of
these products with their host.
Paramecium provides its small
green guests with the raw materials
needed for photosynthesis, and a
relatively safe environment in which
to live.
Illustration of Paramecium caudatum
Watercolor illustrations of
microorganisms courtesy of
the artist, Leslie Russell
The ten-minute “Observation Log” gives detailed information on some of the
organisms encountered by the Cyclops along with some of their relatives. The
organisms are all seen in natural time.
In the final observation section (without narration) see if you and your students
can find the two protozoans not seen by Cyclops. Perhaps you can identify them
using the reference book listed
on page 8.
About the Organisms
Predators
Study
Guide,
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows
Study
Guide
3
Predators of the Weedy Shallows
The weedy shallows provide hiding places and attachment spots for small invertebrates
such as the two featured in this episode: Planaria and Hydra. Planaria is a versatile
feeder, able to seek out and scavenge dead organisms. It is also able to capture live prey.
Hydra is a true monster of the microcosm capturing small water animals that run into its
well- armed tentacles.
Planaria
You will never forget Planaria, once you have looked into its “crossed eyes.” Planarians
belong to a group of invertebrate animals (phylum Platyhelminthes) that also includes
flukes and tapeworms.
Planaria’s “eyes” are light sensitive spots that
allow planarians to avoid direct sunlight. Thus
they spend most of their time on the underside
of rocks and leaves.
The ear-like projections are loaded with chemical receptors. Moving its head from side to
side allows a planarian to sense the gradient of
chemical signals diffusing out from a food
source allowing it to home in on food.
Planarians and their relatives have mouths
located in the center of their bellies. A feeding
tube extends through the mouth opening and
sucks in the food, which is distributed through
the worm’s three branched intestine.
Dugesia, a planarian
To find flatworms for study :
• Wiggle a net through the aquatic vegetation and examine the collection in a white pan.
• Slide a pan under a mass of aquatic plants. Lift the dish to the water’s surface and give the
plants a shake, causing planarians and other small water animals to rain into the dish.
• Lift stream rocks into your pan and rinse off any flatworms clinging to the bottom of the rock.
• Bait for planarians with a small glob of canned pet food tied up in an old nylon stocking and
placed underneath a rock. After a few hours the bait may be covered with feasting planarians.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide Predators Study Guide, Hydra
Hydra belongs to the phylum Cnidaria, along with jellyfish and sea anemones.
Hydra captures small crustaceans that run into its tentacles.
Its tentacles are armed with
highly specialized cells called
nematocysts. The nematocysts
are tipped with trigger hairs
that, when touched, fire out
sticky filaments that entangle
the prey while other nematocysts inject paralyzing poisons.
Once captured the prey is
slowly engulfed by the stretchable mouth.
Because Hydra has a singleended gut, undigested material
must be regurgitated.
Hydra reproduces asexually by
budding off new individuals
from its body wall, a fascinating
process to observe. Hydras also
produce eggs and sperm. The
fertilized egg forms a thick
walled zygote that can withstand freezing.
Watercolor illustrations of
microorganisms courtesy of
the artist, Leslie Russell
The Green Hydra
Green hydras are host to thousands of algae cells that they farm in their tissues in a
symbiotic relationship. Green hydras will collect on the side of the culture facing
the light, giving their guests maximum opportunity for photosynthesis.
Teacher’s Guide
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide Use Eye of the Cyclops to excite your students with the idea of visiting a local pond or wetland in order to discover and study single celled life forms, and through these activities to better understand the ecology of these
habitats.
Reproduction and Heredity
Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever, reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually. Other organisms
reproduce sexually.
Protozoans and algae are wonderful subjects for observing biological reproduction. See how many examples of
reproduction can be found in the video program.
Small invertebrate animals are wonderful subjects for observing biological reproduction. Hydra shows both
sexual and asexual modes of reproduction.
Regulation and Behavior
Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral
response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole
organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.
Protozoans respond to their environment. Examine Paramecium to see how it responds to obstacles in its path,
and to food.
The tiny flatworm, Planaria’s ability to locating food using chemical signals is an example of hereditary behavior, as is Hydra’s feeding and locomotion.
Populations and Ecosystems
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and some micro-organisms are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are consumers, which
obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste
materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and
decomposers in an ecosystem.
Identify each organism found by the Cyclops crew as producer, decomposer, scavenger, predator. How might
predators such as Hydra affect their prey’s population?
For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is transferred by
producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from organism to organism in
food webs.
Diagram a food web that relies on single celled life.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the
selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures,
behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide Concept Words used in this Program
Habitat: The place where an organism lives.
Microorganisms : Small living things that can only be adequately observed with the aid of magnification.
Macroorganisms: Organisms that can seen without magnification (although enlargement may be needed to see
their structures)
Algae: Common name for photosynthetic organisms other than plants.
Protozoans: The common name for independently living nucleated cells that are not photosynthetic. (although
some very active green cells, such as Euglena, are often called protozoans)
Protists: A general term used to describe all kinds of independently living, nucleated cells and their multicellular relatives.
Cilia: Short hair-like organelles on the surface of protozoans that beat against the water producing locomotion
and feeding currents.
Flagella: Long whips, used in various ways to propel flagellated protists through the water. Cilia and flagella
have the same molecular make up.
Pseudopodia: “false feet” are projections used by amoeboid protists to move over surfaces and to surround and
engulf food.
Planarian: These are the familiar flatworms of ponds and slow streams. The “cross eyes” are light receptors
and the “ears” are smell detectors, used in locating food.
Regeneration: The process of replacing lost body parts.
Hydra: Hydra is one of the few freshwater cnidarians, a group of primitive animals that includes sea anemones,
corals and jellyfish.
Stinging Cells: Hydra’s tentacles are covered with specialized cells that harpoon, bind, and poison their prey.
Other Pond Study Resources
Field Guide Text:
Rainis and Russell, Guide to Microlife, Franklin Watts Publisher (identification, color photos, and life
descriptions of common forms of microlife including plankton)
Video Programs:
The Biology Classis: Paramecium, Hydra, Planaria, and Daphnia BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
The Biology of Lakes, Ponds, Streams, and Wetlands BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide 10
Student Research: Protozoans and Algae of the Weedy Shallows
Pond water—Look but don’t drink:
If you collect jars of pond water, adding in some decomposing plant material from the pond bottom, you will
find many of these organisms along with others. Collect from different habitats in the pond and from different
natural water sources and see what you can discover.
One of the ways to increase the numbers of protozoans living in your collections is to keep your collection in a
warm room (but away from direct sunlight) for several days. Under these conditions many kinds of protozoans
will reproduce rapidly giving you a better chance of finding them in sample.
Naked eye observation:
Use a flashlight or desk lamp held at an angle behind the culture jar while you look through the jar at a dark
background—a technique called back-lighting. Often you will be able to see tiny specks swimming through he
water—but only if lit from behind. Be careful not to shake the jar and disrupt the various kinds of protozoans
that have settled into microhabitats in the culture. Use an eyedropper to pick up any large cells, or swarms of
smaller cells for microscopic examination.
Tips for microscope viewing of protozoans and algae:
If a DiscoveryScope or stereo dissecting microscope is available you can travel into the magical world of microspace. Using back-lighting, magnification of 10X to 20X is plenty for observing most large protozoans. The
wide field of view you get using these instruments is great for observing behavior—like watching a football
game from the stands.
• When you want to examine the cell structure of a protozoan there is no substitute for a laboratory microscope.
• Always start a hunt with the widest field objective lens (lowest magnification).
• When hunting, remember that these cells are very transparent, and so difficult to see.
• One trick is to increase contrast by closing the iris.
To understand the best ways to use a microscope for viewing living cells, see the video program Branches on
the Tree of Life: Protists, and Branches on the Tree of Life: Algae, both available from www.ebiomedia.com.
Project: A local survey of protozoans and algae.
Assume you have just landed on Earth from another world. Your assignment is to survey
and report on the single celled life found in your survey area.
• Send out collectors.
• Assign researchers to examine samples.
• Identify your specimens.
• Compile your report.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide 11
Student Research: Macroscopic Predators of the Weedy Shallows
Observing Flatworms
After capturing them (page 6), use an eyedropper to transfer planarians into a dish for study, or better yet put
them into a DiscoveryScope® chamber for field examination.
• How do they move?
• Do they have internal organs?
• Are there different kinds of planarians in your collection?
Keep planarians in a cool, dimly lit place. Plastic drink cups, partly filled with pond water, make good
temporary homes. In a few days the worms will become “hungry” giving you a chance to observe their
amazing feeding behavior. A fragment of lunch meat, or a rolled up pellet of moist pet food about the size of
a small pea usually produces a feeding response. After washing and blotting the food with a paper towel to
remove most of the oils, place it in a DiscoveryScope® chamber (or in a dish under a stereo dissecting microscope) with one or two planarians.
• How does a planarian locate its food?
• Where is its mouth?
• What sort of intestine does it have?
When Scavengers Turn Predator
Confine an aquatic insect or large brine shrimp (available at pet food stores) with a planarian and see what
happens. It’s fascinating, if somewhat horrifying, to observe the worm hunt a wounded water animal. We
have seen planarians bend a mosquito larva until its exoskeleton ruptured. The worm them inserted its
feeding tube and explored the mosquito’s body, sucking out its organs until the last tidbit, an eye, vanished
down the worm’s mouth.
Reproduction by Regeneration
If planarians are kept in their individual plastic cups and fed regularly (with frequent changes of water) they
may pull apart, a normal method of reproduction in which each half regenerates its missing parts. Questions
for investigation: How small a piece will regenerate into a complete worm? Will a middle, without head or tail,
regenerate its missing parts? Do head pieces regenerate faster than tail pieces? TIP—to cut planarians for regeneration studies, place them on a melting ice cube and use a sharp razor blade.
How to Find Killer Flatworms
Temporary pools that fill with rain or snow melt often have populations of flatworms that produce thick
shelled resistant eggs able to withstand drying and freezing. Some of these predators use sticky threads to
trap their prey. Once captured, the worms use a muscular pharynx to inject digestive enzymes and suck out
their prey’s organs and tissues. Hunt for these predators in both ponds, and temporary rain or snow melt
pools. Pools that contain water for at least a month are the best bets for finding predatory flatworms.
ch
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide 12
don’t drink:
nd water, adding in some decomposing plant material from the
find many of these organisms along with others. Collect from
Student
Research
– continued
pond and
from different
natural water
sources and see what you
Hydra—Monster of the Microcosm
numbersHydra
of protozoans
living in of
your
collections
is to keep
your collection
in aattached
warm
is a predator
weedy
shallows.
Because
they live
to plants and other underwater surfaces,
nlight) forhydras
several days.
Under
these
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many
kinds
of
protozoans
will
reproduce
are easy to collect and study with a DiscoveryScope® or stereo dissecting microscope. Green hydras
nce of finding
them
sample.
show
up in
best
against white, light colored ones against dark backgrounds. If duckweed (tiny, bright green
floating leaves with rootlets hanging below) is present, check the hanging rootlets—a favorite attachment site
n:
for Hydra .
lamp held at an angle behind the culture jar while you look
k background—a
technique
called back-lighting.
willanatomy.
be
When examining
try different
lighting methodsOften
to seeyou
hydra’s
wimming through he water—but only if lit from behind. Be careful
disrupt• the
various
of protozoans that have settled into
Do any
have kinds
“buds?”
ture. Use
an they
eyedropper
to pick up any large cells, or swarms of
• Have
eaten recently?
copic examination.
• Can you see the little bumps on the tentacles where stinging cells are housed?
• Do any have protozoans running about on their body and tentacles?
ewing of protozoans and algae:
stereo dissecting microscope is available you can travel into the
A Quiet Feeding Frenzy
space. Using back-lighting, magnification of 10X to 20X is plenty
A cloths-hanger/stocking net swept through the pond weeds will often capture great numbers of Daphnia and
e protozoans. The wide field of view you get using these instruother small crustaceans—dinners for Hydra. Add a few Daphnia and observe with these questions in mind:
ving behavior—like watching a football game from the stands.
ke watching the same game through a powerful telescope; all you
• How does Hydra capture its prey?
is someone’s number.
• Does it paralyze its victim before swallowing?
• How long does digestion take?
mine the cell structure of a protozoan there is no substitute for a
• What happens to the undigested portion of the meal?
Hydras
by Budding
with theCloning
widest fieldNew
objective
lens (lowest
magnification).
Hydras reproduce by budding. In the days following a large meal, you may be able to discover how Hydra
long the process takes.
ember that
these cellsby
arebudding
very transparent,
so difficult
to how
see.
reproduces
off a newand
individual
and
ase contrast by closing the iris.
Sex BeforeFreezing
look for hydras
withliving
lumpy
growths
whitish
tissue on their bodies. These are sex organs that proest waysIn
to the
use fall
a microscope
for viewing
cells,
see theofvideo
program
rld, available
ducefrom
eggswww.ebiomedia.com.
and sperm. Sperm are released into the water and must swim to find and fertilize an egg, usually on
another Hydra. If you find fertilized eggs (zygotes) clinging to the sides of hydras, try freezing some for a few
of protozoans
and
days. Can
thealgae.
eggs produce new hydras after this treatment?
anded on Earth from another world. Your assignment is to survey
e celled life found in your survey area.
s.
s to examine samples.
imens.
ort.
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide
13
Back To Intro
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 9
Teacher’s Key to Organisms
Spirogyra
Paramecium
anterior end
. contractile vacuole
2. oral groove
3. macronucleus
. micronucleus
5. cilia
. lysosomes
3
. zygote
2. conjugating strands
3. conjugation tube
. spirogyra filament
5. chloroplast
. nucleus
2
3
5
2
Euglena
5
. nucleus
2. stigma (eyespot)
3. chloroplast
. mitochondrion
5. locomotor flagellum
posterior end
5
2
3
2
3
5
Amoeba
. advancing speudopodium
2. granular endoplasm
3. food vacuole
. ectoplasm
5. nucleus
. contractile vacuole
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide 14
Predators Study Guide, 8
Teacher’s Key to Organisms
2
Planaria
3
. brain
2. light sensor
3. sensory lobe
. three-branched intestine
5. feeding tube
5
Hydra
3
2
. tentacles with stinging cells
2. mouth
3. epidermis
. gastrodermis
5. egg on ovary
. bud
7. testis
8. Copepod undergoing digestion
9. basal disc
5
7
8
9
Back To Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide 15
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, Protist Gallery
These organisms were collected from a small pond using a plankton net. As a biologist
interested in classification, organize this set into groups of protozoans and groups of algae.
2
3
5
7
8
9
All images © 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Photography by Bruce J. Russell
All images copyright 2007 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
Eye of the Cyclops: Pond - Weedy Shallows Study Guide 16
Predator Gallery
Predators Study Guide, 2
3
5
Allimages
imagescopyright
© 2000 BioMEDIA
ASSOCIATES
Photography by
by Bruce
Bruce J.J. Russell
Russell
All
2007 BioMEDIA
ASSOCIATES, Photography
duction to living bacteria.
Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis (15 minutes)
In this episode, a single algae cell is Eye
rescued
andCyclops:
its green Pond
secrets- revealed
through experiments
of the
Weedy Shallows
Study Guide 17
performed on board the Cyclops. They discover how algae start food chains that ultimately sustains
the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and around the pond.
Protozoans and Algae (15 minutes)
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
White Water Adventure (15 minutes)
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Discovering a Forest Microcosm (15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
eBioMEDIA • P.O. Box 1234 • Beaufort, SC • 29901-1234
ORDER/INFO: (877) 661-5355/(843) 470-0236
FAX: (843) 470-0237
Back to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 1
Eye of the Cyclops
Video Series Teaching Guides
Plankton Play
Copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Environment: a freshwater pond
Habitat: the open water
Permission is given to copy or print this guide for use within institutions that have purchased the Plankton Play
video program. All images are property of BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES and cannot be resold without permission.
Contents of this guide...
• About the organisms seen in Plankton Play
• Teacher’s guide to Plankton Play
• Student Research
• Plankton Gallery
page 3...
page 6...
page 11...
page 12...
In this episode...
Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers dive into open water where they get
an uncomfortably close view of a filter feeding copepod, barely escaping its
powerful feeding currents. They next have a lyrical encounter with Volvox, a
beautiful colonial alga, and survive a collision with Daphnia the water flea,
leading to unique views of an animal’s internal organs in action and its special
adaptations for living in suspension. The “debriefing” details all that has been
learned about these organisms, their adaptations for open water life, their reproduction, and the roles they play in the pond ecosystem.
Back to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 2
Cyclops
Vehicle Dimensions
LENGTH
BEAM
1 mm
.65 mm
Vehicle Mission
Maximum speed
Maximum depth
Mission duration
10 centimeters per minute
2.5 meters
50 days
The microsubmersible Cyclops is designed for extended exploration of
freshwater ponds and streams. The vehicle carries a crew of four. There are
two onboard auxilary craft: a diving bell and a terrestrial crawler (disassembled). Imagine what the pond environment looks like to these explorers
(only 50 microns tall). What unique problems might the crew encounter?
How would they acquire building materials, such as glass? Where would
they find fuel and oxygen?
airlock
engine room
observation/pilothouse
diving room
diving bell
laboratory
bunkhouse
emergency escape hatch
storage modules
grabber claws
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Back to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 3
About the Organisms
What is plankton?
Plankton is the name given to all of the freely drifting organisms found in the open
water habitat of lakes, ponds, and oceans. Biologists often refer to planktonic animals
as “zooplankton” and to plant-like organisms as “phytoplankton.” Food chains begin
with tiny photosynthetic organisms that make up phytoplankton. These are harvested
by zooplankton, and zooplankton becomes food for small fish and so on up a food
chain.
Copepods
Copepods are relatives of crabs and
shrimp.
They have a hard shell-like cover on their
bodies and jointed appendages.
The largest copepods live in the ocean and
are about 1 cm long.
Most copepods in ponds are 4mm or less.
Copepods feed on tiny green cells (algae)
that are also present in the pond.
Copepods that live in the open water hold
their antennae out to slow their rate of
sinking.
They swim on their backs using five pairs
of legs for swimming.
Their fan-like mouth parts create the
currents that bring in food.
Scale comparison to microsubmersible Cyclops.
Back to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 4
Volvox
Great blooms of Volvox occur when nutrients wash into a pond during Spring runoff.
The individual cells making up a Volvox
colony carry out photosynthesis.
The spherical colonies measure about 500
micrometers in diameter—half a millimeter,
and some Volvox get much larger, reaching
2-3 millimeters across.
Volvox reproduces asexually by producing
daughter colonies.
The daughters begin as reproductive cells
that divide to form a hollow ball of cells
with a small pore on one side. Part way
through development, the daughter colony
turns itself inside out through the pore.
When daughters break out, they leave their
parent an empty hulk.
Before its pond dries or freezes, Volvox
produces eggs and sperm.
The fertilized eggs (zygotes) develop a thick
outer wall that protects the egg from
freezing and drying.
Back to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 5
Daphnia
The Water Flea...
Daphnia belongs to a group of crustaceans known as Cladocerans, animals
with outer shell-like covering containing the swimming legs.
Under a microscope Daphnia’s clear body
shows many features common to all advanced
animals:
• An eye controlled by muscles with nerve
connections to the animal’s brain...
• A heart that pushes clear circulatory fluid
around the body...
• Special organs for oxygen uptake (pads on the
rapidly moving swimming legs)...
• Jaws for grinding microorganisms captured
on currents produced by the swimming legs...
• An intestine where the ground up food particles are digested...
• A protective outer shell...
• A brood pouch for incubating young that
hatch from large yolk filled eggs.
Like copepods, cladocerans become food
for the larger predators of the pond.
Watercolor illustrations of
microorganisms courtesy of
the artist, Leslie Russell
Back to Intro
Teachers Guide to Plankton Play
Plankton Play Study Guide, 6
Use the Plankton Play video to excite your students with the idea of visiting a local pond or
wetland in order to discover and study the freely drifting life forms (plankton) that inhabit
the open water.
Relevant National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8
Reproduction and Heredity
Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever,
reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually.
Other organisms reproduce sexually.
From Plankton Play: Copepods reproduce through sex. Mating result in eggs carried by females as seen in
the video. Males and females of each species have mating appendages that fit like lock and key, preventing
mating with the “wrong species.”
The production of daughter colonies by Volvox is a form of asexual reproduction. Volvox also produces eggs
and sperm. Fertilized eggs over-winter assuring next season’s Volvox population.
Females make up most of the Daphnia population. They produce babies asexually (no male required). Sexual
reproduction results in the resistant eggs that carry the Daphnia population through periods of freezing and
drying when all of the adults perish.
Regulation and Behavior
-
Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A
behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ
systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity
and in part from experience.
From Plankton Play: As demonstrated in the video, Volvox moves toward a light source. This behavior is the
direct result of how light affects the flagella of the cells lining the sphere. As the colony turns, the cells entering
the side away from the light speed up their flagellar beat. Rolling around to the sunny side, the flagella slow
their beat. Stronger flagellar action on the side away from the light pushes the colony toward the light. Similar
automatic processes guide much of the behavior seen in copepods and cladocerans such as Daphnia.
Populations and Ecosystems
-
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and
some micro-organisms are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are
consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi,
are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
-
For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is
transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes
fromorganism to organism in food webs.
From Plankton Play: Volvox is a “producer”— an organism that manufactures the molecules of life from
simple raw materials using sunlight as an energy source (process of photosynthesis). These materials and a
portion of the energy acquired from sunlight are transferred to any small animal the feeds on Volvox. The
planktonic crustaceans seen in this episode feed on micro algae. They, in turn, are eaten by insects (like the
phantom midge larva—the insect with the two floatation bubbles and a huge mouth hook used for trapping
Daphnia and copepods). Small fish also consume planktonic microcrustaceans. Planktonic organisms are vital
links in the food chains that make possible the existence of fish, amphibians, birds and mammals associated with
wetland habitats.
Back to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 7
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms grades 5-8
-
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over
many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation,
which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations
include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive
success in a particular environment.
From Plankton Play: One of the main themes developed in Eye of the Cyclops video series is that in living
things structure is related to function—a key concept in understanding the process of adaptation. Each
structure, behavior, or physiological process observed can be understood in terms of its survival value, and this
forms a basis for discussion of natural selection, the principle that explains how these structures, behaviors, and
processes came to be.
Correlation with Middle School Science Text Books
Visit our website, www.eBioMEDIA.com to consult a newly updated list of text books that dovetail with Eye
of the Cyclops. With texts being reprinted constantly, this online list will help you design effective science
lessons that mesh with the books you’re using in the classroom.
Making equipment for collecting plankton
A nylon stocking has just the right mesh size for trapping most of the larger planktonic organisms found in
lakes and ponds. Have students bring stockings, wire coat hangers, and cord. The stocking can be stapled
(or sewn) to a ring made from the coat hanger. For hand use, leave the coat hanger hook for use as a handle.
For throwing and towing, create a three string bridal. Encourage your students to invent their own
sampleing equipment. Kitchen basters, discarded plastic drink bottles, paint strainers, and other throw away
items can become effective plankton collecting devices.
Often the greatest concentrations of planktonic organisms are found in the shallows where a net can be tossed
from shore, or towed with a long pole.
Students can transfer their catch to clear glass or plastic jars. To examine plankton in the field hold the jar so
that light comes from behind at an off-angle while pointing at a dark background. Small organisms are easily
seen in this “dark field lighting.” A DiscoveryScope with its water tight chamber provides the best way to
observe plankton samples in the field.
A drink cooler with some ice can be used to transport plankton collections back to the classroom. A stereo
dissection microscope, or the lowest power (widest field) objective lens of a laboratory microscope is used to
study and identify planktonic organisms. Have students make records of what they find so that future
comparisons become possible. Use Guide to Microlife by Kenneth Rainis and Bruce Russell, Franklin Watts
Publishers to identify and learn more about these fascinating organisms.
Student Research Endeavors
Once a research question is posed, (see Student Research Problems) have students come up with some
possible answers (hypotheses). Then let them discuss various experimental designs that that they think can
be used to prove or disprove their hypothesis. A team approach to carrying out the observational and experimental research, with team discussioin and team presentation of results, will give your students a powerful
insight into how science is done.
Back to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 8
Key Words used in this Lesson
Habitat: The place where an organism lives.
Microorganisms: Small living things that can only be adequatelyobserved with the aid of
magnification.
Macroorganisms: Organisms that can seen without magnification (although enlargement
may be needed to see their structures)
Plankton: All of the freely suspended life in the open water of lakes, ponds and oceans.
Suspension feeding or “filter feeding:” refers to organisms that filter small food items
from the water, often by creating powerful feeding currents.
Crustacean: A type of arthropod (jointed legs, hard exoskeleton)
The two types of crustaceans shown in this episode are: Copepods and Cladocerans
(Daphnia is a common planktonic cladoceran)
Micro-algae: single, photosynthetic cells or colonial organisms such as Volvox that carry
our photosynthesis
Photosynthesis: The process of using light energy to manufacture biological molecules
such as sugars, proteins, and fats.
Observational and informational resources
Books:
Rainis and Russell, Guide to Microlife, Franklin Watts Publisher (identification, color photos, and life
descriptions of common forms of microlife including plankton)
Golden Book of Ponds
Videos:
The Small Life of Ponds and Wetlands, BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
CD-ROMs:
The Wetlands Explorer, BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Back to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 9
Programs in the Eye of the Cyclops series
Plankton Play (15 minutes)
Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers dive into open water where they encounter the denizens
of the plankton: micro-crustaceans, insects, rotifers and protists, all showing unique adaptations for
open water life.
Decomposers Everywhere (15 minutes)
Settling their craft into the bottom, the micronauts discover that the bottom ooze is populated by
bacteria, the microbes that decompose and recycle organic materials—an unforgettable visual introduction to living bacteria.
Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis (15 minutes)
In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued and its green secrets revealed through experiments
performed on board the Cyclops. They discover how algae start food chains that ultimately sustains
the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and around the pond.
Protozoans and Algae (15 minutes)
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
White Water Adventure (15 minutes)
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Discovering a Forest Microcosm (15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
eBioMEDIA • P.O. Box 1234 • Beaufort, SC • 29901-1234
ORDER/INFO: (877) 661-5355/(843) 470-0236
FAX: (843) 470-0237
Back to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 10
Key to Organisms
1
2
Copepod
3
1. antennae, for suspension
2. eyespot
3. feeding appendages
4. intestine
5. swimming legs
6. caudalsetae
4
5
6
1
2
Volvox
1. individual photosynthetic cells
2. flagella (two on each cell)
3. escaping daughter colony
3
1
7
2
Daphnia
6
5
4
3
8
1. antennae, for suspension
2. compound eye
3. swimming feet
4. gut
5. summer eggs in brood chamber
6. carapace (shell)
7. heart
8. anus
Back to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 11
Student Research
Collecting plankton
Almost any park pond, roadside puddle, lake, bay shore, wetland marsh, or unused swimming pool, will
have a lively plankton community. It’s very easy to collect and study these fascinating inhabitants of the
open water if you make a fine mesh net.
A plankton net can be made from an old nylon stocking fastened to a wire frame or cut off drink bottle. For
easy transfer of your catch, cut a small hole in the toe, just big enough to slip in a plastic pill bottle. Cut the
bottom out of the pill bottle and hold it in the stocking by rubber bands, or by wrapping it with string. With
this net, you can make a collection, open the pill bottle lid to transfer your catch to a jar of pond water. (Clean
plastic bags also make good plankton containers.) Examine collections in the field using a hand lens, or
DiscoveryScope. If nothing interesting shows up, try another area of the pond, a deeper sample, or try
passing your net through the pond weeds. A drink cooler with some ice will assure that your plankton
sample will stay lively for the trip to home. To identify the organisms that make up your local plankton, use
the plankton section in Guide to Microlife.
How do copepods reproduce?
Look through your field collections. See any mating copepods? Are there any females carrying eggs masses?
Use an eyedropper to nab a female with eggs and transfer her to a small plastic dish (your class may have
small, disposable plastic lab dishes). Add a few squirts of pond water and keep the dish covered to prevent
evaporation. Over the next few days watch for hatching and describe the larva. Keep records of the stages
the larvae go through on their way to becoming mature adult copepods. We think you will be surprised at
what you discover.
How does light affect Volvox behavior?
Volvox is a very easy organism to work with. The question is—How do these green spheres find the right
amount of light for photosynthesis? Too much light can damage cells due to ultra violet radiation—the same
high energ radiation that causes that painful sunburn, you may have experienced. Too little light and
photosynthesis can not occur. See if you (or your research group) can devising an experiment that can answer
this question?
How does temperature affect daphnia’s heart rate?
Daphnia makes an excellent subject for investigating the relationship between biological processes and
environmental factors such as temperature.
When they were swimming over the heart, the Cyclops explorers could have easily counted the beats per
minute. You can do the same with a Daphnia lightly held in a plastic zip-lock bag submerged in a dish
containing enough water to just cover the bag. Count the heart rate under the low power objective lens of a
compound microscope.
Make predictions and then make heart rate counts over a range of temperatures (use chips of ice to lower the
water temperature). What other factors might affect Daphnia’s heart rate? Run your tests—become a Daphnia heart specialist.
Back to Intro
Plankton Play Study Guide, 12
Plankton Gallery
These organisms were collected from a small pond using a
plankton net. As a biologist interested in classification,
organize this set of organisms into what you would consider
to be groups of relatives. Answers posted on our web site.
8
1
5
2
9
6
3
7
10
All images copyright 2000
BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Photography by Bruce J. Russell
4
11
Back To Intro
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 1
Eye of the Cyclops
Video Series Teaching Guides
Protozoans and Algae
Copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Environment: a freshwater pond
Habitat: the shallows
Permission is given to copy or print this guide for use within institutions that have purchased the Protozoans
and Algae video program. All images are property of BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES and cannot be resold without
permission.
Contents of this guide...
• About the organisms from Protozoans and Algae
• Teacher’s guide to Protozoans and Algae
• Student Research Problems
• Protist Gallery
page 3...
page 6...
page 10...
page 11...
In this episode...
Back into the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming by the observation ports. They set about filming a variety
of single-celled organisms: some that live attached to the plant stems, and
others with green algae cells that are the primary food source for the pond’s
larger herbivores. The adventure is followed by documentary video featuring pond ciliates, flagellates and amoebas.
Back To Intro
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 2
Cyclops
Vehicle Dimensions
LENGTH
BEAM
1 mm
.65 mm
Vehicle Mission
Maximum speed
Maximum depth
Mission duration
10 centimeters per minute
2.5 meters
50 days
The microsubmersible Cyclops is designed for extended exploration of
freshwater ponds and streams. The vehicle carries a crew of four. There are
two onboard auxilary craft: a diving bell and a terrestrial crawler (disassembled). Imagine what the pond environment looks like to these explorers
(only 50 microns tall). What unique problems might the crew encounter?
How would they acquire building materials, such as glass? Where would
they find fuel and oxygen?
airlock
engine room
observation/pilothouse
diving room
diving bell
laboratory
bunkhouse
emergency escape hatch
storage modules
grabber claws
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Back To Intro
About the Organisms
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 3
What are protozoans and algae?
Protozoans and algae are general names given to the complex single celled life one finds in
ponds and wetlands. They are cells that have a nucleus and cellular organelles. Bacteria,
the other branch of single celled life, are much simpler cells. Bacteria are cells without
nuclei. On the tree of life, protozoans and algae are much more closely related to animals
and plants than are bacteria.
In this Cyclops episode the crew attempts to film the protozoans and algae encountered as
they travel a few centimeters through the weedy shallows of their pond. This is a log of
what they found.
Vorticella is a ciliated protozoan that attaches to objects in the water by a contractile stalk.
Vorticellids are found in clusters often large enough to be visible to the naked eye.
Gonium is a simple colony made up of identical cells. Gonium is photosynthetic, getting its energy
from light.
Euplotes is a ciliate that uses tendril-like structures (fused cilia called “cirri”) to “walk” over surfaces. Euplotes feeds on small green cells (Chlamydomonas) holding them in its “food trap” prior to
engulfment.
Spirogyra is a common thread alga made up of chains of cells, each with a spiraling
chloroplast and clearly visible nucleus.
Illustration of Spirogyra reproducing
Back To Intro
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 4
More Organisms...
Urocentrum turbo is a ciliated protozoan that remains in its feeding station by producing a very thin tether—too thin to see with a light microscope.
Diatoms are algae cells that have yellow pigments and a surrounding house made
from silica—glass.
Amoeba moves and engulfs food by
cell extensions called pseudopodia.
There are many different kinds of
amoebas, some very tiny, others
large enough to see with the naked
eye.
Arcella is one of many kinds of amoebas that produce shells.
Peranema is a flagellated protozoan that uses the tip of its flagellum like a propeller.
Euglena is a photosynthetic flagellate.
There are many kinds (species) of
euglinids found in virtually all aquatic
environments.
Back To Intro
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 5
More Organisms...
Bursaria a giant cell easily visible to the naked eye. Bursaria travels mouth first,
engulfing smaller cells in its path.
Paramecium bursaria, the green paramecium, is filled with symbiotic
algae cells.
The algae make food molecules by
photosynthesis and share some of
these products with their host.
Paramecium provides its small
green guests with the raw materials
needed for photosynthesis, and a
relatively safe environment in which
to live.
Illustration of Paramecium caudatum
Watercolor illustrations of
microorganisms courtesy of
the artist, Leslie Russell
The ten-minute “Observation Log” gives detailed information on some of the
organisms encountered by the Cyclops along with some of their relatives. The
organisms are all seen in natural time.
In the final observation section (without narration) see if you and your students
can find the two protozoans not seen by Cyclops. Perhaps you can identify them
using the reference book listed
on page 8.
Back To Intro
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 6
Teacher’s Guide
Use the Protozoans and Algae video to excite your students with the idea of visiting a local pond or wetland
in order to discover and study single celled life forms, and through these activities to better understand the
ecology of these habitats.
Relevant National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8
Reproduction and Heredity
-
Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever,
reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually.
Other organisms reproduce sexually.
Protozoans and algae are wonderful subjects for observing biological reproduction. See how many examples of
reproduction can be found in the video program.
Regulation and Behavior
-
Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A
behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ
systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity
and in part from experience.
Protozoans respond to their environment. Examine Paramecium to see how it responds to obstacles in its path,
and to food.
Populations and Ecosystems
-
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and
some micro-organisms are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are
consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi,
are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
Identify each organism found by the Cyclops crew as producer, decomposer, scavenger, predator.
For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is
transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from
organism to organism in food webs.
Diagram a food web that relies on single celled life.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms grades 5-8
-
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over
many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation,
which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations
include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive
success in a particular environment.
What adaptations (structures or behaviors that function to promote the organism’s survival ) can be listed for
the organisms found by Cyclops?
Back To Intro
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 7
Concept Words used in this Lesson
Habitat: The place where an organism lives.
Microorganisms : Small living things that can only be adequately observed
with the aid of magnification.
Macroorganisms: Organisms that can seen without magnification (although
enlargement may be needed to see their structures)
Algae: Common name for photosynthetic organisms other than plants.
Protozoans: The common name for independently living nucleated
cells that are not photosynthetic. (although some very active green cells, such
as Euglena, are often called protozoans)
Protists: A general term used to describe all kinds of independently living,
nucleated cells and their multicellular relatives.
Cilia: Short hair-like organelles on the surface of protozoans that beat against
the water producing locomotion and feeding currents.
Flagella: Long whips, used in various ways to propel flagellated protists
through the water. Cilia and flagella have the same molecular make up.
Pseudopodia: “false feet” are projections used by amoeboid protists to move
over surfaces and to surround and engulf food.
Observational and informational resources
Books:
Rainis and Russell, Guide to Microlife, Franklin Watts Publisher (identification, color photos, and life
descriptions of common forms of microlife including plankton)
Golden Book of Ponds
Videos:
The Small Life of Ponds and Wetlands, BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
CD-ROMs:
The Wetlands Explorer, BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Back To Intro
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 8
Programs in the Eye of the Cyclops series
Plankton Play (15 minutes)
Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers dive into open water where they encounter the denizens
of the plankton: micro-crustaceans, insects, rotifers and protists, all showing unique adaptations for
open water life.
Decomposers Everywhere (15 minutes)
Settling their craft into the bottom, the micronauts discover that the bottom ooze is populated by
bacteria, the microbes that decompose and recycle organic materials—an unforgettable visual introduction to living bacteria.
Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis (15 minutes)
In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued and its green secrets revealed through experiments
performed on board the Cyclops. They discover how algae start food chains that ultimately sustains
the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and around the pond.
Protozoans and Algae (15 minutes)
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
White Water Adventure (15 minutes)
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Discovering a Forest Microcosm (15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
eBioMEDIA • P.O. Box 1234 • Beaufort, SC • 29901-1234
ORDER/INFO: (877) 661-5355/(843) 470-0236
FAX: (843) 470-0237
Back To Intro
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 9
Teacher’s Key to Organisms
Spirogyra
Paramecium
anterior end
1. contractile vacuole
2. oral groove
3. macronucleus
4. micronucleus
5. cilia
6. lysosomes
1
3
1
1. zygote
2. conjugating strands
3. conjugation tube
4. spirogyra filament
5. chloroplast
6. nucleus
2
3
4
5
6
2
4
Euglena
5
1. nucleus
2. stigma (eyespot)
3. chloroplast
4. mitochondrion
5. locomotor flagellum
6
posterior end
5
2
3
1
1
2
4
3
4
5
6
Amoeba
1. advancing speudopodium
2. granular endoplasm
3. food vacuole
4. ectoplasm
5. nucleus
6. contractile vacuole
Back To Intro
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 10
Student Research
Pond water—Look but don’t drink:
If you collect jars of pond water, adding in some decomposing plant material from the
pond bottom, you will find many of these organisms along with others. Collect from
different habitats in the pond and from different natural water sources and see what you
can discover.
One of the ways to increase the numbers of protozoans living in your collections is to keep your collection in a warm
room (but away from direct sunlight) for several days. Under these conditions many kinds of protozoans will reproduce
rapidly giving you a better chance of finding them in sample.
Naked eye observation:
Use a flashlight or desk lamp held at an angle behind the culture jar while you look
through the jar at a dark background—a technique called back-lighting. Often you will be
able to see tiny specks swimming through he water—but only if lit from behind. Be careful
not to shake the jar and disrupt the various kinds of protozoans that have settled into
microhabitats in the culture. Use an eyedropper to pick up any large cells, or swarms of
smaller cells for microscopic examination.
Tips for microscope viewing of protozoans and algae:
If a DiscoveryScope or stereo dissecting microscope is available you can travel into the
magical world of microspace. Using back-lighting, magnification of 10X to 20X is plenty
for observing most large protozoans. The wide field of view you get using these instruments is great for observing behavior—like watching a football game from the stands.
Using a microscope is like watching the same game through a powerful telescope; all you
might see during a play is someone’s number.
When you want to examine the cell structure of a protozoan there is no substitute for a
laboratory microscope.
Always start a hunt with the widest field objective lens (lowest magnification).
When hunting, remember that these cells are very transparent, and so difficult to see.
One trick is to increase contrast by closing the iris.
To understand the best ways to use a microscope for viewing living cells, see the video program
Imaging a Hidden World, available from www.ebiomedia.com.
Project: A local survey of protozoans and algae.
Assume you have just landed on Earth from another world. Your assignment is to survey
and report on the single celled life found in your survey area.
• Send out collectors.
• Assign researchers to examine samples.
• Identify your specimens.
• Compile your report.
Back To Intro
Protozoans and Algae Study Guide, 11
Protist Gallery
These organisms were collected from a small pond using a plankton net. As a biologist
interested in classification, organize this set into groups of protozoans and groups of algae.
1
2
3
4
5
6
All images © 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
7
8
9
Photography by Bruce J. Russell
Back To Intro
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 1
Eye of the Cyclops
Series Teaching Guides
Food Chains
Begin with Photosynthesis
Copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Environment: a freshwater pond
Habitat: the open water
Permission is given to copy or print this guide for use within institutions that have purchased the Food Chains
Begin with Photosynthesis video program. All images are property of BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES and cannot be
resold without permission.
Contents of this guide...
• About Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis
• Teacher’s guide with national science standards
• Student Research Problems
• Photosynthesis Gallery
page 3...
page 6...
page 9...
page 10...
In this episode...
In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued and its green secrets revealed
through experiments performed on board the Cyclops. The ship’s naturalist
discovers that, given light, the green cell generates oxygen (something the crew
is in dire need of at the time) along with several kinds of food molecules. Swimming outside, the micronauts see vast numbers of green photosynthetic cells.
Larger cells show up and start gorging on the algae, creating a food chain that
ultimately sustains the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and
around the pond.
Back To Intro
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 2
Cyclops
Vehicle Dimensions
LENGTH
BEAM
1 mm
.65 mm
Vehicle Mission
Maximum speed
Maximum depth
Mission duration
10 centimeters per minute
2.5 meters
50 days
The microsubmersible Cyclops is designed for extended exploration of
freshwater ponds and streams. The vehicle carries a crew of four. There are
two onboard auxilary craft: a diving bell and a terrestrial crawler (disassembled). Imagine what the pond environment looks like to these explorers
(only 50 microns tall). What unique problems might the crew encounter?
How would they acquire building materials, such as glass? Where would
they find fuel and oxygen?
airlock
engine room
observation/pilothouse
diving room
diving bell
laboratory
bunkhouse
emergency escape hatch
storage modules
grabber claws
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Back To Intro
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 3
ABOUT FOOD CHAINS AND THE PROCESS OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy into chemical energy useful to
living things. It occurs in green plants, green algae, yellow and red algae, and in certain
kinds of bacteria.
Chloroplasts are filled with stacks of discs covered with
chlorophyll molecules that absorb blue and red wave
lengths, reflecting away the green.
In plant leaves, and in algae, the cells contain
many particles often shaped like green jelly
beans, but in the cell captured by Lyra, the
green particle was bent around the cell
nucleus like a horseshoe. These particles
are called chloroplasts, because they
contain chlorophyll molecules. Chlorophyll molecules absorb light energy in
the blue and red regions of the spectrum and reflect away green—which
explains why plants appear green.
The organism captured by
Lyra, has a horseshoe-shaped chloroplast.
Back To Intro
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 4
In ponds, algae cells are used as food by all sorts of small animals and protists.
In this episode of Eye of the Cyclops the crew witnesses an attack by Paramecia and other
ciliated protists on a swarm of small green cells. The abundant green cells create an unusual feeding opportunity for Paramecium which usually subsists on a bacteria diet.
The paramecia, in turn, become
food for small pond animals such
as baby fish, mosquito larva, water
worms, and colonies of filterfeeding animals known as the
bryozoan colony seen at the end of
the episode. Dead organisms and
waste materials fall to the pond
bottom where they are digested by
bacteria. Bacteria are eaten by
protozoans. The protozoans are
eaten by small water animals and
so on.
The always adventurous Lyra is caught in the feeding currents
produced by Paramecia (a frame from the video program).
At each step in the food chain, only part of the energy contained in the organism being
eaten is stored in the cells and tissues of the eater. A rough rule is that only about 10% of
the energy moves from one food chain step to the next. Using the 10% rule try creating an
“energy pyramid” if the top consumer is a Great Blue Heron that weighs ten pounds. The
food chain steps, working backward from the Heron would be—Heron eats fish, fish eats
mosquito larva, mosquito larva eats Paramecium, Paramecium eats single cell green alga.
Calculate how many pounds of algae are represented by that 10 pound Heron.
Food chain terminology:
producer: an organism that manufactures biological molecules from raw
materials using light energy (photosynthesis), or energy stored in inorganic molecules (chemosynthesis).
first level consumer: An organism that eats the producer. In this case
Paramecium was acting as a first level consumer when it engulfed the
green photosynthetic cells.
second level consumer: An organism that feeds on first level consumers,
and so on.
Back To Intro
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 5
Building the pyramids ...
At each step in the food chain, only part of the energy contained in the organism being
eaten is stored in the cells and tissues of the eater. A rough rule is that only about 10% of
the energy moves from one food chain step to the next. Using the 10% rule try creating an
“energy pyramid” if the top consumer is a Great Blue Heron that weighs ten pounds.
heron
fish
insect larva
Paramecium
algae
?
The food chain steps, working backward from the heron would be—heron eats fish, fish
eats mosquito larva, mosquito larva eats Paramecium, Paramecium eats single cell green
alga. Calculate how many pounds of algae are represented by that 10 pound heron.
Back To Intro
Teacher’s Guide
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 6
Relevant National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8
Populations and Ecosystems
-
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and
some micro-organisms are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are
consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi,
are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
-
For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is
transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from
organism to organism in food webs.
With observation, students should be able to identify local organisms (including small life) as producer, or
assign the organisms to a consumer level. They should be able to create energy pyramids for local ecosystems.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms grades 5-8
-
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over
many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation,
which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations
include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive
success in a particular environment.
Student should be able to list a number of adaptations used in feeding.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms grades 5-8
-
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over
many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation,
which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations
include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive
success in a particular environment.
From Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis: One of the main themes developed in the Eye of the
Cyclops video series is that in living things structure is related to function—a key concept in understanding
the process of adaptation. Each structure, behavior, or physiological process observed can be understood in
terms of its survival value, and this forms a basis for discussion of natural selection, the principle that explains
how these structures, behaviors, and processes came to be.
Correlation with Middle School Science Text Books
Visit our website, www.eBioMEDIA.com to consult a newly updated list of text books that dovetail with Eye
of the Cyclops. With texts being reprinted constantly, this online list will help you design effective science
lessons that mesh with the books you’re using in the classroom.
Back To Intro
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 7
Concept Words used in this Program
Habitat: the place where an organism lives.
Unicellular algae: single celled photosynthetic organisms.
Protist: general name for unicellular life.
Enzymes: protein molecules that catalyze reactions such as the digestion of largeorganic
molecules, breaking them down into their molecular building blocks.
Phagocytosis: the engulfment for food particles (other organisms) by cells.
Food Vacuoles: membrane bubbles within cells where digestion occurs.
Chloroplast: the green organelles found in plant cells and in green algae.
Chloroplasts carry out the process of photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis: the fundamental energy transforming process on which almost all living things
depend. The process of converting light energy into the chemical bond energy contained in
organic molecule.
Ecosystem: all of the organisms the interact with each other living in a particular environment.
Examples: a pond ecosystem, a stream ecosystem, a forest ecosystem.
Food chains: description of who eats whom.
Producer: an organisms that gets energy from light or from inorganic chemicals.
Consumer: an organism that obtains energy by eating other organisms.
Decomposers: organisms such as bacteria and fungi that break down organic molecules in the
environment .
Ecological pyramid: a graphic presentation that shows the relationship of producer organisms to
consumer organisms. These graphs show at a glance the amounts of energy transferred through
a food chain.
Adaptation: a structure, behavior, or physiological process that fits the organism to its niche. A
structure that has survival value.
Rainis and Russell, Guide to Microlife, Franklin Watts Publisher (identification, color photos, and life
descriptions of common forms of microlife including plankton)
Golden Book of Ponds
Video Programs:
The Small Life of Ponds and Wetlands, BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
CD-ROMs:
The Wetlands Explorer, BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Back To Intro
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 8
Programs in the Eye of the Cyclops series
Plankton Play (15 minutes)
Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers dive into open water where they encounter the denizens
of the plankton: micro-crustaceans, insects, rotifers and protists, all showing unique adaptations for
open water life.
Decomposers Everywhere (15 minutes)
Settling their craft into the bottom, the micronauts discover that the bottom ooze is populated by
bacteria, the microbes that decompose and recycle organic materials—an unforgettable visual introduction to living bacteria.
Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis (15 minutes)
In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued and its green secrets revealed through experiments
performed on board the Cyclops. They discover how algae start food chains that ultimately sustains
the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and around the pond.
Protozoans and Algae (15 minutes)
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
White Water Adventure (15 minutes)
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Discovering a Forest Microcosm (15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
eBioMEDIA • P.O. Box 1234 • Beaufort, SC • 29901-1234
ORDER/INFO: (877) 661-5355/(843) 470-0236
FAX: (843) 470-0237
Back To Intro
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 9
Student Research
Looking for green jelly beans with a microscope
This is your chance to observe the particle on which almost all life depends—the
chloroplast.
Try examining subjects you think might contain chloroplasts. The best ones will be
very thin so that light can pass through the subject.
Some suggestions: tiny moss leaves placed in a drop of water and pressed flat with a
coverglass; a leaf of elodea, a common aquarium plant; any bright green algae
scraped from a damp wall or found in a pond or stream.
Can Earth support more rice eaters, or hamburger eaters?
Using the 10:1 conversion ration, estimate how many pounds of cattle food a growing
100 pound person who eats nothing but hamburgers represents.
Let’s go live on the moon—This is a sit down research problem requiring no field work or laboratory experiment.
Working with what you have learned from this video program create what you
consider would be the most efficient life support system for a self sufficient colony of
humans on the moon. Consider the type of food needed to support the colony, what
you would do with waste materials, where would oxygen needed for life be obtained, and any related questions that come to mind. Tip—ecologists often use diagrams with arrows assigned to products, to depict such close systems.
Back To Intro
Food Chains Begins with Photosynthesis Study Guide, 10
Photosynthesis Gallery
Chloroplasts in plants are spheres or bean shaped (seen in the moss leaf cells). Chloroplasts in algae
take on different shapes. All have the same internal structure seen in the electron micrograph. Which
photo shows a first level consumer? Answers and key are posted on our Galleries web section.
1
4
2
5
3
6
All images copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
Back To Intro
Predators Study Guide, 1
Eye of the Cyclops
Video Series Teaching Guides
Predators of the Shallows
Copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Environment: a freshwater pond
Habitat: the weedy shallows
Contents of this guide...
• About the organisms from Predators
• Teacher’s guide to the Predators program
• Student Research Problems
• Predator Gallery
page 3...
page 5...
page 9...
page 11...
Permission is given to copy or print this guide for use within institutions that have purchased the Predators of the
Shallows video program. All images are property of BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES and cannot be resold without
permission.
In this episode...
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by
predatory flatworms, the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of
Hydra. Using the diving bell, the ship’s naturalist ventures inside the monster to
observe the digestion of its victim, gaining new insights into the chemical processes involved in the breakdown of prey animals.
Predators Study Guide, 2
Cyclops
Vehicle Dimensions
LENGTH
BEAM
1 mm
.65 mm
Vehicle Mission
Maximum speed
Maximum depth
Mission duration
10 centimeters per minute
2.5 meters
50 days
The microsubmersible Cyclops is designed for extended exploration of
freshwater ponds and streams. The vehicle carries a crew of four. There are
two onboard auxilary craft: a diving bell and a terrestrial crawler (disassembled). Imagine what the pond environment looks like to these explorers
(only 50 microns tall). What unique problems might the crew encounter?
How would they acquire building materials, such as glass? Where would
they find fuel and oxygen?
airlock
engine room
observation/pilothouse
diving room
diving bell
laboratory
bunkhouse
emergency escape hatch
storage modules
grabber claws
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Predators Study Guide, 3
About the Organisms
Predators of the Weedy Shallows
The weedy shallows provide hiding places and attachment spots for small invertebrates
such as the two featured in this episode: Planaria and Hydra. Planaria is a versatile
feeder, able to seek out and scavenge dead organisms. It is also able to capture live prey.
Hydra is a true monster of the microcosm capturing small water animals that run into its
well- armed tentacles.
Planaria
You will never forget Planaria, once you have looked into its “crossed eyes.” Planarians
belong to a group of invertebrate animals (phylum Platyhelminthes) that also includes
flukes and tapeworms.
Planaria’s “eyes” are light sensitive spots that
allow planarians to avoid direct sunlight. Thus
they spend most of their time on the underside
of rocks and leaves.
The ear-like projections are loaded with chemical receptors. Moving its head from side to
side allows a planarian to sense the gradient of
chemical signals diffusing out from a food
source allowing it to home in on food.
Planarians and their relatives have mouths
located in the center of their bellies. A feeding
tube extends through the mouth opening and
sucks in the food, which is distributed through
the worm’s three branched intestine.
Dugesia, a planarian
To find flatworms for study :
• Wiggle a net through the aquatic vegetation and examine the collection in a white pan.
• Slide a pan under a mass of aquatic plants. Lift the dish to the water’s surface and give the
plants a shake, causing planarians and other small water animals to rain into the dish.
• Lift stream rocks into your pan and rinse off any flatworms clinging to the bottom of the rock.
• Bait for planarians with a small glob of canned pet food tied up in an old nylon stocking and
placed underneath a rock. After a few hours the bait may be covered with feasting planarians.
Predators Study Guide, 4
Hydra
Hydra belongs to the phylum Cnidaria, along with jellyfish and sea anemones.
Hydra captures small crustaceans that run into its tentacles.
Its tentacles are armed with
highly specialized cells called
nematocysts. The nematocysts
are tipped with trigger hairs
that, when touched, fire out
sticky filaments that entangle
the prey while other nematocysts inject paralyzing poisons.
Once captured the prey is
slowly engulfed by the stretchable mouth.
Because Hydra has a singleended gut, undigested material
must be regurgitated.
Hydra reproduces asexually by
budding off new individuals
from its body wall, a fascinating
process to observe. Hydras also
produce eggs and sperm. The
fertilized egg forms a thick
walled zygote that can withstand freezing.
Watercolor illustrations of
microorganisms courtesy of
the artist, Leslie Russell
The Green Hydra
Green hydras are host to thousands of algae cells that they farm in their tissues in a
symbiotic relationship. Green hydras will collect on the side of the culture facing
the light, giving their guests maximum opportunity for photosynthesis.
Predators Study Guide, 5
Teacher’s Guide
Use the Predators of the Shallows video to excite your students with the idea of visiting a local pond or
wetland in order to discover and study single celled life forms, and through these activities to better understand the ecology of these habitats.
Relevant National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8
Reproduction and Heredity
-
Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever,
reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually.
Other organisms reproduce sexually.
Small invertebrate animals are wonderful subjects for observing biological reproduction. Hydra shows both
sexual and asexual modes of reproduction.
Regulation and Behavior
-
Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A
behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ
systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity
and in part from experience.
Planaria’s ability to locating food using chemical signals is an example of hereditary behavior, as is Hydra’s
feeding and locomotion.
Populations and Ecosystems
-
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and
some micro-organisms are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are
consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi,
are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
How might predators such as Hydra affect their prey’s population?
For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is
transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from
organism to organism in food webs.
Diagram a pond food web that includes Hydra and Planaria.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms grades 5-8
-
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over
many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation,
which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations
include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive
success in a particular environment.
What adaptations (structures or behaviors that function to promote the organism’s survival ) can be listed for
the predators found by Cyclops?
Predators Study Guide, 6
Concept Words used in this Lesson
Habitat: The place where an organism lives.
Microorganisms: Small living things that can only be adequately observed
with the aid of magnification.
Macroorganisms: Organisms that can seen without magnification (although
enlargement may be needed to see their structures)
Planarian: These are the familiar flatworms of ponds and slow streams. The
“cross eyes” are light receptors and the “ears” are smell detectors, used in
locating food.
Regeneration: The process of replacing lost body parts.
Hydra: Hydra is one of the few freshwater cnidarians, a group of primitive
animals that includes sea anemones, corals and jellyfish.
Stinging Cells: Hydra’s tentacles are covered with specialized cells that
harpoon, bind, and poison their prey.
Observational and informational resources
Books:
Rainis and Russell, Guide to Microlife, Franklin Watts Publisher (identification, color photos, and life
descriptions of common forms of microlife including plankton)
Golden Book of Ponds
Videos:
The Small Life of Ponds and Wetlands, BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
CD-ROMs:
The Wetlands Explorer, BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Predators Study Guide, 7
Programs in the Eye of the Cyclops series
Plankton Play (15 minutes)
Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers dive into open water where they encounter the denizens
of the plankton: micro-crustaceans, insects, rotifers and protists, all showing unique adaptations for
open water life.
Decomposers Everywhere (15 minutes)
Settling their craft into the bottom, the micronauts discover that the bottom ooze is populated by
bacteria, the microbes that decompose and recycle organic materials—an unforgettable visual introduction to living bacteria.
Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis (15 minutes)
In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued and its green secrets revealed through experiments
performed on board the Cyclops. They discover how algae start food chains that ultimately sustains
the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and around the pond.
Protozoans and Algae (15 minutes)
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
White Water Adventure (15 minutes)
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Discovering a Forest Microcosm (15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
eBioMEDIA • P.O. Box 1234 • Beaufort, SC • 29901-1234
ORDER/INFO: (877) 661-5355/(843) 470-0236
FAX: (843) 470-0237
Predators Study Guide, 8
Teacher’s Key to Organisms
1
2
Planaria
3
1. brain
2. light sensor
3. sensory lobe
4. three-branched intestine
5. feeding tube
4
5
1
Hydra
3
2
4
1. tentacles with stinging cells
2. mouth
3. epidermis
4. gastrodermis
5. egg on ovary
6. bud
7. testis
8. Copepod undergoing digestion
9. basal disc
5
7
8
6
9
Student Research
Predators Study Guide, 9
Observing flatworms...
After capturing them (page 3), use an eyedropper to transfer planarians into a dish for study, or better yet put
them into a DiscoveryScope® chamber for field examination. How do they move? Do they have internal organs?
Are there different kinds of planarians in your collection?
Keep planarians in a cool, dimly lit place. Plastic drink cups, partly filled with pond water, make good
temporary homes. In a few days the worms will become “hungry” giving you a chance to observe their
amazing feeding behavior. A fragment of lunch meat, or a rolled up pellet of moist pet food about the size of
a small pea usually produces a feeding response. After washing and blotting the food with a paper towel to
remove most of the oils, place it in a DiscoveryScope® chamber (or in a dish under a stereo dissecting microscope) with one or two planarians. How does a planarian locate its food? Where is its mouth? What sort of intestine does it have?
When scavengers turn predator...
Confine an aquatic insect or large brine shrimp (available at pet food stores) with a planarian and see what
happens. It’s fascinating, if somewhat horrifying, to observe the worm hunt a wounded water animal. We
have seen planarians bend a mosquito larva until its exoskeleton ruptured. The worm them inserted its
feeding tube and explored the mosquito’s body, sucking out its organs until the last tidbit, an eye, vanished
down the worm’s mouth.
Reproduction by regeneration...
If planarians are kept in their individual plastic cups and fed regularly (with frequent changes of water) they
may pull apart, a normal method of reproduction in which each half regenerates its missing parts. Questions
for investigation: How small a piece will regenerate into a complete worm? Will a middle, without head or tail,
regenerate its missing parts? Do head pieces regenerate faster than tail pieces? TIP—to cut planarians for regeneration studies, place them on a melting ice cube and use a sharp razor blade.
How to find killer flatworms...
Temporary pools that fill with rain or snow melt often have populations of flatworms that produce thick
shelled resistant eggs able to withstand drying and freezing. Some of these predators use sticky threads to
trap their prey. Once captured, the worms use a muscular pharynx to inject digestive enzymes and suck out
their prey’s organs and tissues. Hunt for these predators in both ponds, and temporary rain or snow melt
pools. Pools that contain water for at least a month are the best bets for finding predatory flatworms.
Predators Study Guide, 10
Hydra—monster of the microcosm
Hydra is a predator of weedy shallows. Because they live attached to plants and other underwater surfaces,
hydras are easy to collect and study with a DiscoveryScope® or stereo dissecting microscope. Green hydras
show up best against white, light colored ones against dark backgrounds. If duckweed (tiny, bright green
floating leaves with rootlets hanging below) is present, check the hanging rootlets—a favorite attachment site
for Hydra .
When examining try different lighting methods to see hydra’s anatomy. Do any have “buds?” Have they eaten
recently? Can you see the little bumps on the tentacles where stinging cells are housed? Do any have protozoans
running about on their body and tentacles?
A quiet feeding frenzy...
A cloths-hanger/stocking net swept through the pond weeds will often capture great numbers of Daphnia and
other small crustaceans—dinners for Hydra. Add a few Daphnia and observe with these questions in mind:
How does Hydra capture its prey? Does it paralyze its victim before swallowing? How long does digestion take?
What happens to the undigested portion of the meal?
Cloning new hydras by budding...
Hydras reproduce by budding. In the days following a large meal, you may be able to discover how Hydra
reproduces by budding off a new individual and how long the process takes.
Sex before freezing...
In the fall look for hydras with lumpy growths of whitish tissue on their bodies. These are sex organs that
produce eggs and sperm. Sperm are released into the water and must swim to find and fertilize an egg,
usually on another Hydra. If you find fertilized eggs (zygotes) clinging to the sides of hydras, try freezing
some for a few days. Can the eggs produce new hydras after this treatment?
Predators Study Guide, 11
Predator Gallery
1
2
3
4
5
All images © 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
6
Photography by Bruce J. Russell
Back to Intro
Decomposers Everywhere! Study Guide, 1
Eye of the Cyclops
Series Teaching Guides
Decomposers Everywhere!
Copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Environment: a freshwater pond
Habitat: the open water
Permission is given to copy or print this guide for use within institutions that have purchased the Decomposers
Everywhere! video program. All images are property of BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES and cannot be resold without
permission.
Contents of this guide...
• About Decomposers Everywhere!
• Teacher’s guide with national science standards
• Student Research Problems
• Decomposers Gallery
page 3...
page 4...
page 7...
page 8...
In this episode...
Settling their craft into the bottom, the Cyclops’ crew discover that the bottom ooze is populated
by bacteria, thousands per cubic millimeter. They capture one and investigate the chemical
methods it uses to decompose organic material—digestive enzymes secreted through tiny pores
in its outer covering. The debriefing discussion shows the many kinds of living bacteria that
carry out decomposition—rods, a variety of spiral shaped cells with flagellar propellers at each
end, and spirochetes—an unforgettable visual introduction to living bacteria.
Back to Intro
Decomposers Everywhere! Study Guide, 2
Cyclops
Vehicle Dimensions
LENGTH
BEAM
1 mm
.65 mm
Vehicle Mission
Maximum speed
Maximum depth
Mission duration
10 centimeters per minute
2.5 meters
50 days
The microsubmersible Cyclops is designed for extended exploration of
freshwater ponds and streams. The vehicle carries a crew of four. There are
two onboard auxilary craft: a diving bell and a terrestrial crawler (disassembled). Imagine what the pond environment looks like to these explorers
(only 50 microns tall). What unique problems might the crew encounter?
How would they acquire building materials, such as glass? Where would
they find fuel and oxygen?
airlock
engine room
observation/pilothouse
diving room
diving bell
laboratory
bunkhouse
emergency escape hatch
storage modules
grabber claws
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Back to Intro
Decomposers Everywhere! Study Guide, 3
About the organisms
POND BACTERIA
The layer of loose organic material covering a pond bottom is swarming with life. This
bottom ooze is where organic material is broken down and its vital elements recycled. The
agents responsible are decomposer bacteria, including some of the largest and most interesting representatives of these tiny cells.
Live bacteria from pond bottom sample.
The kinds of bacteria are often thought of as the familiar spheres, rods and spiral bacteria
seen in medical text books. However, a pinch of soil will contain millions of bacterial cells
representing hundreds and possibly thousands of different kinds. Very little is known
about these “wild” bacteria, and only a small percentage have been cultured and named.
With enough effort, it’s likely that several million different kinds could be described living
in soil and in wetlands. Also each species of animal, plant, and fungi has its own types of
bacteria. Just think of how that increases the number of bacteria species.
Because bacteria can have many generations a day, their evolution into distinct new types
can occur quite rapidly. Disease causing bacteria, for example, quickly evolve antibiotic
resistant strains, keeping medical science on a constant search for new antibiotics.
Decomposer bacteria secrete digestive enzymes into their environment. The enzymes
attack dead organic material breaking it down into simple building-block molecules.
Bacteria absorb these building blocks and use them for energy and also to build new bacterial proteins, fats, carbohydrates and nucleic acids.
Bacteria become food for bacteria feeding protists such as Paramecium, beginning food
chains based on decomposition.
Back to Intro
Decomposers Everywhere! Study Guide, 4
Teacher’s Guide
Use the Decomposers Everywhere video to excite your students with the idea of visiting a local pond or
wetland in order to discover and study naturally occurring bacteria, and through these activities to better
understand the ecology of these habitats.
Relevant National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8
Reproduction and Heredity
-
Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever,
reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually.
Other organisms reproduce sexually.
Bacteria reproduce by simple division, and are the most rapid reproducers found in nature. They also come
together and exchange genetic material, one of the qualities of sexual reproduction.
Regulation and Behavior
-
Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A
behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ
systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity
and in part from experience.
Motile bacteria respond to chemical signals that keep them near their food supply.
Populations and Ecosystems
-
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and
some micro-organisms are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are
consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi,
are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
This is a main theme of the video program Decomposers Everywhere.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms grades 5-8
-
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over
many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation,
which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations
include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive
success in a particular environment.
What adaptations (structures or behaviors that function to promote the organism’s survival ) can be listed for
the bacteria found by Cyclops?
Correlation with Middle School Science Text Books
Visit our website, www.eBioMEDIA.com to consult a newly updated list of text books that dovetail with Eye
of the Cyclops. With texts being reprinted constantly, this online list will help you design effective science
lessons that mesh with the books you’re using in the classroom.
Back to Intro
Decomposers Everywhere! Study Guide, 5
Concept Words used in this Program
Habitat: The place where an organism lives.
Microorganisms: Small living things that can only be adequately
observed with the aid of magnification.
Macroorganisms: Organisms that can seen without magnification
(although enlargement may be needed to see their structures)
Bacterium: A simple single celled organisms lacking nucleus and
organelles.
Cyanobacteria: A branch of Bacteria composed of species that carry
out water-splitting photosynthesis.
Enzymes: Large proteins that act as catalysts to promote specific
chemical reactions.
Digestion: Enzymatic breakdown of large organic molecules into their
molecular building blocks.
Fermentation: A type of anaerobic (no oxygen required) respiration
in which sugar molecules are broken down into carbon dioxide and two
carbon compounds such as alcohol.
Back to Intro
Decomposers Everywhere! Study Guide, 6
Programs in the Eye of the Cyclops series
Plankton Play (15 minutes)
Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers dive into open water where they encounter the denizens
of the plankton: micro-crustaceans, insects, rotifers and protists, all showing unique adaptations for
open water life.
Decomposers Everywhere (15 minutes)
Settling their craft into the bottom, the micronauts discover that the bottom ooze is populated by
bacteria, the microbes that decompose and recycle organic materials—an unforgettable visual introduction to living bacteria.
Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis (15 minutes)
In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued and its green secrets revealed through experiments
performed on board the Cyclops. They discover how algae start food chains that ultimately sustains
the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and around the pond.
Protozoans and Algae (15 minutes)
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
White Water Adventure (15 minutes)
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Discovering a Forest Microcosm (15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
eBioMEDIA • P.O. Box 1234 • Beaufort, SC • 29901-1234
ORDER/INFO: (877) 661-5355/(843) 470-0236
FAX: (843) 470-0237
Back to Intro
Decomposers Everywhere! Study Guide, 7
Student Research
To study bacteria in their natural environment,
create a “stinking brew culture.”
Place a handful of decomposing leaves into a jar and cover with aquarium or
pond water. This is one of the best ways to culture vast numbers of very
large bacteria, including many kinds that are easily observed with a student
microscope. Text books often suggest that the only way to see bacteria is to
kill and stain them on a microscope slide. This is the correct approach for
bacteria that cause disease, but when used to study decomposer bacteria, it
misses the most interesting aspects of these amazing microbes—their behavior.
TIP: When viewing living unstained bacteria close your microscope’s
iris diaphragm more than the normal amount in order to increase
contrast. If your microscope has diaphragm holes, try the smallest
hole. The increase in contrast is at the expense of resolution, but this
trade-off is often required when viewing clear, unstained subjects.
Also, see Guide to Microlifefor a method of adapting a laboratory microscope for “dark-field” viewing, a very effective way to observe bacteria and other transparent cells.
And you thought rabbits were rapid multipliers—Here is an interesting mental experiment: Begin with a bacillus (a rod shaped
bacterium) 10 micrometers in length and give it an unlimited food source
and optimum temperature so that it can divide every 30 minutes. Calculate
how long it would take for a string of these rapidly multiplying rods to reach
around the world.
They wiggle, they jiggle, they slide and they glide. Check it out.
Bacteria from the natural environment show a variety of shapes including
long filaments, gliding strands, chains and long and short rods with all degrees of twists. See how many different body forms you can find in your
“stinking brew” culture. Compare their movements. What survival advantages might be conferred by a bacterium’s shape and its motions?
Who are the simplest cells of all. Observe and compare.
Based on your own observations make a list of the differences between bacteria and protozoans.
Back to Intro
Decomposers Everywhere! Study Guide, 8
Decomposers Gallery
Bacteria • Fungi • Protists
Decide which organisms are bacteria, fungi, or protists. Which organism is not a
decomposer. Answers will be found in the gallery section of our web site.
1
4
2
5
3
6
All images copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
Back To Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Stream Study Guide Eye of theEyeCyclops
Study Guides
of the Cyclops
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 1
Series Teaching Guides
Stream Ecology
White Water Adventure
Copyright 2007 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Environment: fast creek or stream
Habitat: rock surfaces
Permission is given to copy or print this guide for use within institutions that have purchased the White Water
Adventure video program. All images are property of BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES and cannot be resold without
permission.
Contents of this guide...
• The Cyclops Micro Submersible
page 2
Contents of this guide...
• The organisms of the Fast Water
page 3
• About White Water Adventure organisms
page 3...
• Teacher’s Guide
page 6
• Teacher’s guide with national science standards page 6...
• Concept Words
page 7
• Student Research Problems
page 9...
• Student Research
page 8
• Stream Predator Gallery
page 10...
• Gallery of Organisms
page 9
In this episode...
Synopsis... En route to duck weed base, the Cyclops and crew are sucked into the pond outlet, where they
tumble into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects living under the
En route to Duck
base,
thefood
Cyclops
andand
crew
arefishes.
sucked
into the
outlet,they
where
they that
tumble into a
algaeWeed
coated
rocks,
for trout
other
Carried
intopond
the rapids
discover
rapidly flowing
stream
and
discover
a
world
of
aquatic
insects
living
under
the
algae
coated
rocks,
certain insects are marvelously adapted for living on water swept rocks, using hooks, stream-food for trout
lined
shapes,into
suckers
and safety
that allow
them
exploit this hazardous
and other fishes.
Carried
the rapids
theylines—adaptations
discover that certain
insects
are to
marvelously
adapted for living on
habitat.
water swept rocks, using hooks, streamlined shapes, suckers and safety lines—adaptations that allow them to
exploit this hazardous habitat.
Back to Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Stream Study Guide VehicleDimensions
LENGTH
BEAM
Plankton Play Study Guide, 2
Cyclops
VehicleMission
Maximum speed
Maximum depth
Mission duration
mm
.6 mm
0 centimeters per minute
2. meters
0 days
The microsubmersible Cyclops is designed for extended exploration of
freshwater ponds and streams. The vehicle carries a crew of four. There are
two onboard auxilary craft: a diving bell and a terrestrial crawler (disassembled). Imagine what the pond environment looks like to these explorers
(only 0 microns tall). What unique problems might the crew encounter?
How would they acquire building materials, such as glass? Where would
they find fuel and oxygen?
engine room
airlock
observation/pilothouse
diving room
diving bell
laboratory
bunkhouse
emergency escape hatch
storage modules
grabber claws
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Eye of the Cyclops: Stream Study Guide
Intro
Back To
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 3
About the organisms
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet and
washed down a small, rapidly flowing stream with a rocky bottom where they observe the
some of the most common types of aquatic insects inhabiting fast flowing streams.
Mayfly Larvae: The larval stage of many kinds of mayflys are adapted for under rock life
and for dealing with current. Look for: flattened bodies and appendages, mouth parts
adapted for scraping algae from the rocks. Mayfly larvae have rows of leaf-like gills along
their abdomens. The gills can be fanned to improve the uptake of dissolved oxygen and to
speed up carbon dioxide removal from the mayflies circulatory fluid being pumped
through branching vessels in each gill. The adult mayflies are short lived (some only live
for a day) mating and laying their eggs in the stream preferred snacks for hungry trout.
Cyclops examines a Caddisfly larva.
Caddisfly larvae: They look like moving sticks, or little tubes made of sand grains.
Caddisfly larvae cement these protective homes together as they grow. Like mayflies, they
harvest attached algae from the rocks. The adult caddisfly is easily identified by the way it
holds its wings—folded above its body like the roof of a house.
Back To Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Stream Study Guide White Water Adventure Study Guide, 4
Stonefly larvae: Stoneflies are usually found living underneath stream rocks where they
prey on mayflies, capturing them with their sharp mandibles. They are one of the largest
stream insects and a favorite food of trout. If conditions become stagnant, stonefly larvae
will begin doing “push ups” a behavior that helps circulate water over their tufts of gill
filaments located at the base of each leg. The adult stonefly looks much like the larva, but
with leathery wings.
Water tigers: These are the larval stages of diving beetles. The one shown is Dytiscus, the
giant water beetle. Dytiscus larva are surface breathers, periodically poking their tails
through the surface to take in air. Their feeding method is fascinating (and a little
horrifying)to observe. They attack fish and tadpoles, spearing their prey with rapier-like
mandibles. The mandibles are hollow and there is no mouth. After injecting digestive
enzymes into the prey, Dytiscus reverses its pump and sucks up the partially digested
content. Reasonable care should be taken when handling water tigers as the mandibles of a
large specimen are capable of piercing the soft parts of hands and fingers.
Down the Rapids and Over the Falls
At one point the Cyclops is swept over the lip of a small water fall, saved from serious
harm by washing into a plastic bottle. This gives the crew a unique opportunity to observe
stream insects from their undersides so that their adaptations for clinging to the waterswept rocks can be observed.
Netveined Midge Larvae: Midges are tiny flies, sometimes mistaken for mosquitoes. There
are many kinds of midges and most of them have a worm-like aquatic larva adapted for
feeding on detritus in the bottom of pools and ponds. The larva of the netveined midge as
evolved for life in a more demanding habitat—the rocky faces of waterfalls. It’s adaptation
to water fall life is a row of six suckers that allows it to cling to the rock face and move
around without being washed away. Algae cells adhere to the water swept rock and create
a food source for the “six sucker.”
The net veined midge larva photographed in a stream
chamber.
Back To Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Stream Study Guide White Water Adventure Study Guide, Water Penny: This extremely flattened insect is the larval stage of a small aquatic beetle.
Look for water pennies clinging to the rocks in stream rapids. Pressing one between two
microscope slides allows viewing the insect from its underside. This view shows the six
sharp hooked feet that permit the water penny to hang on to the current-swept rocks, and
the fringe of hairs around the outer shell that deflects the current, keeping it from getting
under the insect and washing it away. Fluffy tufts of gills collect dissolved oxygen and help
get rid of carbon dioxide. Under the microscope, the circulatory fluid can be seen coursing
through the insect’s flattened body. In this view, you can see the stubby mandibles used for
scraping algae from the rock.
Blackfly Larvae: Great masses of these worm-like larvae are found where sheets of water
race over the stream rocks. A smooth flow with little turbulence is a requirement for the
blackflies’ feeding style. Holding to the rock with a sucker-like basal disc, they throw out
filters that trap microorganisms and tiny bits of debris carried by the current. Periodically
the filters are drawn through the mouth parts and cleaned of food. If disturbed, the larva
releases its hold on the rock and drops down stream by playing out a safety line. After
things calm down, it climbs back up the line and reattaches to its feeding station. The
larvae pupate, often as the stream level is dropping, leaving the pupa exposed which assures successful hatching of the adults. Adult blackflies are blood-feeding parasites of
warm blooded animals. The small black flies burrow into the animal’s hair (or feathers),
nip through the skin while bathing the wound with a anesthetic that deadens feeling allowing a deep, blood letting bite. Anticoagulant is introduced to the wound, assuring a continuing blood flow from the small wound. After the fly has lapped up its blood meal, the
wound often continues bleeding, producing a large clot of blood as anyone who has lived
in blackfly country well knows.
Competition and Adaptation
One of the big ideas that grows out of observing stream life is that by living in extreme
condition, a species can avoid competition for food resources and avoid predation. It just
needs to be equipped for hanging on. This helps explain the remarkable evolutionary
adaptations seen in the inhabitants of rapids and waterfalls.
Eye of the Cyclops: Stream Study Guide Teacher’s Guide
Use Eye of the Cyclops: Stream Ecology unit to excite your students with the idea of visiting a local fast-moving
stream in order to discover and study aquatic insects and other stream inhabitants.
Reproduction and Heredity
Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever, reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually. Other organisms
reproduce sexually.
The Stream Ecology unit shows how many organisms exist for most of their lives in the larval stage, bollowed
by a brief adult phase where mating takes place.
Regulation and Behavior
Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A behavioral
response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ systems, and whole
organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity and in part from experience.
What behaviors are shown that aid an animal to live in rapidly flowing water?
Populations and Ecosystems
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and some micro-organisms are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are consumers, which
obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste
materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and
decomposers in an ecosystem.
Students should be able to create a food web diagram for the stream shown in the program.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the
selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures,
behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.
What adaptations (structures or behaviors that function to promote the organism’s survival ) can be listed for
the stream dwellers found by Cyclops?
Eye of the Cyclops: Stream Study Guide Concept Words used in this Program
Habitat: The place where an organism lives.
Microorganisms: Small living things that can only be adequately observed with
the aid of magnification.
Macroorganisms: Organisms that can seen without magnification (although
enlargement may be needed to see their structures)
Mayfly larva: A common type of aquatic insect with two tails and leaf-like gills
along the abdomen.
Caddisfly larva: An aquatic larva that builds a protective house from sticks or
stones, depending upon the species.
Stonefly larva: A large predacious larva with tufts of gill filaments on its thorax
near the legs. Stoneflies are usually found under stream rocks.
Water tiger: The common name of the predacious larva of the giant diving beetle.
The larva feeds by means of hypodermic mandibles.
Black fly larva: Larva of a small blood feeding fly. The larvae are always found in
rapidly flowing water.
Water Penny: The extremely flattened larva of a small water beetle.
Net veined midge larvae (the six sucker): These fly larvae live under the extremes
of current, often clinging to the rocks in water falls.
Adaptation: A structure, behavior, or physiological process that fits the organism
to its niche. A structure that has survival value.
Eye of the Cyclops: Stream Study Guide Back To Intro
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 9
Student Research
HOW TO COLLECT AND STUDY STREAM LIFE
• If you live near a rapidly flowing stream you can investigate
under-rock life by placing a net or screen in the water so that it
faces up stream.
• Turn up rocks just upstream from the net so that any insects
dislodged will drift into the net.
• Transfer your catch to a white pan for examination and
identification.
As a classroom project, create an observation stream and continue your study of stream life.
Glue strips of 1/4 plastic together to form a trough. The end pieces can be drilled to accept
a plastic tube. A submersible pump of the kind used in garden fountains and pools, submerged in a large container of water, will provide the current. Use screens to prevent your
subjects from making the trip through the pump.
With such a simple observation set up, and a hand lens or DiscoveryScope, you will be able
to study the behavior of stream insects just as though you were aboard the Cyclops.
Back To Intro
Eye of the Cyclops: Stream Study Guide White Water Adventure Study Guide, 10
Stream Insect Gallery
Can you name these stream dwellers? What kinds of adaptations for life in fast water
can be seen in these photos? --- For answers, check the Galleries section of our web site.
2
3
6
All images copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
All images copyright 2007 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
Eye of the Cyclops: Stream Study Guide 10
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
White Water Adventure (15 minutes)
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Discovering a Forest Microcosm (15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
eBioMEDIA • P.O. Box 1234 • Beaufort, SC • 29901-1234
ORDER/INFO: (877) 661-5355/(843) 470-0236
FAX: (843) 470-0237
Back To Intro
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 1
Eye of the Cyclops
Series Teaching Guides
White Water Adventure
Copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Environment: fast creek or stream
Habitat: rock surfaces
Permission is given to copy or print this guide for use within institutions that have purchased the White Water
Adventure video program. All images are property of BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES and cannot be resold without
permission.
Contents of this guide...
• About White Water Adventure organisms
• Teacher’s guide with national science standards
• Student Research Problems
• Stream Predator Gallery
page 3...
page 6...
page 9...
page 10...
In this episode...
En route to duck weed base, the Cyclops and crew are sucked into the pond outlet, where they
tumble into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects living under the
algae coated rocks, food for trout and other fishes. Carried into the rapids they discover that
certain insects are marvelously adapted for living on water swept rocks, using hooks, streamlined shapes, suckers and safety lines—adaptations that allow them to exploit this hazardous
habitat.
Back To Intro
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 2
Cyclops
Vehicle Dimensions
LENGTH
BEAM
1 mm
.65 mm
Vehicle Mission
Maximum speed
Maximum depth
Mission duration
10 centimeters per minute
2.5 meters
50 days
The microsubmersible Cyclops is designed for extended exploration of
freshwater ponds and streams. The vehicle carries a crew of four. There are
two onboard auxilary craft: a diving bell and a terrestrial crawler (disassembled). Imagine what the pond environment looks like to these explorers
(only 50 microns tall). What unique problems might the crew encounter?
How would they acquire building materials, such as glass? Where would
they find fuel and oxygen?
airlock
engine room
observation/pilothouse
diving room
diving bell
laboratory
bunkhouse
emergency escape hatch
storage modules
grabber claws
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Back To Intro
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 3
About the organisms
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet and
washed down a small, rapidly flowing stream with a rocky bottom where they observe the
some of the most common types of aquatic insects inhabiting fast flowing streams.
Mayfly Larvae: The larval stage of many kinds of mayflys are adapted for under rock life
and for dealing with current. Look for: flattened bodies and appendages, mouth parts
adapted for scraping algae from the rocks. Mayfly larvae have rows of leaf-like gills along
their abdomens. The gills can be fanned to improve the uptake of dissolved oxygen and to
speed up carbon dioxide removal from the mayflies circulatory fluid being pumped
through branching vessels in each gill. The adult mayflies are short lived (some only live
for a day) mating and laying their eggs in the stream preferred snacks for hungry trout.
Cyclops examines a Caddisfly larva.
Caddisfly larvae: They look like moving sticks, or little tubes made of sand grains.
Caddisfly larvae cement these protective homes together as they grow. Like mayflies, they
harvest attached algae from the rocks. The adult caddisfly is easily identified by the way it
holds its wings—folded above its body like the roof of a house.
Back To Intro
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 4
Stonefly larvae: Stoneflies are usually found living underneath stream rocks where they
prey on mayflies, capturing them with their sharp mandibles. They are one of the largest
stream insects and a favorite food of trout. If conditions become stagnant, stonefly larvae
will begin doing “push ups” a behavior that helps circulate water over their tufts of gill
filaments located at the base of each leg. The adult stonefly looks much like the larva, but
with leathery wings.
Water tigers: These are the larval stages of diving beetles. The one shown is Dytiscus, the
giant water beetle. Dytiscus larva are surface breathers, periodically poking their tails
through the surface to take in air. Their feeding method is fascinating (and a little
horrifying)to observe. They attack fish and tadpoles, spearing their prey with rapier-like
mandibles. The mandibles are hollow and there is no mouth. After injecting digestive
enzymes into the prey, Dytiscus reverses its pump and sucks up the partially digested
content. Reasonable care should be taken when handling water tigers as the mandibles of a
large specimen are capable of piercing the soft parts of hands and fingers.
Down the Rapids and Over the Falls
At one point the Cyclops is swept over the lip of a small water fall, saved from serious
harm by washing into a plastic bottle. This gives the crew a unique opportunity to observe
stream insects from their undersides so that their adaptations for clinging to the waterswept rocks can be observed.
Netveined Midge Larvae: Midges are tiny flies, sometimes mistaken for mosquitoes. There
are many kinds of midges and most of them have a worm-like aquatic larva adapted for
feeding on detritus in the bottom of pools and ponds. The larva of the netveined midge as
evolved for life in a more demanding habitat—the rocky faces of waterfalls. It’s adaptation
to water fall life is a row of six suckers that allows it to cling to the rock face and move
around without being washed away. Algae cells adhere to the water swept rock and create
a food source for the “six sucker.”
The net veined midge larva photographed in a stream
chamber.
Back To Intro
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 5
Water Penny: This extremely flattened insect is the larval stage of a small aquatic beetle.
Look for water pennies clinging to the rocks in stream rapids. Pressing one between two
microscope slides allows viewing the insect from its underside. This view shows the six
sharp hooked feet that permit the water penny to hang on to the current-swept rocks, and
the fringe of hairs around the outer shell that deflects the current, keeping it from getting
under the insect and washing it away. Fluffy tufts of gills collect dissolved oxygen and help
get rid of carbon dioxide. Under the microscope, the circulatory fluid can be seen coursing
through the insect’s flattened body. In this view, you can see the stubby mandibles used for
scraping algae from the rock.
Blackfly Larvae: Great masses of these worm-like larvae are found where sheets of water
race over the stream rocks. A smooth flow with little turbulence is a requirement for the
blackflies’ feeding style. Holding to the rock with a sucker-like basal disc, they throw out
filters that trap microorganisms and tiny bits of debris carried by the current. Periodically
the filters are drawn through the mouth parts and cleaned of food. If disturbed, the larva
releases its hold on the rock and drops down stream by playing out a safety line. After
things calm down, it climbs back up the line and reattaches to its feeding station. The
larvae pupate, often as the stream level is dropping, leaving the pupa exposed which assures successful hatching of the adults. Adult blackflies are blood-feeding parasites of
warm blooded animals. The small black flies burrow into the animal’s hair (or feathers),
nip through the skin while bathing the wound with a anesthetic that deadens feeling allowing a deep, blood letting bite. Anticoagulant is introduced to the wound, assuring a continuing blood flow from the small wound. After the fly has lapped up its blood meal, the
wound often continues bleeding, producing a large clot of blood as anyone who has lived
in blackfly country well knows.
Competition and Adaptation
One of the big ideas that grows out of observing stream life is that by living in extreme
condition, a species can avoid competition for food resources and avoid predation. It just
needs to be equipped for hanging on. This helps explain the remarkable evolutionary
adaptations seen in the inhabitants of rapids and waterfalls.
Back To Intro
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 6
Teacher’s Guide
Use the White Water Adventure video to excite your students with the idea of visiting a local stream in order
to discover and study aquatic insects and other stream inhabitants.
Relevant National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8
Reproduction and Heredity
-
Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever,
reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually.
Other organisms reproduce sexually.
Program shows how many organisms exist for most of their lives in the larval stage, bollowed by a brief adult
phase where mating takes place.
Regulation and Behavior
-
Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A
behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ
systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity
and in part from experience.
What behaviors are shown that aid an animal to live in rapidly flowing water.
Populations and Ecosystems
-
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and
some micro-organisms are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are
consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi,
are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
Students should be able to create a food web diagram for the stream shown in the program.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms grades 5-8
-
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over
many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation,
which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations
include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive
success in a particular environment.
What adaptations (structures or behaviors that function to promote the organism’s survival ) can be listed for
the stream dwellers found by Cyclops?
Correlation with Middle School Science Text Books
Visit our website, www.eBioMEDIA.com to consult a newly updated list of text books that dovetail with Eye
of the Cyclops. With texts being reprinted constantly, this online list will help you design effective science
lessons that mesh with the books you’re using in the classroom.
Back To Intro
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 7
Concept Words used in this Program
Habitat: The place where an organism lives.
Microorganisms : Small living things that can only be adequately observed with
the aid of magnification.
Macroorganisms: Organisms that can seen without magnification (although
enlargement may be needed to see their structures)
Mayfly larva: A common type of aquatic insect with two tails and leaf-like gills
along the abdomen.
Caddisfly larva: An aquatic larva that builds a protective house from sticks or
stones, depending upon the species.
Stonefly larva: A large predacious larva with tufts of gill filaments on its thorax near the legs. Stoneflies are usually found under stream rocks.
Water tiger: The common name of the predacious larva of the giant diving
beetle. The larva feeds by means of hypodermic mandibles.
Black fly larva: Larva of a small blood feeding fly. The larvae are always found
in rapidly flowing water.
Water Penny: The extremely flattened larva of a small water beetle.
Net veined midge larvae (the six sucker): These fly larvae live under the
extremes of current, often clinging to the rocks in water falls.
Adaptation: A structure, behavior, or physiological process that fits the organism to its niche. A structure that has survival value.
Back To Intro
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 8
Programs in the Eye of the Cyclops series
Plankton Play (15 minutes)
Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers dive into open water where they encounter the denizens
of the plankton: micro-crustaceans, insects, rotifers and protists, all showing unique adaptations for
open water life.
Decomposers Everywhere (15 minutes)
Settling their craft into the bottom, the micronauts discover that the bottom ooze is populated by
bacteria, the microbes that decompose and recycle organic materials—an unforgettable visual introduction to living bacteria.
Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis (15 minutes)
In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued and its green secrets revealed through experiments
performed on board the Cyclops. They discover how algae start food chains that ultimately sustains
the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and around the pond.
Protozoans and Algae (15 minutes)
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
White Water Adventure (15 minutes)
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Discovering a Forest Microcosm (15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
eBioMEDIA • P.O. Box 1234 • Beaufort, SC • 29901-1234
ORDER/INFO: (877) 661-5355/(843) 470-0236
FAX: (843) 470-0237
Back To Intro
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 9
Student Research
HOW TO COLLECT AND STUDY STREAM LIFE
• If you live near a rapidly flowing stream you can investigate
under-rock life by placing a net or screen in the water so that it
faces up stream.
• Turn up rocks just upstream from the net so that any insects
dislodged will drift into the net.
• Transfer your catch to a white pan for examination and
identification.
As a classroom project, create an observation stream and continue your study of stream life.
Glue strips of 1/4 plastic together to form a trough. The end pieces can be drilled to accept
a plastic tube. A submersible pump of the kind used in garden fountains and pools, submerged in a large container of water, will provide the current. Use screens to prevent your
subjects from making the trip through the pump.
With such a simple observation set up, and a hand lens or DiscoveryScope, you will be able
to study the behavior of stream insects just as though you were aboard the Cyclops.
Back To Intro
White Water Adventure Study Guide, 10
Stream Insect Gallery
Can you name these stream dwellers? What kinds of adaptations for life in fast water
can be seen in these photos? --- For answers, check the Galleries section of our web site.
1
4
2
5
3
6
All images copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
Back To Intro
Forest Microcosm Study Guide, 1
Eye of the Cyclops
Series Teaching Guides
Discovering a
Forest Microcosm
Copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Environment: the forest floor
Habitat: upper humus and rotting log
Permission is given to copy or print this guide for use within institutions that have purchased the Discovering a
Forest Microcosm video program. All images are property of BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES and cannot be resold
without permission.
Contents of this guide...
• About Forest Microcosm
• Teacher’s guide with national science standards
• Student Research Problems
• Forest Floor Gallery
page 3...
page 4...
page 7...
page 9...
In this episode...
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their Terra Rover and enters the forest,
traveling through the top inch of humus where they discover a world dominated by mites,
roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on which the
trees and larger forest creatures depend. Coming up beneath a rotting log, the crew steers their
rover into a termite gallery, where they discover a teeming community of protozoans that digest
wood in the termite’s gut.
Back To Intro
Forest Microcosm Study Guide, 2
Terra Rover
Vehicle Dimensions
LENGTH
HEIGHT
.5 mm
.25 mm
Vehicle Mission
Maximum speed
Mission duration
3 centimeters per minute
10 days
From the hold of the Cyclops the crew assembles the Terra Rover, a vehicle
designed for extended exploration of terrestrial surfaces. The vehicle supports a two-person crew. The Rover carries a diving bell for aquatic explorations while away from Cyclops. The Rover’s multi terrain wheels allow the
vehicle to climb near-vertical surfaces of soil, wood, or soft plant tissue. The
armored hull plates are resistant to chemical abrasives, in the event the Rover
is swallowed by some monstrous inhabitant of the terrestrial microcosm.
observation cabin
escape hatch
auxiliary diving bell
command cab
multi terrain wheels
steam power plant
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Back To Intro
Forest Microcosm Study Guide, 3
About the organisms
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a
world dominated by bacteria and fungi that supporting a diversity of arthropods, and
creating a forest floor ecosystem on which the trees themselves depend.
Isopods: Sow bug, pill bug, and rolly poly are some of the common names given to these
terrestrial crustaceans. Land inhabiting isopods live in moist microhabitats. Look for them
under boards, in forest floor humus, and in compost bins. Isoods tend to feed on detritus
and decomposing material of all kinds. Their respiration is carried out through “book
gills” located on their lower side. Much isopod behavior is centered on finding and remaining in humid conditions where the danger of dessication is limited and where decomposing food is apt to be more abundant. Defensive behavior consists of rolling up in a ball.
Millipedes: Millipedes are worm-like animals with many segments, each equipped with
two pair of jointed legs. They are plant and detritus feeders, often found in leaf piles,
rotting logs, and occassionally in bathroom shower drains. Most species have a chemical
defense system and some produce cyanide compounds that are poisonous to humans if
engested. However, there is little danger for the smell is a powerful deterrant to mouthing
a millipede.
Centipedes: Centipedes and Millipedes belong to phylum Arthropods, and they were
probably among the first arthropods to invade the land around 400 million years ago.
Unlike the slow moving millipedes, centipedes are fast and predatory. The same sharp
jaws that can skewer a cricket, can deliver a series of painful bites to soft human skin.
Other Humus Inhabitants: The forest floor is literally crawling with other forms of life. It
is a nematode stronghold, sometimes with thousands of tiny round worms per spoon ful.
Mites of various kinds live around the particles of decomposing plant material, and earth
worms till , process, and mix the soil. Fungal hyphae snake through the humus absorbing
nutrients, and bacteria are everywhere, breaking the leaves and other organic fallout back
down to basic raw materials that can be recycled into the living trees.
Termites: Fallen logs are a special habitat where one can examine an interesting relationship between termites and their internal guests. In temperate zone forests termites invade
fallen trees soon after bacteria and fungi have begun to softened the dead wood. The large
termites seen in this program do not attack houses (unless they are made of old, partially
decayed pine logs). They break down wood with the help of bacteria and protozoans that
live in special stomachs located near the end of the termites intestine. If a termite is
“cleaned” of its symbiotic helpers, using antibiotics, it will continue to eat wood. However,
without their services, it will soon die of log jam.
The relationship between termite and its wood digesting microbes is a classic example of
mutualistic symbiosis—each species requires the other inorder to survive. However, in the
video program you may notice that some kinds of protozoans do not appear to engulf
wood chips—what might they be doing in the termite’s gut?
Back To Intro
Forest Microcosm Study Guide, 4
Teacher’s Guide
Use Discovering a Forest Microcosm video to excite your students with the idea of visiting a local pond or
wetland in order to discover and study single celled life forms, and through these activities to better understand the ecology of these habitats.
Relevant National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8
Regulation and Behavior
-
Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A
behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ
systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity
and in part from experience.
This program shows many examples of social behavior in termites, defense behaviors in millipedes, centipedes,
and land isopods.
Populations and Ecosystems
-
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and
some micro-organisms are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are
consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi,
are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
The forest floor community shown in the video program can be analyzed as a special kind of food web based
upon decomposition of fall out from the trees above. Recycling forest nutrients can be understood through
observing the interactions of forest floor organisms.
-
For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight. Energy entering ecosystems as sunlight is
transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis. That energy then passes from
organism to organism in food webs.
This program shows that a complex biological community depends upon the trees and in turn, recycles nutrients used for tree growth.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms grades 5-8
-
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over
many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation,
which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations
include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive
success in a particular environment.
What adaptations (structures or behaviors that function to promote the organism’s survival ) can be listed for
the organisms found in the forest floor expedition?
Back To Intro
Forest Microcosm Study Guide, 5
Concept Words used in this Program
Habitat: The place where an organism lives.
Humus: The upper layer of the forest floor made up of decomposing plant material.
Bug: “bug” is a valid name for an insect belonging to a particular group of insects—the
Hemiptera, an order of insects that includes such familiar bugs as water striders and stink
bugs.
Sow bug: Not really a “bug” and not even an insect, sow bugs belong to a group of
crustaceans called isopods (similar legs). They are one of the few types of crustaceans
that can live on land.
Millipede: Worm-like arthropods with two pairs of legs per segment.
Centipedes: Distant relatives of millipedes with one pair of legs per segment.
Bacteria: A simple type of living cell with loosely distributed DNA (no nucleus). Bacteria
digest organic material such as fallen leaves.
Mushroom: The spore bearing structure of a fungus that spends most of its live as a
tangled mass of threads (mycelium) that digest organic material.
Spores: Air born reproductive cells produced by mushrooms and other types of fungi.
Termite: A wood eating colonial insect.
Soldier termite: A specialized member of the termite colony with large mandibles used
in defense of the colony.
Worker termite: The wood eating, female members of a termite colony.
Trichonympha: a large, chip engulfing protozoan found in woodland termites .
Digestion: The process of breaking down large organic molecules into their building
block molecules through the action of enzymes.
Symbiosis: A relationship in which two species live together.
Adaptation: A structure, behavior, or physiological process that fits the organism to its
niche. A structure that has survival value.
Back To Intro
Forest Microcosm Study Guide, 6
Programs in the Eye of the Cyclops series
Plankton Play (15 minutes)
Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers dive into open water where they encounter the denizens
of the plankton: micro-crustaceans, insects, rotifers and protists, all showing unique adaptations for
open water life.
Decomposers Everywhere (15 minutes)
Settling their craft into the bottom, the micronauts discover that the bottom ooze is populated by
bacteria, the microbes that decompose and recycle organic materials—an unforgettable visual introduction to living bacteria.
Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis (15 minutes)
In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued and its green secrets revealed through experiments
performed on board the Cyclops. They discover how algae start food chains that ultimately sustains
the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and around the pond.
Protozoans and Algae (15 minutes)
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
White Water Adventure (15 minutes)
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Discovering a Forest Microcosm (15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
eBioMEDIA • P.O. Box 1234 • Beaufort, SC • 29901-1234
ORDER/INFO: (877) 661-5355/(843) 470-0236
FAX: (843) 470-0237
Back To Intro
Student Research
Forest Microcosm Study Guide, 7
Field trip to forest floor:
If you live near a hardwood forest, a willow bottom, or wooded hill, a small-life field trip is
the best way to become acquainted with an amazing biological community to be found
right under your feet.
Things to do: Dig a small hole (to be filled in later) and examine the layers of decomposing
material (humus). You may be able to distinguish several distinct layers of soil the result
from the yearly decomposition of leaves and other plant parts. What kinds of animals live
in these layers? Find out by collecting some material from each layer in separate plastic
bags. You can sort through these samples using a hand lens, DiscoveryScope, or stereo
microscope and look for the secretive inhabitants. Under the microscope some look like
science fiction monsters but the only forest floor creatures that can actually harm you are
large centipedes (one pair of legs per segment) and certain arachnids such as black widow
and brown recluse spiders and, oh yes, scorpions. A light weight pair of gloves will give
you confidence when handling forest floor arthropods.
Studying the hidden life of the humus:
You can never see all of the inhabitants living in the humus by direct examination alone.
To make a more complete collection of forest floor animals, place a handful of humus and
leaf litter into a large funnel suspended above a collecting jar. The heat and drying action
of a 40 watt light bulb suspended a few inches above the sample will drive the inhabitants
to the bottom of the sample and then out and into your jar.
Organisms that move rapidly will be the first to fall from their home into your collecting
bottle. Look for small thrips and springtails, very primitive insects with reduced wings.
Mites (relatives of spiders) are usually abundant, and easily distinguished from insects by
their four pairs of legs. Sow bugs (isopod crustaceans) drop into the chamber where they
curl up into their defensive balls. Nematodes (round worms) may fall out, but most just roll
up and stay trapped in the soil particles waiting for things to cool down.
If you wet a sample of humus in a culture dish other organisms will come out of dormancy.
Rotifers and protozoans may show up in the first hours following the artificial rain storm
you provided. Nematodes uncurl and start wiggling about. Tardigrades (water bears)
come out of abiosis (dormancy) and go looking for food and mates. Under a stereo microscope, the mulch becomes a micro-zoo where you may be able to determine, through careful observation, how the inhabitants feed, reproduce, and get ready for the next dry spell.
Recycling the materials of life:
As the Cyclops naturalists correctly guessed, the forest floor is a recycling center where
leaves and plant parts are broken down by bacteria. Bacteria secrete digestive enzymes
into their surroundings, which is often a fallen leaf where the enzymes break down the leaf
carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acids, releasing their molecular building blocks for
absorption by the bacteria. However, some of these products dissolve and percolates down
through the plant roots. This is one of the ways plants regain materials lost to leaf fall.
Back To Intro
Forest Microcosm Study Guide, 8
On your next walk in the woods, look for micorrhizae:
Unfortunately the Cyclops didn’t range far enough into the root zone to see one of the most
amazing sites in the forest floor—fungal hyphae associating with the tree rootlets. This is a
type of fungus known as micorrhizae, and without its help many kinds of trees could not
survive. Micorrhizae filaments spread through the forest floor collecting water and nutrients—essential supplies that are shared with their host plant’s root system. In exchange,
the tree supplies micorrhizae with some products of photosynthesis that the fungus can use
for its own growth. These cooperative fungi can be seen with the naked eye as whitish
masses where tree rootlets spread through the humus.
Inside a decomposing log:
If you are fortunate enough to live near a forest, or if you have access to a firewood pile,
you can explore a fascinating community of organisms associated with decaying logs.
Logs go thorough a sequence of stages during their decomposition. A crumbling, highly
decomposed log may be home to millipedes, a variety of beetles, lizards, salamanders, tree
frogs, ant colonies and many kinds of fungi. A log that has been on the damp ground for
only a year or two will be home to termites of the kind seen in this Cyclops episode.
How to sneak a peek at the hidden lives of termites.
A type of termite that is often very easy to obtain is the one that eats away at your house
foundation. Called the subterranean termite, this small highly destructive insect makes a
great subject for biological study (and one most people don’t mind sacraficing). To find
subterranean termites, turn over bits of wood (old boards on wet ground are particularly
good termite habitat). Brush the a dozen or so of the delicate insects into a DiscoveryScope
chamber into which you have jammed a block of wood—preferably a piece cut from the
same kind of wood where the termites were found. Often the termites will settle right in
and go to work on the wood allowing you to observe their behavior and social interactions
through DiscoveryScope or by using a stereo dissecting microscope.
The inside story—See it for yourself.
Extract the termite’s intestine using two sets of forceps. A technique that usually works is
to grasp the tip of the abdomen with one set of forceps and pull while holding the thorax
with the other. As the intestine comes out, look for an enlarged section (a stomach). This is
where most of the microbial life will be found. Place the gut into a drop of .6% saline
solution on a microscope slide and add a cover glass. (Tip: if you can’t find .6% saline, just
dilute the saline solution used by contact lens wearers—two parts to one part distilled
water.) Draw out fluid until the stomach is pressed so that you see through it using the 10X
objective lens. How are the microbes distributed? When finished observing the termite’s
guest in their natural home, slide off the cover glass and rip the stomach so as to release its
occupants. Replace the cover glass and observe the termite’s symbiotic microbes. How
many kinds can you see? Do all of them engulf wood chips? Are bacteria present in the
termite’s gut? Biologists have spent careers attempting to figure out the relationships
among these symbionts and there is still a lot to be learned.
Back To Intro
Forest Microcosm Study Guide, 9
Forest Floor Gallery
Match the name with the forest floor inhabitant photo below: Nematode, millipede,
water bear, mushroom, tree frog. Answers will be found on our web site.
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All images copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES, Photography by Bruce J. Russell
Back To Intro
Backyard Biodiversity Study Guide, 1
Eye of the Cyclops
Series Teaching Guides
Backyard Biodiversity
Copyright 2000 BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
Environment: temperate backyard
Habitat: flowering plants and soil
Permission is given to copy or print this guide for use within institutions that have purchased the Backyard
Biodiversity video program. All images are property of BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES and cannot be resold without
permission.
Contents of this guide...
• About Backyard Biodiversity
• Teacher’s guide with national science standards
• Student Research Problems
page 3...
page 5...
page 8...
In this episode...
Using their flyer vehicle, the microscopioc explorers discover that gardens are
home to a variety of insect pollinators, and voracious predators. Entering a
volcano-like mound the crew discovers its creator—a giant earthworm, and
views the annelid’s anatomy. From these observations they develop theories
about the role earthworms play in maintaining terrestrial ecosystems.
Back To Intro
Backyard Biodiversity Study Guide, 2
Flyer
Vehicle Dimensions
WINGSPAN
LENGTH
.75 mm
.65 mm
Vehicle Mission
Maximum speed
Mission duration
1 meter per minute
2 days
Launched from a base built into the molt of a dragonfly larva, these Flyers
can dart over the pond and keep track of the Cyclops from a bird’s eye view.
Requiring a single pilot, the Flyer can carry a second microscopic passenger
for aerial explorations and reconnaisance.
ornithopteric wings
steam power plant
cockpit
Eye of the Cyclops
vehicles are designed by
Eric Robert Russell/Castle
Builders Entertainment
Back To Intro
Backyard Biodiversity Study Guide, 3
About the Organisms
A yard is filled with biological surprises. There are often more kinds of living things to be
found in gardens and yards than you might expect. Some of the most interesting are the
flowering plants and the pollinators, pests, and predators that live with them.
The Sex Life of Flowering Plants
Flowers are the plant’s way of advertising to a passing insect that a treat awaits if it will
just land. However to get at that sweet treat deep inside the flower, the insect must rub
against the anthers, picking up pollen grains. Going for the sweets in another plant of the
same species, the pollen is rubbed off on the stigma, the female sex part. Sperm cells are
then carried from pollen down to the ovary where the eggs are fertilized, and develop into
seeds.
Since most garden flowers have both sex organs in the same flower, what advantage is
gained by going to the trouble of attracting insects to carry out pollination with other
individuals?
Back To Intro
Backyard Biodiversity Study Guide, 4
More Organisms
Predators in the Garden
Aphids are very efficient reproducers. Large females give birth to many babies that immediately stick their beaks into their host plant and begin sucking its juices. In this way a
growing plant stem is soon swarming with little juice suckers. Left unchecked, the insects
can kill a plant by robbing its nutrients and by creating wounds that allow bacteria and
viruses to enter. The reason plants are not wiped out by these hungry sap suckers is that
their populations are held in check by predators such as the soldier beetles and lady bird
beetles seen in this program.
Earthworms
Earthworms are welcome inhabitants of yards, gardens, and agricultural fields. They
cultivate and process soil, converting organic substances into waste materials ultimately
used by plants. The earthworm’s anatomy clearly shows how they do it. Soil (containing
insect eggs and decaying plant parts) is swallowed, mixed and ground in a gizzard, passed
down the long intestine where digestion and absorption take place, and then eliminated in
the form of worm casings. A well developed circulatory system, driven by five “hearts”
surrounding the esophagus, carries nutrients to all parts of the earthworm’s body. Blood
flowing through capillary beds in its moist skin picks up oxygen and releases carbon dioxide. Earthworms are hermaphroditic—both sexes in the same animal. Mating earthworms
fertilize each other and the eggs are deposited in a cocoon made of secretions produced by
the clitellum—the ring-like structure obvious on earthworms.
Back To Intro
Backyard Biodiversity Study Guide, 5
Teacher’s Guide
Use the Backyard Biodiversity video to excite your students with the idea of observing the small live of
yards, parks, vacant lots.
Relevant National Science Education Standards Grades 5-8
Reproduction and Heredity
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Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever,
reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. Some organisms reproduce asexually.
Other organisms reproduce sexually.
Flowers represent a large expenditure of plant resources. Their entire function is to facilitate sexual reproduction. The mixing of genetic material between different individuals produces new variety. Variety acquired
through sexual mixing allows natural selection to keep a plant fine tuned to its environment.
Regulation and Behavior
-
Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal or environmental stimulus. A
behavioral response requires coordination and communication at many levels, including cells, organ
systems, and whole organisms. Behavioral response is a set of actions determined in part by heredity
and in part from experience.
Compare the innate (genetically hard wired) behavior patterns seen in the soldier beetles and the aphid.
Populations and Ecosystems
-
Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and
some micro-organisms are producers—they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are
consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi,
are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
Students might estimate the long term results of spraying garden plants with pesticide, taking into account the
reproductive rates of aphids vs soldier beetles.
Diversity and Adaptations of Organisms grades 5-8
-
Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over
many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation,
which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations
include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive
success in a particular environment.
What adaptations (structures or behaviors that function to promote the organism’s survival ) can be listed for
the organisms found by Cyclops? Also see comment under Reproduction and Heredity.
Back To Intro
Backyard Biodiversity Study Guide, 6
Concept Words used in this Program
Habitat: The place where an organism lives.
Microorganisms: Small living things that can only be adequately observed with the aid
of magnification.
Macroorganisms: Organisms that can seen without magnification (although enlargement may be needed to see their structures)
Humus: The upper layer of the forest floor, or lawn, made up of decomposing plant
material.
Insect pollination: Pollen transferred from plant to plant by an insect. In gardens this is
often a butterfly or bee.
Anther: The male flower part where sperm containing pollen is produced.
Stigma: The female flower part that receives the pollen.
Cross pollination: When flowers that have both sexes, are fertilized by pollen from
another individual.
Ovary: The organ where the plant’s eggs are produced.
Aphid: a type of insect that feeds on plant juices.
Soldier beetle: A type of predator beetle that often feeds on aphids.
Ladybird beetle: Another effective aphid predator.
Annelid: The phylum of segmented worms.
Pharynx: This is the muscular region, just behind the earthworm’s mouth that helps in
swallowing soil.
Crop: The enlargement just behind the pharynx that stores ingested material.
Gizzard: The next compartment, heavily muscled and often containing sand grains
that help grind up organic material passing down the digestive tract.
Intestine: The tube running the length of the worm where digestion and absorption of
nutrients occurs.
Peristalsis: The wave like contractions that push materials along tubes, best seen in the
intestines and blood vessels of earthworms.
Dorsal blood vessel: The large contractile blood vessel running down the back side of
the earthworm returning blood to the hearts.
Ventral blood vessel: The blood vessel running along the earthworm’s belly side.
Nephridia: Excretory organs found in every segment behind the first three. Filters
nitrogenous wastes from the body fluids.
Hermaphrodite: An animal with both sexes.
Setae: Bristles that give earthworms traction in their burrows and which help prevent
extraction by predators.
Clitellum: The band around earthworms that produces the cocoon containing the
fertilized eggs and eventually, the young earthworms.
Adaptation: A structure, behavior, or physiological process that fits the organism to its
niche. A structure that has survival value.
Back To Intro
Backyard Biodiversity Study Guide, 7
Programs in the Eye of the Cyclops series
Plankton Play (15 minutes)
Cyclops and its intrepid crew of explorers dive into open water where they encounter the denizens
of the plankton: micro-crustaceans, insects, rotifers and protists, all showing unique adaptations for
open water life.
Decomposers Everywhere (15 minutes)
Settling their craft into the bottom, the micronauts discover that the bottom ooze is populated by
bacteria, the microbes that decompose and recycle organic materials—an unforgettable visual introduction to living bacteria.
Food Chains Begin with Photosynthesis (15 minutes)
In this episode, a single algae cell is rescued and its green secrets revealed through experiments
performed on board the Cyclops. They discover how algae start food chains that ultimately sustains
the fish, birds, amphibians and mammals living in and around the pond.
Protozoans and Algae (15 minutes)
Cruising through the weedy shallows, the crew is amazed at the diversity of protozoans swimming
by the observation ports. They discovery how these complex single cells feed, reproduce and escape.
Predators of the Shallows (15 minutes)
While engrossed in observing the food capturing and feeding methods used by predatory flatworms,
the Cyclops crew becomes trapped by the tentacles of Hydra where they receive a visible lesson in the
process of digestion.
White Water Adventure (15 minutes)
Trying to return to duck weed base, the Cyclops is channeled into the pond outlet, where they tumble
into a rapidly flowing stream and discover a world of aquatic insects adapted for life in flowing
water.
Discovering a Forest Microcosm (15 minutes)
Washed onto a sand bar, the Cyclops crew assembles their terra-rover and discovers a world dominated by mites, roundworms, tiny insects, bacteria and fungi—creating a forest floor ecosystem on
which the trees depend.
Backyard Biodiversity (15 minutes)
The micronauts discover that gardens support an amazing community of small life including butterflies and their larva, pollinating insects, herbivores, predators, scavengers and earthworms that
constantly process the soil.
Back To Intro
Backyard Biodiversity Study Guide, 8
Student Research
Plant Sex
Spend some time watching insects visit flowers. Do the same kinds of insects visit the
same kinds of flowers, or do they hop from species to species? When looking at a flower,
ask this question: What features of the flower’s structure aid in the process of pollination?
There’s an alligator in my garden!
In Spring, ladybird beetles (orange or red with black spots as seen in the video program)
come out of hibernation to mate and lay eggs on grasses and garden plants. The eggs hatch
into larvae that look like miniature alligators—but with a much greater appetite. Look for
ladybird beetle larva where aphids populations are building up on roses, ivy, or other
plants. You may be able to observe and describe the larva’s feeding behavior.
Create a “Wormarium”
Wormarium: two sheets of glass (or plastic) duct taped together with a quarter inch spacers
along sides and bottom (strips of cardboard box). Tamp in moist potting soil (or garden
leaving a few inches of space at the top. Add several night crawlers obtained from lawn or
bait store. You now have an observation chamber for studying how earthworms move and
feed. Perhaps you can estimate how much soil moves through the worm per day, and
based on these data, estimate, as Charles Darwin once did, how many tons of soil/acre are
processed by earthworms each year.
Visit Cyclops on the World Wide Web
Check www.eBiomedia.com for an ongoing story of the crew’s biological explorations and more tips on how
to study the fascinating organisms they encounter. Post your research results there and see what other
students are discovering.
Eye of the Cyclops is produced by BioMEDIA ASSOCIATES
in association with Castle Builders Entertainment.
Order Eye of the Cyclops from www.ebiomedia.com
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