Digital Unit Plan Template

Unit Title: Populationsin Nature and Society

Name: Jason Unger

Content Area: Biology

Grade Level: 9

CA Content Standard(s)/Common Core Standard(s):

HS-LS2-1.

Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of
ecosystems at different scales.

HS-LS2-2.

Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and
Populations in ecosystems of different scales.

HS-LS2-7.

Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.

Big Ideas:

Distinguish between exponential and logistic growth.

Explain how populations are affected by limiting factors (including density- dependent, density-independent, abiotic, and biotic factors)
Explain how human activities (including population growth, technology, & consumption of resources) affect the physical and chemical cycles & processes of Earth.

Unit Goals and Objectives:

Students will be able to take data and independently organize and graph it, and decide whether it follows the pattern of exponential or logistic growth. When given a list of
limiting factors, they will be able to categorize them as density-dependent or density-independent. Given a graph of population data, they will be able to correlate changes in
populations with changes in factors such as competition, predation, and parasitism. They will recognize that human population growth has continued to grow exponentially
for the past 500 years, and that in the future, for many reasons, the population will begin to level off. They will make suggestions for what things can be changed to decrease
human impact and slow the population growth.
Unit Summary:
This is the Populations unit of the ninth-grade biology class. Students will learn about the basic trends and the factors that limit population growth. This includes knowing
the math needed to understand and describe the patterns. We will relate human population growth to the ecological models and design, evaluate, and refine a solution for
reducing the impact of human activities. We will begin by reviewing previously covered big ideas in the Ecology module, including ecological levels of organization, food
webs, cycles of matter, biotic and abiotic factors, niche, community interactions, and ecological succession. These concepts will be incorporated into the Populations unit.
There are two entry-level exercises. For the first, in Lesson 1, students use the given information to calculate how many rabbits are living at the school, and give observations
about what is incorrect about that model. This will be expanded with guided notes and WebQuest 1 on how populations grow. The other entry-level exercise is a visual
ranking exercise in the Assessments, where students will rank the impact of factors on human population growth. Next will be WebQuest 2 on the limits to growth, where the
focus will be on differentiating between density-dependent and density-independent limiting factors. A vocabulary and conceptual quiz will cover what has been learned
thus far. That will be followed by WebQuest 3 on human population growth.

Assessment Plan:
Entry-Level:
Introductory exercise: how many rabbits can live at the
school
Visual ranking exercise: rank the impact of factors on
human population growth

Formative:
Guided notes: how populations grow
WebQuest 1: How populations grow, part 2
WebQuest 2: Limits to growth
Quiz: how populations grow and limits to growth
WebQuest 3: Human population growth

Summative:
Written: respond to questions with at least one
paragraph each
Graphic Organizer: choose one developed and one
third-world country to research.
Essay: research strategies to conserve resources and
reduce human impact

Lesson 1
Student Learning Objective:
After doing calculations,
students see that exponential
growth is not practical longterm. They learn that logistic
growth is the realistic model
of populations. They learn to
calculate population density
and changes in populations
with data given. They also
organize six factors in an
order of importance for the
impact they have had on the
exponential growth of the
global human population.
Lesson 2

Acceptable Evidence:
Students will identify the
errors in the exponential
growth model of rabbits at
the school. They will show
calculations and give written
definitions that show an
understanding of the
concepts.

Instructional Strategies:
Communication
Collection
Collaboration
Presentation
Organization
Interaction

Lesson Activities:
A Prezi presentation gives an introduction on how populations grow. Then
they download a word document and use math and reasoning skills to
calculate how many rabbits might be living on campus each year after two
are introduced. They then look at the How Populations Grow visual web
lecture on Prezi, and learn the most important characteristics of a population,
what is population density and how is it measured, the factors that affect
population size, and the differences between exponential growth and logistic
growth. They use the visual web lecture as a resource tool for the assignment
How Populations Grow. Then, they do the Intel Education visual ranking
exercise Human Population Growth Race. Looking at the world human
population as a whole, they rank the importance that each of the given
factors has had on population growth. They add a comment where they
briefly write about why they chose to rank things in that order, and respond
to two other people's comments.

Student Learning Objective:

Knowing how to organize the
information about
populations to form graphs.
Interpret graphs and data to
answer questions about
populations and the factors
that affect them. Get a visual
and basic understanding of
the rate of human population
growth.

Acceptable Evidence:
They will only be able to
answer WebQuest questions
if they explore the linked
activities. Correct answers
will show that they have been
able to organize different sets
of data that represent
exponential and logistic
growth, limits to population
growth, and the rate of
human population growth.

Instructional Strategies:
Communication
Collection
Collaboration
Presentation
Organization
Interaction

Lesson Activities:
WebQuest 1: How Populations Grow, Part 2. This has two links that show
examples of exponential growth, and two that show examples of logistic
growth. They will analyze the predictions that the professors make about
the Zebra mussels, and decide who is correct. They will follow that with
Bacteria Growing in a Bottle, the other exponential growth activity. Then
there are two logistic growth activities.
WebQuest 2: Limits to Growth. This looks into the factors that limit
population growth. Students answer questions about density-dependent and
density-independent limiting factors with a link to a web page about
the Yellow Perch in Lake Winnipeg. Then they watch a video on predatorprey relationships and answer questions about the pyramid analogy,
coevolution, and mimicry.
WebQuest 3: Human Population Growth. This begins with a ClassZone
animation and follows with a video "When Will we Run Out of Space?". There

are no definite answers to the questions, because statistics change every

second. This site may be used for summative assessment activities.
Lesson 3
Student Learning Objective:
This is a group of three
summative assessment
assignments. Students will
work on their own for parts 1
and three. They will form
groups of two for part 2. For
that assessment, they will do
the Growth Race, 2
Countries graphic organizer.

Acceptable Evidence:
Students will properly cite
their information and support
their choices for ranking the
six population growth factors
for the two countries chosen.
There will be a rubric to
follow for the activity. For the
essay, they will address
population growth with wellthought strategies that can
lower human impact.

Instructional Strategies:
Communication
Collection
Collaboration
Presentation
Organization
Interaction

Lesson Activities:
For part 1, seven questions will be answered with at least one paragraph
each. Then students will form groups of two for part 2. They will visit the
Population Reference Bureau World Population Data Sheet 2014 and choose
two countries to research: one developed country and one less-developed
(third-world) country. In the Human Population Growth Race visual ranking
exercise, they ranked food, medicine, sanitation, agriculture, energy, and
technology in the order of their impact on global population growth. For this
summative assessment activity, partners will agree on two countries to
research and will rank these categories independently for each country. They
will cite statistics from the website for answers. Students will investigate
three other topics for those countries, and summarize and cite what they find
most important/interesting/disturbing. Finally, for part 3, students will
devote a minimum 400-word document to the following topic. Although the
annual percent increase of global population has been decreasing since
reaching a high of 2.2% in 1962, global population is still increasing
exponentially. Think about and research some strategies that can be applied
to conserve resources and slow population growth.

Unit Resources:
Intel Educate
2014 World Population Data Sheet
Lions in the Santa Monica Mountains?
ClassZone

https://educate.intel.com/workspace/student/loginpage.aspx?LID=en
http://www.prb.org/Publications/Datasheets/2014/2014-world-population-data-sheet.aspx
http://www.nps.gov/samo/naturescience/pumapage.htm
http://www.classzone.com/cz/index.htm

Useful Websites:
Bozemenscience
Two bank accounts
Quizlet
Prezi

http://www.bozemanscience.com/exponential-growth/
http://mathbench.umd.edu/modules/popn-dynamics_exponential-growth/page02.htm
http://quizlet.com/37499567/density-dependent-or-density-independent-sheehan-flash-cards/
http://prezi.com