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LAKE ECOLOGY: AN ASSIGNMENT
Martin Zahn, Biology Department
Thomas Nelson Community College, Hampton, VA
For what discipline, course, intended learning objectives and intended learners are these learning materials designed.
This assignment was designed for use in a General Biology course but may also be useable in a higher level course. It is based on materials in the Water On the Web site and is intended to take at least three weeks. This assignment focuses on lake ecology and the use of data sets to define the ecology of a selected lake. Students will select a lake from a list at the Water on the Web internet site and use the data provided there to describe various features and conditions of that lake. That description will be provided to the instructor in a written report and an oral presentation in class.
Objectives of the assignment are:
1. Understand the basics of lake ecology to include physical and geologic characteristics, chemistry, productivity, annual turnover of nutrients and oxygen, food webs, and trophic status.
2. Estimate land use surrounding the lake selected and its impact on the lakes functioning.
3. Acquire and present data in graphic form to support conclusions.
What pedagogical, teaching or learning problem(s) were you trying to solve by developing these learning materials? For example, was this designed to help you explain or illustrate a concept that students find hard to learn?
Students need experience taking actual experimental data and using it to draw conclusions about about a specific situation. There is rarely time or resources for general biology course students to gather the data. Use of this web site provides both data and the tools to manipulate the data. This process provides them with more insight into how science actually works. The following link shows one example of that data
How did you, or do you, use these learning materials when teaching?
This assignment was intended for use in a lab but could be done in a regular classroom. I plan to use it as a the final lab exercise at the end of the second semester of General Biology.
Why do you believe these methods and learning materials are more effective in accomplishing your learning or teaching goals than other methods and materials? Please provide student work examples and/or other evidence that illustrate the effectiveness of the materials.
As a capstone type of assignment, it provides the resources for students to investigate a particular aspect of ecology starting with basic information about the parts of the ecosystem involved, the interaction of these parts, and progressing to an analysis of a specific lake using actual data collected over approximately a nine month period. Example of student work will be provided as available.
What advice would you give other faculty in using these materials/methods in their own courses?
1. Make sure directions for students are clear and complete.
2. I f there are open ended areas of the assignment, be clear that they are intended for student exploration. However, they will need to know what is expected as an output of the assignment to guide their exploration.
What refinements have you made (and/or are you planning to make) to the learning materials?
To be determined.