This video details how different species can live in the same habitat without directly competing with each other for space and nutrients.
Students will learn about limiting factors, competitive exclusion, ecological niches, the research findings of prominent ecologists, and some of the relationships species have in an ecosystem.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This video is informative and engaging; it will give students a solid overview of the study of community ecology.
Many opportunities for discussion and extension are available from this resource and the video has many stopping points indicated.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should have some prior knowledge about ecology and heritable traits.
This video moves fast; be prepared to pause or use subtitles.
Differentiation
This would be a great addition to any AP Environmental Science, AP Biology, genetics, evolution, or ecology class.
Consider dividing up the class into six groups to view one of the six sections and then report what they learned to their fellow students in a jigsaw activity.
Cross-curricular connections can be made in health classes by discussing how human relationships within communities or families compare to the interactions of animals within an ecosystem.
This resource would be an excellent introduction to community ecology, where students then choose an ecosystem or animal relationship to research and present on.
Scientist Notes
In this resource, students learn about community ecology and how different species interact and compete for resources in their ecological niches. This promotes variety and other dynamics like commensalism and mutualism to increase population. This film does not include any scientific conflicts, but it is nevertheless suggested for classroom use.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-6 Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
HS-LS2-8 Evaluate the evidence for the role of group behavior on individual and species’ chances to survive and reproduce.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
HS-LS4-2 Construct an explanation based on evidence that the process of evolution primarily results from four factors: (1) the potential for a species to increase in number, (2) the heritable genetic variation of individuals in a species due to mutation and sexual reproduction, (3) competition for limited resources, and (4) the proliferation of those organisms that are better able to survive and reproduce in the environment.
HS-LS4-5 Evaluate the evidence supporting claims that changes in environmental conditions may result in: (1) increases in the number of individuals of some species, (2) the emergence of new species over time, and (3) the extinction of other species.
