Woods Institute - K-12 Teachers

Hawaii Ecosystems in Flux

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Unit Stats

Grade level 6-8
About 16 days, in toto

Key themes

Social studies, physical geography & climate (Lessons 1-4)
Nutrient cycling (Lessons 5-10)
Invasive species (Lessons 11-12)

Stanford Researcher: Professor Peter Vitousek

This unit contains classroom materials based on Peter Vitousek’s work on Hawaiian ecosystems. Students who complete the entire unit will learn about the cycling of two nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus, through an ecosystem. They will understand and be able to provide examples of how human activity can affect nutrient cycles, particularly through the introduction of invasive plants that change the availability of nutrients. Finally, students will be comfortable using map-based representations of scientific data. The rich history and ecology of the Hawaiian Islands serve as a backdrop for these lessons.

Alternate threads through these materials:

Thread 1: People and their (invasive) plants; 1 → 3 → 12
Combines a lesson about plants brought by the Polynesians with a close look at contemporary exotics
Thread 2: Nutrient cycling & human disturbance; 8 → 9 → 10
Develops a basic understanding of nutrient cycles and before examining how human activity can alter them
Thread 3: Nitrogen as a limiting resource; 7 → 11
Uses a game to teach the concept of limiting resources, then applies it to a nitrogen-limited ecosystem in Hawaii that is being altered by invasive plants

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Learning objectives, lesson by lesson

Lesson Title	Lesson Objectives - after completeing this lesson students will ...
Lesson 1 Imagining a long trip	Understand the logistical and emotional demands of permanently moving to a new place. Learn three categories of human need that people consider when they are packing to move to a new place: food (things for growing and preparing food), material (things for making, building and repairing), cultural (things for making one feel at home).
Lesson 2 Polynesian voyages	Be able to calculate “real world distance” by measuring distance on a map and multiplying that distance by the appropriate scale factor Be able to identify Polynesia on a map of the Pacific Ocean Know who the Polynesians are Know, in simple terms, the means by which Polynesians settled the pacific, and how their accomplishments were extraordinary in light of contemporaneous European sea-going technology
Lesson 3 Planting a new home	Know that people throughout history have carried biological cargo with them in their migrations - plants in particular Understand that people have historically used plant materials to fill all three categories of need established earlier in the unit (in Lesson 1): food, material, cultural Recognize a few examples of plants that were important to the Polynesians, and the purposes they served in Polynesian culture
Lesson 4 Welcome to your new island	Be able to read elevation from a topological map Understand the effect of topography on temperature and, in combination with prevailing winds, on rainfall patterns Be able to define, in simple terms, the orographic effect and the rain shadow effect Be able to predict, given a topographical map of an island and a prevailing wind direction, where on the island there will be more and less rain
Lesson 5 Planting in the right places	Develop and refine observational skills Be able to measure nitrogen and phosphorus in a soil sample using a commercial nutrient testing kit Know that soil quality is a product of both visible and invisible factors, such a nutrients Understand that the soil quality, in particular the availability of key nutrients, influences plant growth Be able to recognize at least two other conditions - temperature and rainfall - that influence plant growth
Lesson 6 Why did the Hawaiians plant here?	Develop and refine their ability to use interpret scientific data presented in map format Reinforce the idea that nutrients are critical to plant growth and, through agriculture, to human society Develop their understanding of the importance of nutrients are for plant growth and, through agriculture, for human society Understand that plant growth depends on the right combination of factors, including soil quality (nutrients), temperature and rainfall, and that no single factor can reliably be used to predict where plants will grow best.
Lesson 7 The “limiting resources” game	Understand, in simplified terms, the concept of a limiting resource: the thing that you need more of to keep going, even when you have enough of everything else. Be able to identify the limiting resource in everyday scenarios Understand that changing the availability of a resource can change which organism is most successful
Lesson 8 Nutrient cycles	Know that nutrients have sources - they come from somewhere - and recognize that different soils contain different amounts of nutrients Develop and refine their observational and inferential skills by examining a soil sample to determine its origins Be able to diagram and explain, in simplified terms, the cycling of two nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus, through an ecosystem
Lesson 9 Nitrogen-fixing plants	Know what a nitrogen-fixing plant is Understand, in simplified terms, what nitrogen fixation is, and why nitrogen-fixing plants are particularly important Be able to recognize nitrogen-fixing plants by examining their roots Develop and refine their observational skills by examining plants for morphological differences
Lesson 10 Human effects on nutrient cycling	know that human activities can affect nutrient cycles be able to identify several different human activities that affect nutrient cycles, and explain how and at what stages in the nutrient cycle those activities might have an effect
Lesson 11 Tracking invaders from above	Know that a “new” plant can invade a forest and replace native plants Understand two ways in which different “new” plants can affect nutrient cycles: by competing with native plants for existing nutrients, and by adding more nutrients to the soil Learn, in very simplified terms, about a new way of tracking invasive plants based on images taken from the air Develop and refine their ability to draw inferences based on scientific data presented in map format
Lesson 12 Invasive species in Hawai’i and elsewhere	Know the difference between exotic and invasive species, and be able to describe several conditions under which an exotic species may become invasive Be able to discuss the implications of invasive species for both ecosystems and human systems, through more obvious routes like predation as well as less obvious routes like the alteration of nutrient cycles Know the principle means by which people attempt to control invasive species (mechanical, biological, chemical) Learn about the specific problems caused by several invasive species in Hawai’i and in their own state

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NOTE: Packaged downloads are in 'zip' archive format. You will need to 'unzip' the files to extract the materials. Individual materials are in MS Word doc format.