This year, a group of teachers at my school would like to retrieve a project that was carried out a few years ago, just before the confinement we suffered due to the Covid 19 pandemic: "Let's make closed plant ecosystems"
A closed ecosystem is formed by several plant species placed in the same space and sharing everything, from the same soil (nitrates, phosphates, liquid water and other organic substances) to oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapor. The system will be fully closed and will not receive any external input, except for sunlight.
It's good to start the first day of our ecosystems unit by holding up an empty jar and asking students, “In what ways is Earth like this jar?” Students can discuss their ideas in small groups and then as a class. Similar ideas voiced by students include “both have limited space", “there’s an inside and an outside", “both are closed”...
At the end of the activity, students have learned the fundamentals of ecosystem dynamics and have observed their jars for some weeks.
To extend our understanding of ecosystems under changing conditions, groups brainstorm disturbances that they could introduce into their jars to model disturbances that occur in real-world ecosystems (flood, drought, introduction or removal of species, landslides, temperature changes, pollution...) Students select one disturbance that they will apply to their jars and discuss and write down their specific predictions for how their ecosystems will change in the weeks following the disturbance.
I've like to share one of the works made by students (7th Grade - ESO 1) for an eTwinning project.
https://animoto.com/play/CP1V8Y0ZoxIbL8roT4Vbig
Would you dare to make your own ecosystem? Can it become a challenge?
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