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SCWIBLES is an NSF-GK-12 project, #DGE-0947923, a partnership between the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Pájaro Valley Unified School District. For more information, see: http://scwibles.ucsc.edu
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Ecosystem in a Jar
Experimenting with Growing Plants
Authors: Kristin McCully, Ph.D. candidate and SCWIBLES Graduate Fellow, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz; Jack Horner, Integrated Science and Biology Teacher, Watsonville High School, Watsonville, CA Field-tested with : 9 th^ grade Integrated Science, Watsonville High School, Watsonville, CA (December 2011-February 2012, June-July 2012)
Module Type : Long-term experiment over several weeks
Duration : 2-hour class periods to plan & start experiment at beginning and to analyze at end, plus 15 minutes every week
Key materials :
- Glass jars
- Soil
- Plant seeds
- Water
- Fluorescent grow lights
- Calculators and/or computers
Overview: Students, as a class, develop, conduct, and analyze an experiment to determine
what affects the growth of an “ecosystem in a jar.” The class, with guidance by instructor, chooses a factor (such as light, nutrients, and soil type); determine a question, hypothesis, and methods; design a datasheet; collect data for several weeks; and analyze their data using statistics to make a conclusion. “Ecosystems” include soil, water, plant seeds, and other items decided by the class in glass jars. Discussion should focus on experimental design and analysis, but instructor can incorporate ecosystem ecology, biodiversity, food chains and webs, photosynthesis and respiration, and other concepts of ecology and biology.
This project is an opportunity for students to:
- Develop a research question and methods to answer their question.
- Analyze the results of their investigation using basic statistics (e.g., mean, bar graph).
- Think about the elements of an ecosystem and how they interact and apply the concepts of ecology to a model ecosystem
Concepts : Ecosystem ecology, environmental factors impacting plant growth, experiment design & analysis
Skills: designing experiments, observing, measuring, statistical analysis
Science Education Standards : National: Science As Inquiry; Life Science California: Biology-Life Sciences: 6. Ecology; Investigation and Experimentation !
SCWIBLES is an NSF-GK-12 project, #DGE-0947923, a partnership between the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Pájaro Valley Unified School District. For
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Background for Teachers
The focus of this module is truly the opportunity for open inquiry and experimental design and analysis, so emphasis should be placed on understanding and using the following concepts (defined with example below in Glossary):
- Testable research question and hypothesis
- Replication
- Randomization of treatments
- Control groups
- Altering only one variable at a time (or two in a factorial design)
- Quantitative measurement
- Observation vs. experiment – observations only show correlation of factors, only an experiment can actually demonstrate causation because it controls all other factors
Depending on the question used, students may also use the following statistical terms:
- Mean
- Standard deviation
- Student’s T-test (for only 2 treatments using a categorical variable, such as high or low light, animals or no animals)
- ANOVA (analysis of variation for more than 2 treatments or a factorial design)
- Linear regression (for a continuous variable, such as 10 different levels of water or nutrients) For more information, see appendix or statistics reference websites such as www.biology.ed.ac.uk/archive/jdeacon/statistics/tress1.html or http://udel.edu/~mcdonald/statintro.html.
The module is also useful for explaining the concepts of ecology and is appropriate to accompany a basic ecology unit:
- Population, community, ecosystem
- Succession (primary succession is occurring in the jars as organisms grow and/or multiply)
- Producers, consumers, decomposers,
- Biogeochemical (nutrient) cycles (water and carbon cycle are occurring in the jars particularly if they are closed because closed jars demonstrate the full water cycle and open jars dry out through transpiration and evaporation if water is not added by mimicking precipitation, closed jars demonstrate carbon cycle through photosynthesis and respiration)
- Open and closed ecosystems, which is easily demonstrated in open and closed jars
SCWIBLES is an NSF-GK-12 project, #DGE-0947923, a partnership between the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Pájaro Valley Unified School District. For
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- Ex: Jars with soil Independent variable = factor that is changed in an experiment (only difference between control and experimental groups)
- Ex: Soil type – potting soil, gravel, and mix of soil and gravel Dependent variable = variable that is measured
- Ex: Number of germinating seeds, plant height Prediction = expected outcome of a tests, assuming the hypothesis is correct
- Ex: More plants will germinate and plants will be taller in jars with soil than in jars with gravel or gravel and soil mix. Replication = repetition of experimental conditions so that the variability associated with the phenomenon can be estimated
- Ex: 10 jars each with soil, gravel, and mix of soil and gravel, so that we can estimate standard deviation and mean for each soil type Theory = set of related hypotheses that have been tested and confirmed many times by many scientists
- Ex: In order to conduct photosynthesis, grow, and reproduce, plants need light, water, nutrients, air (containing carbon dioxide) and soil.
Science Education Standards Addressed
This module addresses National Science Education Standards A. Science As Inquiry (p.173-176) and B. Life Sciences (Interdependence of Organisms; Matter, Energy, and Organization in Living Systems; p.181-187), as well as the following Science Content Standards for California Public Schools:
Biology/Life Sciences
- Ecology: Stability in an ecosystem is a balance between competing effects. d. Students know how water, carbon, and nitrogen cycle between abiotic resources and organic matter in the ecosystem and how oxygen cycles through photosyn- thesis and respiration. e. Students know a vital part of an ecosystem is the stability of its producers and decomposers. (p. 45).
Investigation and Experimentation, 1. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing content in the other four strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
SCWIBLES is an NSF-GK-12 project, #DGE-0947923, a partnership between the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Pájaro Valley Unified School District. For
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a. Select and use appropriate tools and technology (such as computer-linked probes, spreadsheets, and graphing calculators) to perform tests, collect data, analyze relationships, and display data. c. Identify possible reasons for inconsistent results, such as sources of error or uncontrolled conditions. d. Formulate explanations by using logic and evidence. f. Distinguish between hypothesis and theory as scientific terms. j. Recognize the issues of statistical variability and the need for controlled tests.
NSES (http://www.nap.edu/catalog/4962.html) SCSCPS (http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/sciencestnd.pdf);
Project Description
Students, as a class, develop, conduct, and analyze an experiment to determine what affects the growth of an “ecosystem in a jar.” The class, with guidance by instructor, chooses a factor (such as light, nutrients, and sound); determine a question, hypothesis, and methods; design a datasheet; collect data for several weeks; and analyze their data using statistics to make a conclusion. “Ecosystems” include soil, water, plant seeds, and other items decided by the class in glass jars. Discussion should focus on experimental design and analysis, but instructor can incorporate ecosystem ecology, biodiversity, food chains and webs, photosynthesis and respiration, and other concepts of ecology and biology.
This project is an opportunity for students to:
- Develop a research question and methods to answer their question.
- Analyze the results of their investigation using basic statistics (e.g., mean, bar graph).
- Think about the elements of an ecosystem and how they interact and apply the concepts of ecology to a model ecosystem
Materials
Day 1:
- Glass quart canning jars (1 per group of 1-3 students)
- Fast-draining soil such as palm & cactus mix (about 300 ml per group)
- Seeds (white clover Trifolium repens and/or grass mix work well because they germinate quickly)
- Water (deionized or distilled if possible)
- Masking tape to label jars
- Permanent marker to label jars
SCWIBLES is an NSF-GK-12 project, #DGE-0947923, a partnership between the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Pájaro Valley Unified School District. For more information, see: http://scwibles.ucsc.edu
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- Measure dependent variable and record observations (5-10 minutes)
- Dispose of jars’ contents and clean jars (5-10 minutes)
- Compile class data (10 minutes)
- Discuss and demonstrate statistical analysis (30-40 minutes)
- Students begin statistical analysis with facilitation by instructor (20 minutes)
- Discuss conclusion, future steps, and lab report format (20 minutes)
Procedure
Day 1:
- Brainstorm as a class factors that may impact ecosystem (10 minutes) Brainstorm on whiteboard about what biotic and abiotic factors impact how plants and animals interact with each other and their physical environment, such as in a garden or forest. These may include: - Intensity of light - Time of exposure to light - Water - Nutrients - Temperature - Presence of animals - Soil type (potting soil, gravel, sand, etc.) - Location (greenhouse, garden, inside with artificial lights, etc.) - Open or closed jars
Figure 1: Discussing carbon cycle and brainstorming biotic and abiotic factors to test in experiment
- Instructors should facilitate class designing their experiment: choosing a testable factor, research question, hypothesis, independent and dependent variables, and control group. Instructor should either explain or review definitions of these concepts. Definitions and examples for an Ecosystem in the Jar experiment are given above in Glossary. Each class should choose one or at most two factors. If the class chooses two factors, the instructor should either explain factorial design (crossing the two factors for a total of 4 treatments) or analyze the two experiments separately.
- Develop procedure and datasheet (30 minutes)
- Students should decide how many levels of the factor they want (e.g., low, medium, and high fertilizer; high and low light intensity, 10 and 20 hours of
SCWIBLES is an NSF-GK-12 project, #DGE-0947923, a partnership between the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Pájaro Valley Unified School District. For
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light). It’s probably simplest to keep the number of levels to 2 or 3 for simplicity of analysis and in order to have sufficient replication.
- Instructor should here discuss replication (having several jars (at least 5) for each treatment to determine the average value, estimate variability, and reduce the chance of error).
- Class should decide how often they will check their jars and exactly what their procedures are for preparing the jars and measuring their dependent variable. If class decides to measure % germination, they should probably check jars daily for a week or two. If class decides to measure plant height or mass, they should probably check jars weekly for a month or two.
- If instructor has equipment available, class may choose to measure temperature, soil moisture, or other factors.
- Class should discuss how to randomly assign each jar to a treatment (picking pieces of paper out of a hat, online random number generator, etc.).
- Prepare jars (30-45 minutes - can be a different day if instructor needs to gather supplies)
- This can be done on another day or even done before the discussion of experimental design. See Notes to Teachers and Appendix for our tested handout and procedure.
- Instructor may pre-determine the amount of soil, water, seeds and give this procedure to students or have previously discussed this before preparing the jars and decided on a procedure.
- Students should randomly assign their jars to treatments (evenly divided between treatments) and label their jars with names and treatment.
Intervening Days:
- Measure dependent variable and record observations (5-10 minutes)
- Add water, if necessary
Final Day (1 hr 50 minutes):
- Measure dependent variable and record observations (5-10 minutes)
- Dispose of jars’ contents and clean jars (5-10 minutes)
- Soil and plants may be planted in a school garden or disposed in trash.
- Students should rinse jars for future re-use.
- Compile class data (on computer with projector, on paper with document camera, or on whiteboard) (10 minutes)
- Students can come to computer, document camera, or whiteboard to compile the data to analyze using statistics.
- Discuss and demonstrate statistical analysis (30-40 minutes)
- Instructor may want to review the class research question, hypothesis,
SCWIBLES is an NSF-GK-12 project, #DGE-0947923, a partnership between the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Pájaro Valley Unified School District. For
Ecosystem in a Jar page 10 of 11
Notes to Teachers
In the initial trial of this module, our 4 classes chose 2 levels of light intensity (depended on plant), 3 levels of nutrients (obvious results in Figure 2a below), presence of music (suggestive, but not statistically significant results), and closing jars or leaving them open (but measuring through glass and not watering for entire period – very obvious results as in Figure 2b below). We were pretty sure how nutrients and closing jars would turn out, which they did, but were surprised to find that playing music did seem to make plants grow larger and that one plant grew well in high light, but the other did not.
We actually prepared the jars just before winter vacation and waited until returning a month later to see that most of the seeds had germinated and designing and enacting our experiment for 6 weeks. Thus, we couldn’t use the dependent variable, % germination, which is most useful for short experiments if the class is using fast- germinating plants.
On the final day of the module, we explained and showed an example of computing mean and standard deviation on the board, but allowed students to compute mean and SD using a prepared spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel. Students graphed their mean and SD and that of another group using the opposite treatment. We did not have time to create graphs for the whole class or explain or use t-test. Also, I’m not sure how well students understood standard deviation since this was the only time they used it the whole year.
We also used this module as the first basic experiment and experimental design experience for two science fair classes with only 8 students. One class choose to focus on soil type and used potting soil, gravel and a mix of potting soil and gravel as their treatments. Another class decided to test location and put jars in a greenhouse and a garden and observed differences between the two locations extensively. Unfortunately, these jars did not germinate much at all over 2 weeks – it may have been too hot outdoors and in the greenhouse, as this experiment occurred in mid-summer.
Figure 3: Typical results of experiments on nutrients (from left, low, medium, and high fertilizer) and closing jars.
SCWIBLES is an NSF-GK-12 project, #DGE-0947923, a partnership between the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Pájaro Valley Unified School District. For
Ecosystem in a Jar page 11 of 11
Because this is a long-term module that may last several days or weeks, the instructor may wish to combine the module with more conventional ecology instruction, such as the long-term “Otters and Urchins: Ecology of the Kelp Forest” module, and/or short 1 or 2-day inquiry modules such as the “What Can We Learn From Seabird Barf? Seabirds and Marine Debris” on the SCWIBLES website.
Appendices
Worksheets on experimental design and analysis (as used in 2012 9 th^ grade Integrated Science classes at Watsonville High School)
List of References and Supplemental Resources
- Statistics reference websites: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/gerstman/StatPrimer/, www.biology.ed.ac.uk/archive/jdeacon/statistics/tress1.html or http://udel.edu/~mcdonald/statintro.html.
- Experimental design website: http://mjksciteachingideas.com/design.html
- Johnson, J.B. and P.H. Raven. 2005. Chapter 16: Ecosystems. Holt Biology textbook.
Similar lessons:
- Wisconsin Fast Plants Program. 2010. Bottle Biology. Kendall Hunt Publishing. www.bottlebiology.com
- Johnson, J.B. and P.H Raven. 2005.“Exploratory Lab: Modeling Ecosystem Change Over Time.” Pages 358-359 in: Johnson, J.B. and P.H. Raven. 2005. Chapter 16: Ecosystems. Holt Biology textbook.
