Tracey 26 Sep 6:32 PM
Systems. My third graders and I looked up the word in our science book
to review its meaning. It said a system is a collection of cycles, structures,
and processes that interact.
We decided that systems have parts, connections or jobs that have to be
done or they effect what comes next.
The examples we came up with - life cycle, water cycle, respiratory system,
cpu on a computer, our school, fedex tracking system, the line in the cafeteria
:), weather, food chains, growing crops in our garden, turning a cotton
plant into a t-shirt.
Tracey and the gang.
Scientist Colin 29 Sep 11:59 AM
Hi there to all the gang,
Those are excellent examples - all of them. Isn't it amazing? One way
of detecting "systems" is to see if, breaking them into their parts, we
can understand the properties of the system itself. Let's say: can we understand
all what's going on in an ecosystem just by making an inventory of what
lives there? What other kind of information we need to really understand
the properties of an ecosystem from the point of view of a living system?
Tracey 29 Sep 1:35 PM
We're a little behind because of Rita, but will get up to speed this week.
Several things that came to mind as we discussed this question.
Every community has producers, consumers, and recyclers that share a common
living space.The availability of resources such as food, shelter and space
within an ecosystem would effect the quantity and variety of organisms
within. Each organism has its own little niche within the system but competition
for these resources and slow or rapid changes to the environment over time
also come into play.
Hello to all. I found this essay especially interesting because I asked
a group of fourth graders the same thing last week. What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a place. It is a large place on our Earth like an ocean
or a desert. An ecosystem is when many parts make up a whole. None of the
parts can stand alone. There are nonliving and living things in an ecosystem.
In order for the ecosystem to survive there must be a flow of energy. Interactions,
both positive and negative occur between the living and nonliving pieces.
I would like to add some thoughts on the readings we have shared in this
course to the above information. The more I learn about our ocean the more
complex it seems. There are so many ways that the living and nonliving
parts weave into and around each other. To understand this system requires
not only the knowledge of the ways of water, air, sun or the history of
its origin, its living creatures, but the wisdom to tie these things together
in meaning and context. Why is it I feel that we know so much about the
surface of Mars or the possibilities of Europa yet do not know our own
Scientist: Rondi Davies 5 Oct 3:56 PM
Raja - too true - we know so little about the ocean. For example, we don't
know what species may be threatened or have become extinct (from human
impact) because we never knew about them in the first place.
An ecosystem is an excellent example of a system. I was interested to
learn more about what you meant by positive and negative interactions occurring
between living and nonliving pieces? Also, are all ecosystems large?
Raja 29 Sep 9:50 PM
Biomes, habitats, and ecosystems. From my experience many nonfiction texts
use them interchangeably. I think an ecosystem could be microscopic (not
large), yet still be large and complex to the organisms that live there.
I guess I need clarification on my vocabulary. My thoughts were a habitat
is a place in nature where plants and animals live in balance,(a pond),
but an ecosystem is a grander scale, maybe many habitats put together.
As far as interactions that are positive and negative, I meant that some
relationships are symbiotic; parasitic, commensualism, or mutualism are
some examples. Relationships between nonliving and living things could
mean climate shifts, storms, volcanic eruptions, things like that.
Luis 30 Sep 6:08 AM
When I teach ecosystems I start with a large one -- usually I use large
scale watersheds, and have the students describe the ecosystem at that
level, then reduce the scale to, say, a river, then to a stream, then to
a pond, and eventually we arrive down at the microscopic level and I do
a pond water lab. I love giving the students water samples from a bucket
I pulled from a local pond and having them look at the "clear" water under
the scopes, or taking a single leaf from a tiny water plant and magnify
it, to find it full of life. Then we talk about this scale of ecosystem.
Instructor: Gordon 30 Sep 6:13 AM
HI Raja -- These words have very specific meanings to ecologists, so see
if you can take a bit of time to check out some definitions and post back
to us. There is also one more term that is well used in the course and
that is niche. Can you add this to your list and see if you can clarify
its meaning as well? In week two we focus on some unusual habitats and
ecosystems -- those associated with the deep sea vents. Happy reading in
Raja< 1 Oct 6:29 PM
Gordon, I have done some research and have a better understanding of these
Biome- a major biotic community characterized by the dominant forms of
plant life and the prevailing climate.....an entire community of living
organisms in a single ecological area. So - A whole community including
living and nonliving things, large in scale.
Ecosystem- a SYSTEM formed by the interaction of a community of organisms
with their physical environment. A complex set of relationships interlocked
through cycles of energy and chemical elements. So- a working system, a
series of relationships, size does not matter
Habitat- the type of ENVIRONMENT in which an organism or group normally
occurs. A place where populations live characterized by physical features.
So - a place in nature.
Niche- Odum- Fundamentals of Ecology -WB Saunders 1959. The ecological
niche of an organism depends not only on where it lives but also on what
it does. By analogy, it may be said that the habitat is the organism's
address, and the niche is its "profession", biologically speaking. So-
where it lives and what it does. How does it support other living and non-living
things? Its interactions.
Martin 30 Sep 10:12 AM
System? The definition of a system can be illustrated when thinking about
a concept map. A concept map takes something broad and narrows it down
to individual components. Similarly a system has a particular function,
while needing many individual functions to run the system as a whole. The
many cycles that are present on Earth make up the spheres which then make
up the whole system of Earth. There are so many examples of systems in
our everyday life from extremely complex to fairly simple. Just the other
day I was discussing with my 7th grade the process behind them being able
to drink the water from their faucet. There are many additional components
that need to work to ensure that they will have safe drinking water.
Scientist: Colin 6 Oct 10:40 AM
Right - The thing about natural systems is that their reality is so subtle
that we live taken their services for granted: drinking water, air, an
atmosphere that shelters us from UV radiation, .... This the challenge
of society now: to become aware of those natural services that depend on
how Earth systems work. I have here something for your 7th graders. A great
analogy to one of the properties of systems: interconnectedness.
Lucy 6 Oct 11:13 AM
I think we sometimes place economics before environment. (I guess that
makes sense alphabetically??) We have used the environment for a sink for
our wastes without much thought. Only recently have people begun to think
of internalizing externalities such as pollution because we seem to be
running up to limits, i.e., degradation of the environment. If we look
at the Earth as a system, like a spaceship, we will start to see that we
need to be concerned with sustaining our system in order to survive. I
think the "frontier attitude" that there was always somewhere else to go
if we spoiled on area is coming to an end. I know in earth science there
is a new curriculum called earth systems science that attempts to integrate
the sciences so we can better see the connections that exist in our system,
(response to Lucy) 6 Oct 10:40 AM
Lucy, That sounds like a great curriculum. The more authentic we can make science for kids, the more engaged they will be. Science is really a pretty integrated discipline in the real world. How can we expect kids to be jazzed about science when we break it into such boring pieces for them?
Instructor: Gordon 6 Oct 10:40 AM
Very nice point Lucy -- We make a pretty arbitrary distinction sometimes
between what is biology and what is chemistry and what is physics, etc.
In fact, aren't many of these categories created fairly arbitrarily. We
can separate the sciences and the study of different aspects of nature
for convenience, but we must not loose sight of the fact that they are
integrated in nature.
Raja 6 Oct 10:40 AM
Lucy, I agree. NY State just wrote their new scope and sequence for elementary
school science education. We are now being asked to teach ocean content
from many different perspectives. In each of these perspectives we look
at how things are related or connected. Sometimes the big picture gives
us a clearer view. Raja
Thomas 6 Oct 10:40 AM
Drawing lines. One thing that I really enjoy about teaching is finding
opportunities to integrate one area of science into another. There are
no real defining lines between physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science,
etc...there are so many connections between them. Is, therefore, science
itself a system??? Hmmm...
Anyway, we owe it to our students to present a specific area of science
as an overlapping piece of the big picture. For example, we cannot truly
present oceanography without comparing the oceans to landmasses. It's all
interrelated...life...the oceans...the atmosphere...space...the universe...what
a big time system!
Stephanie 6 Oct 10:40 AM
Well put Thomas!
I love your comment, "science itself a system???" As a teacher I can't
agree with you more, we need to be all inclusive of the sciences when we
teach the individual concepts so our students will get the "big picture".
Eileen 6 Oct 10:40 AM
I always tell my students that science is a system. There are biology
concepts I know they'll see again in chem and there are chem concepts I
introduce early. I have studied the curriculum enough to know what they've
learned in the past and remind them about it when we come to different
units. The students seem to think of each subject area as an island that
you only go to once. I tell them it's more like a science cruise where
you keep getting on and off at the same islands at different times when
you're looking for different types of information. They laugh when I tell
them we're "cruising into chemistry" or "embarking on a lesson in earth
science," but it makes things fun. I even have a magnet of a cruise ship
that I put up to remind my students that biology is not an island. Last
year I even had a "guest captain" for a day come speak to my class about
how their macromolecule structures will be used in the next course.
Instructor: Gordon 6 Oct 10:40 AM
Hi Eileen -- I love your cruise ship idea -- I know the "no man is an
island" phrase, but I like your "no science is an island" even better.
Gina 6 Oct 10:40 AM
You can expand that to include all disciplines taught at school. I remind
my students of connections from art to science when we study color theory.
And as a drawing exercise, they drew hearts and flowers - actually drawing
from flowers and naming the parts and drawing a model of a human heart.
As my school becomes an International Baccalaureate magnet, we are constantly
seeking connections and trying to make education meaningful for students
by connecting learning to the reality.