Rube Goldberg Machine

Problem / Solution on Case Studies

Student groups were each assigned one of the case studies below and have discussed the problem and solution. The task (due on Tuesday) is for each person to submit a problem-solution paper of their scenario.

To include:

Problem - a thorough discussion of the problem. In the discussion, you have specifically explained the biotic and abiotic factors involved. You have described the cause and effects of your problem in terms of biotic and abiotic factors.

Solution - decide on one (1) course of action that you and your group believes to be the best solution. You must agree upon a strategy. Please note that that a solution is only practical if it addresses the needs of both nature and the local people. In your solutions section you must 

• describe how your solution will happen. What needs to be done? (Go as far as you can into the planning - be thorough)
• provide justification for choosing that route (why is your solution the best) and 
• anticipate the outcomes of your solution. What can happen "down the road" to nature? What will be the effects to the people? Think about 1 year down the line. 5 years. 10 years...

Case Study Video 




Case Studies

Case Study #1: China – Sichuan Province

The Qiang people live in an area important for its mountain forests, a major source of water for the massive Yangtze River—what happens here has downstream implications for villages, cities, and agricultural areas throughout a large region of China. Deforestation and population growth over four decades has caused forests to shrink by up to 40 percent! In addition, biodiversity has been lost, as many plant and animal species could not survive these trends. As the situation worsened, the government began to recognize the importance of the region and that something had to be done. Traditionally, reforestation efforts in China involved banning all locals from entering the forest, so that regrowth could take place, but the Qiang people traditionally cultivate medicinal plants as one of their most important sources of income. This has always been done in the common woodlands around their houses—the same areas that need to be reforested. What should be done?

Case Study #2: China – Gansu

The Gansu province of China is one of the driest and poorest areas in the mountainous area of Northwest China. The rivers are too saline (salty) for either drinking or irrigating crops, the groundwater is minimal and of bad quality, and there was significant soil erosion. Agriculture is largely rain-fed. The community members, particularly women and children, spent a great deal of their time going to fetch water, and the community suffered from poverty and constant insecurity about their food supply. After a period of significant drought, the provincial government realized it must take action. What should they do?

Case Study #3: China – Southern Taklimakan Desert

Villages in Taklimakan are threatened by mobile sand dunes caused by overgrazing, salinized (salty) soil from irrigated farming (the area is flat and has poor drainage) and overexploitation of fuelwood. Natives of the targeted region – four counties in Hotan Prefecture – are chiefly farmers and herders. However, their strategies for farming, herding, and collecting fuel are destroying their homes and land which are literally swept away by dunes. What should they do?

Case Study #4: China – Fuzhou

Fuzhou is a crowded city of 2.5 million people in the southwest of China, on the Bamai Canal, that had 100 miles of open sewer running through their city, alongside temples, restaurants, and schools, and into the Ming River. The canal, which had wastewater running directly into it, was grey, laden with sewage and garbage, and emitted a powerful stench. This pollution was not only unpleasant to the eyes and nose, but was a health hazard, and prevented basic animal life—fish, birds, and butterflies—from inhabiting the area. What should they do?

Quote responses + food web practice + great video (Trees + Mass)

Hello! Today, the 7th graders began with the following quote:

Three hundred trout are needed to support one man for a year. The trout, in turn, must consume 90,000 frogs, that must consume 27 million grasshoppers that live off of 1,000 tons of grass.
-- G. Tyler Miller, Jr., American Chemist (1971)

They were asked to respond and their responses are written below. Please read through all of the responses and then do the following:

1. Select the one that you enjoy the most.
2. Begin a gDoc by copying in the response you most enjoyed.
3. In the document, also write your thoughts on the 7th grader's response. Do you agree? Disagree? What does it make you think of? (Please take some time to thoughtfully answer.)
4. Share the document with me. Thanks!

Once you are done with the response, practice building a food web. Go to this link and select Build a Food Web. Read the directions and complete the web. Then, it will give you a scenario. Instead of filling the scenario out in the box, please add your ideas to the document you started earlier. ***Please make sure you write so that anyone would understand the scenario.

Need more food web information / practice. Check out this site.

One of our key questions...

Energy Flow

7th grade responses to quote

Three hundred trout are needed to support one man for a year. The trout, in turn, must consume 90,000 frogs, that must consume 27 million grasshoppers that live off of 1,000 tons of grass.
-- G. Tyler Miller, Jr., American Chemist (1971)

• For me this means the man takes more than just the 300 trout's life. When the man eats the trout, he just ate frogs and grasshoppers because the trout ate them. For example Man --> Trout --> Frogs --> Grasshoppers --> grass. So all of the 90,00 Frigs, 1,000 tons of grass, and 300 trouts are dead just because the man has to survive that year. So the man is not just eating the trout, its eating more than that trout.
• I think a man should protect the organisms and be thankful to the environment because 270000 grasshoppers are being sacrificed just for you. Imagine that your a grasshopper and you have to be giving away your life to the frogs, are you happy about that? So if this system is real, you should be doing something that may help them.  Or else, stop eating trouts and die, cause you just act like a deadly scavenger!
• I think it's a food chain, the human ate the trout that ate the frog before being killed by the human, the the frog ate the grasshoppers before being eaten by the frog and the grasshoppers ate grass before being eaten by the grasshoppers. Which means that the human did not only ate three hundred little trout, he ate, 90,000 frogs, 27 million grasshoppers, and 1,000 tons of grass.
• I think if there were no 1,000 tons of grass in that ecosystem, the 27 million grasshoppers might not survive, which mean that there won't be 90,000 frogs, if the trout only eat frogs, and if the there were no frogs in that ecosystem those trout might be dead, maybe there will be fewer human because there are not enough food for them. 
• I think grass is important for everything because its on the bottom of the food pyramid. If there are no grass in our ecosystem, there won't be grasshoppers because grasshoppers will only eat grass, and if there are no grasshoppers, there won't be frogs, and if there are no such thing as frog in our ecosystem, that means there won't be trouts. And since there are no trouts, man can't be supported and eventually there will be no man in the ecosystem.
• The quote makes me think all the living things must need food to survive, if there is no food to eat, this ecosystem might be ruined. But, those living things might get less in the future if the ecosystem is still running.
• I think it means one man needs to eat three hundred trouts one year, and that equals 90,000 frogs, and 27 million grasshoppers , and 1,000 tons of grass. Not saying that the man eats all of this, but that 1,000 tons of grass is enough to feed 27 million grasshoppers, and 27 million grasshoppers is enough for 90,000 frogs. So this is a food chain. 
•  My first thought on this article was "Wow! I never knew trout ate frogs!" But then I thought deeper. If each person ate 300 trout, and each trout ate 300 frogs, of which each one ate 3000 grasshoppers, together the grasshoppers eat 1000 tons of grass...

And if there are 7 billion people on earth...

then each year, there will be a total of 2100000000000 trout eaten.
It will take 630000000000000 frogs to sustain the trout.
A total of 1890000000000000000 grasshoppers eaten by the frogs.
1890000000000000000000 tons of grass will be required to feed those grasshoppers.
Still sustainable, but it is straining.

Now, if human populations continue to grow globally, then in a decade, humans will no longer be sustainable. Earth will no longer be able to harbor us. So we must look for a new way of life. Either we find a way to keep our growth sustainable by mass agriculture and aquaculture, or we scan the stars for a virgin planet that will take our weight, or at least half of it.

• This article is basically talking about the cycle. To support one man for a year, the man has to eat as much as three hundred trouts. After been eaten by human, the trouts have to eat as much as 90,000 per year. Also the frogs have to eat has much as 27 million grasshopper. This cycle is to support one man per year, the man has to eat the trouts to get nutrient and live. Also the trouts, frogs, and grasshopper.
• Energy decreases as it moves from grass to man. For me this means organisms that gets consumed needs to reproduce more than the consumers because they lose more of theirs than the consumers. If the organism doesn't reproduce more, the organism will gone extinct. The man actually needs the trout, frog, grasshopper, and the grass, because if there is no grass, grasshoppers will lose their food and maybe gone extinct because they need it. Without grasshoppers, the frog might die out because frog needs the grasshoppers. And this is goes on and on just to feed one man. For all these reasons I think this quote means that organism that gets consumed will need to reproduce more than the consumers.
• I think we eat far too many trout a year, cause if we eat 300 trout, then there's 90,000 extra frogs, and then there's 27 million extra grasshoppers, and there's more grass left for us to destroy...So we need to eat less trout, and let those nasty frogs and grasshoppers not invade everywhere from overpopulation. Frogs are nasty looking if they jump on you, so if we eat too many trout, then there's less frog control, which means there's grasshoppers getting eaten and there's more frogs to trample us over, and that will cause a apocalypse...Grasshoppers will be dead forever....

• The quote is telling us as you move to the bottom of the food chain the amount become larger. In each stage of the food chain it relies on other for food. The quote shows human is on the top of the food chain. The main resource for the food chain to occur is the grass. If we don't have the main resource everything will die out and food chain won't occur. 
• This quote is about a food chain, it want to tell us that the food has at least three hundred times larger than the living things, so that the man can be supported. The grass are very important to the grasshoppers, because if the place didn't have any grass their will not be ant grasshoppers their. If their is not any grasshoppers their will not be any frogs... So any small things that animals ate is very important to the ecosystem!

Energy through Ecosystems

Three hundred trout are needed to support one man for a year. The trout, in turn, must consume 90,000 frogs, that must consume 27 million grasshoppers that live off of 1,000 tons of grass.
-- G. Tyler Miller, Jr., American Chemist (1971)

Send me an email that provides you thoughts to this quote.



Here are a few photographs that I took on a weekend trip in Eastern Oregon. How would you describe this ecosystem? What biotic factors are there? What abiotic factors do you think play the biggest role?

Food Web Exploration:
1. Key Vocabulary - By the end of this exploration, you should have an understanding of the following terms:

• decomposer
• producer
• herbivore
• omnivore
• carnivore
• scavenger

2. Gould League Foodweb - go to this page and work through several of the webs

Matter and Energy Flow by Bozeman Biology

Energy Pyramids

Assessment on Wednesday

Building an Energy Pyramid + Analyzing Ecosystem Problems

Thanks to each student for researching their ecosystem and finding producers, herbivores, carnivores and decomposers that represent the ecosystem. As a final draft in your magazine, each of your ecosystems should have a diagram that represents the energy flow through various organisms.

Generic Energy Pyramid...


What will yours look like? How will it fit with the overall theme of your magazine? Please include images that represent these organisms and connections between various species. Is one thing eating another?

On Monday, please bring in your 99.9% complete (ready for your magazine) diagram.


Magazine Groups are also working on real-world case studies. Problems have been identified. What are your solutions?

Case Study:Southern Taklimakan Desert

Villages in Taklimakan are threatened by mobile sand dunes caused by overgrazing, salinized (salty) soil from irrigated farming (the area is flat and has poor drainage) and over exploitation of fuel wood. Natives of the targeted region – four counties in Hotan Prefecture – are chiefly farmers and herders. However, their strategies for farming, herding, and collecting fuel are destroying their homes and land which are literally swept away by dunes. What should they do?

Case Study: Fuzhou

Fuzhou is a crowded city of 2.5 million people in the southwest of China, on the Bamai Canal, that had 100 miles of open sewer running through their city, alongside temples, restaurants, and schools, and into the Ming River. The canal, which had wastewater running directly into it, was grey, laden with sewage and garbage, and emitted a powerful stench. This pollution was not only unpleasant to the eyes and nose, but was a health hazard, and prevented basic animal life—fish, birds, and butterflies—from inhabiting the area. What should they do?

7th Grade: Matter Cycle Review + Energy Flow

Thanks for all of the movement cycles in class today. Please review cycles in your text.

Preview: Read about energy flow through ecosystems. Page 22-28 in Ecology text. Answer questions 1-3 and 6 on page 28.

7th Graders - Cycle of Matter

Class Start - Tour the ecosystems presented by your fellow students. Your goal is to gain an understanding of what makes this ecosystem unique. How can you describe this ecosystem so that someone knows what type it is? As you look at your classmates' work, write down information for yourself and questions for them. What is missing in their description?


Matter
Matter continually cycles through ecosystems. Three major cycles are the carbon, water and nitrogen cycles. 

Create a movement for everyone in the class to follow that demonstrates the main ideas of the cycle:

• Phases of material in the cycle
• Big Changes / Key Steps in the cycle
• Energy / movers - what makes the cycle happen

Nitrogen Cycle: Roy, Andrew, Kyoko, Irene, PoYu
Carbon Cycle: Richard, Lisa, Sienna, Brenda, Jaysen
Water Cycle: Jacob, Henry, Alex, Sky

Friday - finish ecosystem descriptions, act out cycles & work in the garden. What defines the garden ecosystem?

Note: Please complete your ecosystem descriptions by Friday. You should respond to the questions asked by your classmates.

Tuesday - open note quiz on these ecosystems + big ideas of cycles. Can you identify / define ecosystems based upon abiotic and biotic factors?

6th graders - Cycles of Matter

Matter continually cycles through ecosystems. Three major cycles are the carbon, water and nitrogen cycles. 

Create a movement for everyone in the class to follow that demonstrates main ideas of the cycle:

• Phases of material in the cycle
• Big Changes / Key Steps in the cycle
• Energy / movers - what makes the cycle happen

Magazine note - please create a page for each cycle in your magazine. Include the main ideas listed above.

7th graders - Defining Ecosystems

Thanks to those of you who came to class with an ecosystem you have visited. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's visit posted on their blog by class on Wednesday. Today, you were given a description of an ecosystem to create a graphic...

What do you wonder about this place?

For next class,

1. please read p. 16-20 in the Ecology book, 
2. answer questions 1-6 on page 20, and
3. bring in your completed ecosystem from today.