Biology lesson plan: Carrying capacity
Topic: Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales (HS-LS2-1). Adjust the settings, then copy the prompt.
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Planning notes for this lesson
Prerequisite skills to check: Food webs and energy flow (HS-LS2-4); biotic and abiotic factors; reading line graphs and data tables.
Key vocabulary: carrying capacity, population, limiting factor, biotic factor, abiotic factor, competition, predation, resource, population growth curve, ecosystem scale.
Warm-up idea: Show a line graph of a made-up deer population on an island that rises fast, overshoots and then levels off. Ask: why did the population stop growing? Have students list every factor they can think of, then sort them into resources, climate, boundaries and competition.
Exit ticket idea: Students get a population graph or data table from a simulation or a historical data set, mark where the population reaches carrying capacity, and explain in writing which factor (resources, climate, boundaries or competition) most likely limits it, using numbers from the graph.
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