LS4+(9-11)+-+9


 * GSE Adopted by: Sarah Jakob

Students demonstrate an understanding of how humans are affected by environmental factors and/or heredity by …**


 * 9a __researching scientific information to explain how such things as radiation, chemicals, and other factors can cause gene mutations or disease.__

****9b** providing ** __an explanation of how the human species impacts the environment and other organisms__ (e.g. reducing the amount of the earth’s surface available to those other species, interfering with their food sources, changing the temperature and chemical composition of their habitats, introducing foreign species into their ecosystems, and altering organisms directly through selective breeding and genetic engineering). **

Note: This GSE seems closely related to LS2 (9-11) - 3.

What ideas do students need to understand before they can address the topics described above?

 * 9b:**
 * Basics of ecology and ecosystems
 * Symbiotic relationships between organisms(parasitism, commensalism, mutualism)
 * Food web basics (producers, consumers, omnivores, herbivores, carnivores, scavengers, decomposers)
 * Human population and land usage (development,agriculture etc.)
 * Types of pollution (air, water, land)
 * Basic genetics (genes, chromosomes, traits, alleles)
 * Selection for traits

What misconceptions are students likely to have about these topics?

 * 9b:**
 * Pollution Misconceptions
 * Acid rain, ozone depletion and greenhouse effect are thought to be caused by same things and produce the same changes in the environment.
 * Air pollution is always caused by human activities 
 * Ecosystem Misconceptions
 * Stronger organisms have more energy.
 * There are more herbivores because they have more offspring.
 * A species high on the food web is a predator to everything below it.
 * Energy accumulates in an ecosystem so that a top predator has all the energy from the organisms below it.
 * Carnivores can exist in a plant free world if their prey reproduce enough.
 * The food that is eaten and used as a source of energy is part of the good chain; food that is synthesized into the body of the eater is now food for the next level. 
 * Heredity Misconceptions
 * Daughters inherit most of their characteristics from their mothers. Boys inherit most of their characteristics from their fathers.
 * Variation between species is a result of adaptation to environment instead of inheritance.
 * Sexual reproduction occurs in animals but not in plants.
 * Students believe that transmitted characteristics are acquired during the life time of the animal.
 * Individuals can adapt to a changing environment. These adaptations are heritable.
 * Students do not understand the relationship between DNA, genes, and chromosomes