This exercise, intended as homework or an in-class exercise, provides a guided inquiry approach to understanding continental scale patterns of species richness and patterns of relative abundance within community species assemblages. Students are introduced to the concept of latitudinal gradients in species richness. They are also introduced to the concept of evenness of relative abundances within...
Students are given photos of different phases of ecological succession that are from Table Rock State Park in Pickens, South Carolina. Using their knowledge of ecological succession, students arrange the photos in chronological order of the phases of succession.
In this lab experiment, students learn about ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal properties associated with two host tree species to better under understand symbioses in general and gain experience using soil sampling and mycorrhizal field methods. Students will learn in more depth about terms and concepts related to symbioses (e.g. mutualisms, coevolution, host specificity) and about specific...
This guided inquiry module provides an approach to teaching major groups of terrestrial plants and the methods used to construct and analyze phylogenies.
In this exercise, students first work in small groups to collect background information on what mosquitofish and bullfrogs consume and then modify a food web based on that knowledge. Students then develop hypotheses of how these two invasive species may affect native amphibian species, snails, and zooplankton. Following, students work individually to analyze experimental mesocosm data to determine...