IHS Biology
“I can” statements (a.k.a. LEARNING TARGETS) for The Elephant
Project, Unit 4
How can biotechnology be used to conserve a threatened species, the African elephant?
Resources
All Insights LEs are from
Unit 4, "What On Earth"
African elephant behavior
jigsaw; 2014 video clip
from CBS Sunday morning
LE 1: Home is Where the
Habitat is
√ when target is met
LEARNING TARGETS
What you should know and be able to do!
I can recognize an African elephant
I can describe the family structure of elephants, how
elephants communicate, and how African elephants are
important to the savanna ecosystem.
I can identify the causes of African elephant population
decline.
I can observe and catalog biodiversity within a local habitat
I can distinguish biotic and abiotic factors in a habitat
Douglas fir cone study
I can explain the difference between population, community,
ecosystem and biosphere
LE2: Oh What a Tangled
Web We Weave
A community’s complex
feeding relationships
I can explain how autotrophs, heterotrophs, and
decomposers interact to maintain an ecosystem
I can explain an organism’s niche
I can describe how organisms are dependent on one another
and on their environment for sources of food and energy
I can use a food chain to describe the food relationships
between organisms, including the role of producers
I can predict how the addition or removal of one population
from an environment might affect an ecosystem
I can analyze energy flow in food chains and food webs
LE3: Round and Round
They Go
Energy flow is one-way;
nutrients like C and N
cycle
I can explain how toxins bioaccumulate up a food chain
I can identify an organism’s trophic level in a food chain/food
web
I can apply the 10% rule to the energy flow in a food chain
I can trace the pathway of carbon (C) as it cycles among living
organisms and the environment (the carbon cycle)
I can trace the pathways of nitrogen (N) as it cycles among
living organisms and the environment (the nitrogen cycle)
Self
Assessment
Teacher
Assessment
I can describe how the carbon and nitrogen cycles are being
disrupted by humans
Biotech equipment
training
I can cite at least three lines of evidence of global climate
change
I can operate a micropipette and use it to transfer small
volumes of liquids
I can interconvert microliters, milliliters and liters
I can explain principles of electrophoresis and how it is used
to separate mixtures of charged molecules
I can explain the use of restriction enzymes as a molecular
tool
Who Dung It? Lab
I can describe what RFLPs ("riff lips") are
I can create a genetic (DNA) profile by using restriction
enzymes and electrophoresis
I can analyze genetic profiles in terms of the number of
restriction enzyme sites and the relative base pair sizes of the
DNA fragments
I can explain what the letters in CITES stand for, what CITES
does, and what it means for wildlife to be on Appendix I, II or
III
LE7: Must Like Long
Walks, Dining by
Candlelight, and Be of
Same Species
What is a species, exactly?
LE8: The Diversity of Life
and provided readings
and HHMI video
How species form
I can explain how and why Sam Wasser and colleagues create
genetic profiles of African elephant populations
I can define species
I can describe the criteria used to identify groups of
organisms belonging to the same species
I can identify the biological factors that determine whether
two populations will interbreed
I can define biological diversity (biodiversity)
I can interpret a species scape
I can describe how geographic isolation and reproductive
isolation result in speciation
I can illustrate speciation over time with the use of a
phylogenetic tree
I can apply the terms ancestor, descendant, and relative to
analyze a phylogenetic tree
I can use anatomical and/or molecular characteristics to
construct a phylogenetic tree
I can explain how morphology, fossil evidence, homology,
and biogeography support descent with modification
June 8, 2017
Websearch
Biology End of Course examination
I can find out which countries are allowed to export (sell)
ivory, and if ivory import into the USA is legal.
I can compare and contrast alternative solutions to the ivory
poaching problem.