Course: MSED 4311
Instructor: Dr. Pei-Ling Hsu
Centennial Museum Lesson Plan
UTEP Course: MSED 4311- Teaching Science in Intermediate and Middle Grades
Designers: Josephine Talamantes, Gabriel Borunda, Mayra Cruz
1. Lesson Title: El Paso Ecosystem & Food Chain
2. Grade: 8th
3. Time: 40 minutes
4. Learning Objectives:
(1) Learner will be able to describe producer/consumer, predator/prey, as they occur
in food webs within the Chihuauan desert.
(2) Learners will be able to investigate how organisms and populations in an
ecosystem depend on and may compete for biotic and abiotic factors such as
quantity of light, water, range of temperatures, or soil composition.
5. TEKS Alignment:
-TEKS 8.11A: Ecosystem Roles
-TEKS 8.11B: Biotic and Abiotic Factors*
6. Concept Map
7. Materials in the Centennial Museum (Lists and Pictures)
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Course: MSED 4311
Instructor: Dr. Pei-Ling Hsu
-El Paso Biology Section
8. Self-Created Materials (Lists and Pictures)
(1) Chart
(2) Cut-outs
(3) Pencils
(4) Markers
(5) Masks
(6) Rocks
(7) Sand
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Course: MSED 4311
Instructor: Dr. Pei-Ling Hsu
9. Safety Consideration
(1) Masks might not be fitted proportionately, we will make sure they do not fit too
tight.
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Course: MSED 4311
Instructor: Dr. Pei-Ling Hsu
(2) Rocks & Sand can be thrown around
10. Scientific Topics
(1) Ecosystem:
Everything in the natural world is connected. An ecosystem is a community of living
and non-living things that work together. Ecosystems have no particular size. An
ecosystem can be as large as a desert or a lake or as small as a tree or a puddle. If you
have a terrarium, that is an artificial ecosystem. The water, water temperature, plants,
animals, air, light and soil all work together. If there isn't enough light or water or if the
soil doesn't have the right nutrients, the plants will die. If the plants die, animals that
depend on them will die. If the animals that depend on the plants die, any animals that
depends on those animals will die. Ecosystems in nature work the same way. All the parts
work together to make a balanced system.
(2)The Chihuahuan Desert:
The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest desert in North America, extends from Mexico into
sections of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. This diverse desert region ranges from
sparse scrub desert and dunes to grasslands and woody hills. Animals in the Chihuahuan
Desert adapt to sparse vegetation and little water.
1. Mammals:
o
The Chihuahuan Desert offers habitat for bighorn sheep, mule deer and pronghorn
antelope. Predators including bears, mountain lions, coyotes and wolves travel through
the desert hills.
2. Ground-dwellers
o
Chaparral, cactus and grasses provide food and shelter for small animals including the
Chihuahua pocket mouse, desert jackrabbit, kangaroo rat and ground squirrel.
Endangered species like the Mexican prairie dog make their homes here.
3. Herpetofauna
o
Native lizards, geckos and whiptails thrive in this desert. Snakes slithering through the
Chihuahuan landscape include sidewinders, rattlesnakes, the Trans-Pecos rat snake and
cat-eyed snake. Sun-seeking soft-shelled turtles burrow to hide.
Birds
o
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Course: MSED 4311
Instructor: Dr. Pei-Ling Hsu
Over 300 bird species live in the Chihuahuan region. Migratory birds move in and out
with the seasons. Notable birds include the roadrunner, which prefers running to flying,
and the small elf owl that plays dead when in danger.
Bats
o
Bats, flying mammals of the desert, consume thousands of insects. Diverse bats perch in
trees, shrubs, rock crevices and caves. Voracious eaters like the pallid bat climb and
crawl to get grasshoppers, scorpions and large crickets.
(3) Description of Abiotic Factors:
The Chihuahuan desert contains abiotic factors such as sand and rocks. Examples of
rocks would be as limestone and calcareous soils. There is very little water which is
mostly underground.
(4) Biotic Factors:
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Course: MSED 4311
Instructor: Dr. Pei-Ling Hsu
11. Opening Activity (hook)
The students will be shown rocks (limestone et.) and sand found in the El Paso area. They
will respond to these objects using their prior knowledge whether they have seen them
before. We will then explain that they are abiotic factors that contribute to the
Chihuahuan ecosystem in El Paso through an interactive poster we have created online.
Prezi Interactive Poster Link:
http://prezi.com/oeztymy6dbff/chihuahuan-desert/
Next the students will be shown a video on why the desert is really hot and at times really
cold at night including the abiotic factors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cieT5cZPP10
12. Practice for the targeted audience/older audience
The students will be given a graphic organizer in which they will be filling out according
to the new terms being taught. The students will be provided a chart that will have the
definitions to the graphic organizer for more support.
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Course: MSED 4311
Instructor: Dr. Pei-Ling Hsu
13. Practice for the targeted/younger audience/older audience
The students will have to organize the animals as a group activity based on the terms and
sequence of the food chain on a chart. Cut-outs of animals and plants found in the
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Course: MSED 4311
Instructor: Dr. Pei-Ling Hsu
Chihuahuan Desert will be provided, along with wacky tacky for the children to arrange
on the chart of the levels of the food chain .
15. Assessment for the targeted audience/younger audience/older audience
The Students will have masks, in which they would participate in a game of trying to
figure out what they without looking at their own mask, but at each other’s. Once they
have found out what they are they will then be guided in a discussion of which animal
eats who. They will then arrange themselves based on the food chain order of producer,
1st level consumer etc.
18. Reference (at least five references, two from the course and three from external
sources)
YouTube
secure.HumaneSociety.org
Prezi.com
Dr. Pei-Ling Hsu
Google.com (images)
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