OCELOTS

Resource Type

• Module

Courses

• Ecology
• Introductory Biology
• Science Process Skills

Course Level

• Introductory
• Upper Level
• High School

Bloom's Cognitive Level

• Foundational: factual knowledge & comprehension
• Application & Analysis
• Synthesis/Evaluation/Creation

Vision and Change Core Competencies

• Ability to apply the process of science
• Ability to use quantitative reasoning
• Ability to communicate and collaborate with other disciplines
• Ability to understand the relationship between science and society

Vision and Change Core Concepts

• Pathways and transformations of energy and matter
• Systems

Four Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) Framework

• Core Ecological Concepts
  • Organisms
    • Abiotic and biotic features of the environment
    • Resources and regulators
    • Habitat and niche: fundamental – realized
  • Population dispersion
    • Demography – life history
  • Community
    • Species diversity – biodiversity – dominance
    • Competition – exploitation – interference – predation – mutualism
    • Behavioral ecology
  • Ecosystems
    • Trophic levels – Producers – consumers – decomposers
    • Predation: predator-prey – herbivore – carnivores
    • Food chain – food web – networks – grazing – detritus
    • Energy flow – productivity
    • Regulators – control from below/above – trophic cascades
  • Landscapes
    • Patches – corridors – barriers
  • Biomes
    • Biome types – tundra, boreal forest, deciduous forest, grassland, shrubland, desert, tropical rainforest
  • Biosphere
• Ecology Practices
  • Natural history
    • Making observations and connections
  • Fieldwork
    • Field identification and preservation (of at least one large taxon)
    • Spatial analysis (GIS, remote sensing)
  • Quantitative reasoning and computational thinking
    • Data skills – inputting and data-mining / meta-analysis/ data visualization
    • Informatics
    • Data analysis and interpretation
  • Designing and critiquing investigations
    • Study design, familiarity with basic modes of ecological inquiry (description, comparison, experimentation, modeling)
    • Evaluating claims
    • Argument from evidence
  • Working collaboratively
  • Communicating and applying ecology
• Human-Environment Interactions
• Cross-cutting Themes
  • Pathways & Transformations of Matter and energy
  • Systems
  • Spatial & Temporal
    • Scales
    • Stability & change

Class Type

• Lab
• On-line

Class Size

• 1-50
• 51-100
• 101+

Audience

• Life Sciences Major
• Non-Life Sciences Major
• 2-year College
• 4-year College
• University

Lesson Length

• Multiple class periods

Key Scientific Process Skills

• Reading research papers
• Reviewing prior research
• Asking a question
• Formulating hypotheses
• Designing/conducting experiments
• Predicting outcomes
• Gathering data/making observations
• Analyzing data
• Interpreting results/data
• Displaying/modeling results/data
• Communicating results

Pedagogical Approaches

• Brainstorming
• Case Study
• Collaborative Work
• Reflective Writing

Principles of How People Learn

• Focuses student on the material to be learned
• Develops supportive community of learners
• Requires student to do the bulk of the work

Assessment Type

• Assessment of individual student performance
• Assessment of student groups/teams
• Assignment
• Homework
• Answer short answer question(s)
• Create graph, table etc. to present data
• Design an experiment or research study
• Design/present a poster
• Give an oral presentation
• Interpret data
• Participate in discussion
• Produce a video or video response
• Self evaluation
• Written assignment: Figure and or figure legend
• Written assignment: Lab report