8th Grade Integrated Science Standard 2, Objective 2 Title: Best Buddies Description: This activity uses pictures of pairs of organisms that have a relationship. Students will identify and describe the relationship and develop a short skit to demonstrate one of the dependent relationships as it might be found in a human interaction. Time Needed: 50-70 minutes Materials: Pictures of animal pairs (see below) color copies are best but black and white will do. Glue to cardstock and laminate for durability. Access to Internet or library reference materials (encyclopedia, wildlife books). Copies of student page if desired. Background Knowledge: This can be a summary or introduction to relationships of organisms in a environment. Procedures 1. Have students pair/share what it means to be a buddy. Then discuss the types of interactions plants and animals have in an ecosystem. 2. Define producer, consumer, decomposer, predator, prey, mutualism, commensalisms and parasitism with class or assign groups to find and explain definitions. 3. Explain to students that they will be passing around the pictures of pairs of organisms and they will need to decide what role each organism is playing in the relationship. If they have no idea, they should look it up in the resources available to them. They will work in groups of 3-4. 4. Each group does not need to do all the organisms. Groups may get “stuck” on a hard one and it will slow them down. 5. After about 25 minutes, stop the groups and go over the results. Each group should report on one or two pairs. 6. Assign partners to work on the next part. They need to pick from parasitism, commensalisms or mutualism and write a short skit that might take place between two humans that illustrates the relationship. 7. As students perform their skits, the class needs to guess which relationship they are displaying. Scoring Guide: 1. Students complete definitions on student page……………………………………………..4 2. Students accurately identify relationships between paired organisms*……………………4 3. Students design and perform skit based on a relationship…………………………………4 4. Student skit accurately portrays relationship intended……………………………………..4 *see below

Key to organisms: Picture number Organism and Role Organism and Role Type of relationship

1 Forest/produces food from sunlight

Mushroom/decomposer Producer/decomposer

2 Grassland/produces food from sunlight

Elephant/consumes food Producer/consumer

3 Lioness/may hunt or be hunted by man

Man/may hunt or be hunted by lion

Predator/prey

4 Leaves/produces food from sunlight

Grasshopper/consumes leaves Producer/consumer

5 Ant/feeds and protects aphids

Aphid/produce food for ant Mutualism

6 Buffalo/stir up insects as they walk through grass

Cowbird/eats insects the buffalo stirs up.

Commensalism

7 Badger/opens bee hive Honey guide/shows badger where bee hive is

Mutalism

8 Hermit crab/uses snail shell Snail/discards shell when outgrown

Commensalism

9 Deer/provide home and food Tick/feed on deer blood, pass disease

Parasitism

10

Cuckoo/lays eggs in warblers nest

Warbler/hatches and feeds cuckoo offspring, warbler chicks may die

Parasitism

11 Ostrich/lives with gazelle herds and helps warn of danger

Gazelle/lives with ostrich herds and helps warn of danger

Mutualsim

12 Remora/feeds off shark scraps Shark/doesn’t know remora is around

Commensalism

Student Page Name____________________________________________ Title: Best Buddies Introduction: In nature, plants and animals develop complex relationships. Some are relationships you may know of are producer/consumer/decomposer or predator/ prey. You may be less familiar with mutualism, commensalisms or parasitism. These relationships are sometimes amazing to see because they remind us of human types of behavior. In this activity you will investigate the plant and animal world as well as the human side of interactive relationships. Procedures: 1. Turn to a partner and describe what you think it means to be a “buddy” to someone else. 2. Define the following terms that are used to define “buddies” in an ecosystem: Producer Consumer Decomposer Predator Prey Mutualism Parasitism Commensalism 3. Work with your group and pass the pictures of pairs of organisms around the class. Write down in the data table what role each organism plays and what kind of relationship they have. Choose from producer/consumer, producer/consumer/decomposer, predator/prey, mutualism, commensalisms or parasitism. 4. Use the resources provided for you (books, Internet) to find out about pairs you are unfamiliar with. 5. Listen as your teachers describes the skit you will write. Record the dialog in the space provided. Be sure the conversation illustrates one of the interactions you have learned about today. 6. Watch other skits and see you can determine which ecological relationship they have modeled.

Data: Picture number Organism and Role Organism and Role Type of relationship

Dialog:

Forest

Mushroom

Grassland

Elephant

Leaves

Grasshopper

Lioness

man

ant

aphid

Buffalo

Cowbird

Badger

Honey Guide

Hermit Crab

Snail

Deer

Tick

Cuckoo

Warbler

Ostrich

Gazelle

Remora Shark