This area deals with organisms living in a particular environment and ecosystems that contain components that affect the lives of organisms. In this area, students come to understand the complex array of relationships existing between organisms and their environment by looking at specific adaptations. Students become aware of interactions within an ecosystem and of equilibrium in an ecosystem. They also understand how ecosystems can be destroyed by environmental pollutants and why a balance between development and conservation is necessary.
The grade 6 English science unit, Organisms and their Environment, meets the academic content standards set in the Korean curriculum, which state students should: a) Understand how light, temperature and water impact living things and how these living things adapt themselves to their environment. b) Identify ecological components, including producers, consumers and decomposers. And recognize the importance of equilibrium in the ecosystem. c) Understand the causes of environmental pollution, recognize examples of ecological destruction resulting from environmental pollution and understand how humans affect ecosystems. d) Recognize the need for conservation of ecosystems and the human efforts to protect them.
What do I need to do? You will need a beetle, a beetle container, humus, beetle jelly, pieces of wood, and water. 1. Add humus to a depth of about 5cm in the container. Add some water to make the humus a little moist. 2. Add pieces of wood to the container. Add some beetle jelly. We will assume the jelly is the sap from a tree. 3. Place a beetle in the container and observe how it interacts with its environment over a 1 week period. Draw pictures and make notes of what you saw. Think about all the different things that can be found in and around a field. Do you think of beetles, frogs and dragonflies? Perhaps you thought of air and water. Air and water are nonliving things. Without them, you and many other things could not survive. Nonliving things help living things, like beetles, meet their needs. Light is needed for plants to make food. Beetles use these plants to hide in and also as a food source. Air is needed by both plants and animals to carry out their life processes. Rain provides water for animals and plants to survive. Many beetles need moist humus for their offspring to live in. Soil provides plants with the support and nutrients they need to grow and a place for other organisms to live, too. 1. What nonliving things are needed to help living things survive? 2. How did the beetle interact with the things in its container? 1
What do I need to do? You will need 10 plates and a bag of candy. 1. Your teacher will hide some food between some plates placed around the room without you knowing what s inside. Graph the results. 2. Move to a plate of your choice around the room. When everyone has chosen a plate, lift off the top plate to reveal the food. The Movement of Organisms When Finding a Food Source 20 Number 15 of 10 people. 5 1 2 3 4 5 Number of moves before food was found. 3. If there is enough food for everyone to take one snack, do so. If not, the people who missed out need to move to another plate. They keep doing this until they find some food. 4. Your teacher may add some different variations to the activity. For example, if there isn t enough food, you will need to fight for it by playing rock-paper-scissors. Players who miss out are out of the activity. From 1999, Japan started to allow the importation of exotic stag beetles from other countries. They believed these tropical beetles wouldn t be able to survive the Japanese winter if they escaped into the wild. However, research has now shown that these exotic beetles can survive, which will create future problems for Japan s native beetles. The number of Japanese stag beetles in Japan is rapidly decreasing in the wild due to humans destroying their natural habitats and food sources. Adding exotic stag beetles also increases the competition for food and places to live. This could lead to a further decline of native Japanese stag beetles as they would be forced to fight more for food. 1. What are exotic stag beetles and native stag beetles competing for? 2. What will happen if many animals need to share the same food source? 2
What do I need to do? You will need different Dorcus titanus beetles from around the world, 1 native Japanese Dorcus titanus, and beetle books. 1. Use a hand lens to observe different species and subspecies of Dorcus titanus. 2. Accurately sketch the mandibles of the males below and make notes about their appearance. 3. Use books and other resources that will help you identify the different beetles. Note which was the native Japanese stag beetle. One of the most popular Japanese stag beetle species is the Dorcus titanus. Many different subspecies can be found around Japan. Dorcus titanus beetles from around Southeast Asia are closely related to the Japanese species. Scientists successfully crossed Japanese stag beetles with Sumatra stag beetles and found that they could produce fertile offspring. This shows that Japanese stag beetles could be threatened leading to hybrid stag beetles. Some hybrid stag beetles have already been found in the wild around Japan. Each species of Dorcus titanus stag beetle has unique mandibles. This is one way you can identify a specific species or hybrid if you catch them in the wild. 1. How can you tell different stag beetles apart? 2. What will happen to the native beetles if they start to breed with exotic beetles? 3
What do I need to do? You will need male and female Japanese rhinoceros beetles in a container and a hand lens. 1. Use a hand lens to observe different male Japanese rhinoceros beetles. Accurately illustrate what you observe. 2. Use a hand lens to observe different female Japanese rhinoceros beetles. Accurately illustrate what you observe. 3. Use your observations to help identify adaptations that allow these beetles to survive in their ecosystem. Draw detailed pictures of the male and female beetles. The Japanese rhinoceros beetle is one of the most recognizable beetles in the world. The males have large horns that they use to throw other beetles when competing for food. They also use their horn to throw away males when competing for mating rights. The females do not have the large horn, but they have a small bump on their head that allows them to move through the humus easily. They also have more hair on their bodies to prevent humus sticking to them as they lay eggs. Japanese rhinoceros beetles can be red or black in color. The black beetles are well camouflaged at night and the red beetles are better camouflaged during the morning. Both colors blend in well with the dead leaves and wood on the ground. 1. What adaptations allow the male rhinoceros beetle to survive in the wild? 2. What adaptations allow the female rhinoceros beetles to survive in the wild? 4
What do I need to do? You will need pictures of animals on card, a small box, and craft materials. 1. Look at the plant and animal pictures given to you. Identify who eats who in these pictures. 2. Decorate a box with materials so that it would look like a forest ecosystem. Put your animal pictures in appropriate places. Draw another example of a food web. 3. Add arrows between your organisms to show which way the energy flows when an organism eats another. All animals are part of a food chain. Plants are called producers because they make their own food. Animals are called consumers because they get energy by eating plants or animals. Some consumers eat only plants, while other consumers eat animals. Some consumers eat both plants and animals. Most animals eat different plants and animals, so food chains interlink to form food webs. Most of the food eaten by an animal is used up by the animal, but some is stored. When that animal gets eaten by another consumer, only the stored energy is passed on. This means there are fewer consumers at the top of a food web as they need to eat more food to get the energy they need to survive. 1. Are beetles producers or consumers? How do you know? 2. What would happen if other animals couldn t find any beetles to eat? 5
What do I need to do? You will need a male and female Japanese rhinoceros beetle, a beetle container at least 15cm deep, humus, wood, beetle jelly, and beetle resource books. 1. Put the male and female rhinoceros beetle in the same container that contains humus, wood and jelly. 2. Allow the beetles to mate. Prepare a separate container that has about 5cm of compacted humus. Then, add another 10cm of humus. 3. Place the female in this container with some jelly and leave her in there for a couple of weeks to lay eggs. Replace the jelly as needed. Draw the lifecycle of the Japanese rhinoceros beetle with the approximate months each stage occurs. The lifecycle and growth of beetles is strongly related to the temperature. The best temperatures for Japanese rhinoceros beetles are between 22 and 26 degrees Celsius. Within these temperatures, the Japanese rhinoceros beetle is very active. The male and female will mate and the female will lay her eggs in the humus. These eggs will then hatch and larvae will emerge. If the temperature is too high, larvae will begin to die. The best temperature for larvae is 20 23 degrees. The adult beetles start to die as the temperatures begin to get too cold. The larvae become very large by the time winter comes. When it gets too cold, the Japanese rhinoceros beetle larvae become less active. When spring arrives and the temperatures rise, the larvae will begin to eat a lot of humus again before becoming pupae in June. The pupae will emerge as adults after a few weeks as the temperatures reach the optimum conditions for adult beetles. 1. How does temperature affect the activities of adult Japanese rhinoceros beetles? 2. In winter, will you see any Japanese rhinoceros beetles? Please explain. 6
What do I need to do? You will need beetle larvae in a container with humus, gloves, a cup and a bowl. 1. Gently pour the humus and larva out of the container into the bowl. 2. Look at the larva. Draw a quick sketch. Remove all the feces from the humus. Sketch the larva. Sketch the feces. 3. Put the cleaned humus back in the container and top it up. Place the larva on top and observe what it does. Beetle larvae are decomposers. This means they help to break down waste and living things that have died. They help to return the nutrients back to the soil that will allow plants to grow. Decomposers play an important part in the food web. Without them, dead plants and animals will start to build up. Mushrooms and bacteria are other examples of decomposers. Larvae spend their time underground or in rotting wood. They are also a food source for other animals, such as moles, mice and birds. 1. What two roles do larvae have in a food web? 2. What would happen if there were no decomposers? 7
What do I need to do? You will need a beetle, a toothbrush, clear tape, and a microscope. 1. Look at the beetle. Locate any mites and gently use a toothbrush to brush them off the beetle. 2. Use clear tape to trap a mite. 3. Use a microscope to observe the mite. Draw pictures to show where the mites were found on the beetle and what the mite looked like under the microscope. Since 1999, many exotic beetles have been imported to Japan. Unfortunately, it s not only the beetles making it to Japan, but a lot of mites are also coming attached to the beetles. This could have a serious impact on the native animals, including beetles. Many different species of mites have been found attached to exotic beetles imported to Japan. The Lucanid uropodin mite is one of these mites. Results have shown that beetles infected with this mite weakened and died within 1 month. This may cause the number of native beetles to reduce even more. 1. How are foreign mites entering Japan? 2. How can these mites affect native beetles? 8
What do I need to do? You will need old scrap paper, a blender, water, a sponge, and a paper making kit. 1. Rip up old paper into smaller pieces and throw them into a blender. Add some water and mix it up. 2. Pour the mixture into a paper making frame. Make sure the paper is evenly spread. 3. Take the recycled paper out. Use a sponge to try and make the paper dry more quickly. Tape some of your recycled paper below. Humans have polluted the environment. Smoke from factories and vehicles rise in the sky every day. All the carbon dioxide that we are making is trapping the heat, making the Earth warmer. The warmer climate has allowed certain pest beetles to thrive, while other beetles find the rising temperatures more difficult to live in. It is our responsibility to take care of the environment by reducing smoke. We need to reduce the amount of trash we make and recycle. We also need to stop cutting down so many trees and allowing foreign plants and animals to enter. We need to protect the native plants and animals and take steps to increase the number of endangered species. 1. Why are native beetles and other animals becoming endangered or extinct? 2. What can we do to protect these beetles and other native animals? Japan is making efforts to plant native tree species to help native animals survive. 9
What do I need to do? You will need 10 red M&M s and 10 brown M&M s. 1. Put a red M&M and a brown M&M on top of each other. These will act as 2 beetles with different color variations. 2. Put the M&M s between your index finger and thumb and slowly squeeze them until one cracks. This is simulating the 2 beetles fighting. 3. Record which color cracked first. If you don t know which cracked first, the one with the smallest crack wins. This is the beetle that will pass its traits to its offspring. Complete the chart with your results. Identify the strongest color trait. Round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Winning Color The Earth is constantly changing. Evidence has shown that even in the past, before humans existed, the Earth experienced ice ages and even times hotter than now. Once again, the Earth is getting warmer. This time it is happening more quickly due to the pollution and gases that humans have made. Unlike the past, animals have to change or adapt more quickly in order to survive. Animals, including beetles, can pass on slightly different traits to their offspring. The animals that have traits better suited to the current environment will be more likely to survive and pass on these traits to their offspring. Looking at beetles in particular, these changes could be in color, the strength of their exoskeleton, the ability to survive in warmer conditions, or for their larvae to survive in drier conditions, or even more acidic conditions as more acid rain falls. It will become survival of the fittest. 1. Why can some beetles survive while others die as the Earth changes? 2. What conditions will the beetles need to live in in the future? 10