Wyoming Science HS-LS2-6

ScienceGrades 9–12Life Science

The Standard

Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex biotic and abiotic interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a modified ecosystem.

2023 Wyoming Science Content and Performance Standards · LS2 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

Teacher's field guide

What This Standard Means

What Students Need to Do: Students compare population counts with changes in water, temperature, and food supply. They judge whether a claim about a stable or changing ecosystem fits the evidence. They explain how living things and physical conditions affect one another.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students recognize that populations can vary while staying within a usual range. They use data and a food web to explain a shift in populations. They can say when the evidence supports a claim but does not prove a single cause.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think stable means every population stays at exactly the same number. They may treat one bad year as proof of permanent change. They may assume a drop in fish proves drought was the only cause.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: A pond had 80 to 90 insects and 30 to 35 fish in each of three wet years. After a drought, it had 20 insects and 12 fish. Ask students to assess the claim that drought may have changed the pond, using the counts and one food-web link.

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

Connect pond organism and water cards with string, then draw a drought card and trace which populations might change.
Compare pond counts before and after a drought, then write which claim the data support and what other evidence you need.
Give pairs a pond data table and four claim cards; have them match each claim to supporting data or an unsupported pile.
Check a local rainfall chart online and use a pond food web to predict how a dry year could change insect and fish numbers.

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