Summer SAVY, Session 5 Day 1, Wildlife Ecology (5th-6th)
Good evening! Today we were very busy, first getting to know each other with a form of Bingo, and then we went over classroom expectations in terms of behavior. We posted those expectations and referred to them when necessary. We started our lesson with them working in small groups to address a very important question, which type of paper towel is most absorbent? They had to think about how you would answer this question which led to a discussion of the nature of science and the scientific method. The instructions asked them to create a “fair” test so they needed to think about what that meant. We covered the steps of the scientific method including the idea of a controlled experiment. Understanding this process is important for them to address the problem which was our next activity. They read a hypothetical email exchange about the prevalence of a mysterious illness which led to another exchange about a possible link to the large deer population. Just before lunch, we went to the computer lab to begin researching the issue of deer and the mystery illness.
After lunch we were back in the computer lab and narrowed our focus down to Lyme Disease and the relationship between this human disease and deer. We covered the basic ecology of food webs and they thought of what change to the food web could cause a growth in the deer population. This led to a discussion and research on pathogens. They learned that Lyme Disease is not caused by deer ticks but that deer ticks are the vectors of the bacterial pathogen. We talked about what it means for a pathogen to be transmissible and examples of pathogens that do not require a vector. They wanted to talk about Covid which led to them thinking about the differences between antibiotics and vaccines. We finished the day with them using the “Reasoning Wheel” to analyze a document about the large deer population in Helena Montana. We did not finish that process but feel free to ask them about the reasoning wheel. Also, they should be able to tell you the basics of the life cycle of Borrelia burgdorferi the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Ask them what it means for a pathogen to be transmissible. What do ticks and mosquitos have to do with disease spread? If they feel like extending their learning tonight have them research the history of Lyme disease. When and where was it first diagnosed? When did they figure out the causative agent?