Wednesday, September 15

Today we began class with homework! Mr. Paek t

ook some time to explain due dates of various homework assignments/projects.

Assignments:

-Read 4.2 (not required but it WILL help you in our future exam!)

-Finish Unit Packet pages 35-41 due tomorrow.

+These pages were about predator/prey relationships & population trends

-Unit Packet pages 43-48 are due on Friday, September 17th. (p.42 is just a blank page)

-Test on September 28th.

+Mr.Paek didnt take too much time explaining this. I'm sure its on food chains/webs, notes we've taken, etc. (pink unit packet). Since we have a while until the test is due I'm sure it will be further explained in class.

-Oil Spill Project is due on September 23

+Remember that the script for narration has to b

e given to Mr.Paek as a hard copy. We will have a little more time in class to work on it but it should be finished at home.

Well, thats the end of the homework explanation. Further

on we took some notes. We learned about this thing called a niche and density dependent/independent limiting factors.

Notes:

I. About Niches:

a. Definition- A specific role in a certain enviornment.

b. A niche is the physical and biological conditions of an organism.

c. Where the creature lives, feeds, etc

d. Example of a Niche: One bird may live only live on the top of a tree &

that is their niche.

That is where the little bird sleeps, eats, lives, etc.

Another bird may live on the bottom of a tree and that is his niche. He does everything there. Eats, sleeps, takes care of young, etc.

(The picture shown to the right is the same or very similar to the picture that Mr.Paek showed us. If its a little hard to read just type: Animal Niches into google and it should be there.)

II. Density Dependent Limiting Factor

a. The factor that controls the population size that operates more strongly on large than small.

b. Competition for food, water, space, sunlight, habitat.

c.Predation

d. Parasitism (disease)- Dependent on density.

e. Examples/Explanation of Density:

A:

B:

- A wolf is much more likely to go to place A because place A is more dense in deer.

-If one deer caught a disease in area A then more deer will get sick in area A than in area B because area A is more dense in deer.(parasitism)

III. Density Independent Limiting Factor

a.Def.- The factor that controls population size regardless of how large the population is at the time.

b.Usually are natural disasters such as droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, famine, etc.

That completes the notes we took. After the note taking we worked on homework for 10-15 mins. Then we watched part of a movie. The movie as about people following a pride of lions. They track the lions and record changes about them such as how they hunt, age, personality, etc. We only started it and haven't gotten too far. I almost forgot the trivia we had on the narrator of the movie. The narrator for the movie is actor, Alec Baldwin. That concludes our day in STS biology.