Spiders: An Organism for Teaching Biology

Unit Objectives

In this unit, the students will explore some basic ecological (energy transfer, predator-prey relations, abiotic-biotic interactions, etc.) concepts using spiders. They model real scientific processes while caring for and studying spiders both in the classroom and in the field. At the end of this unit, students will be able to:

define the predator-prey relationship.
identify links in the food chain/web and distinguish between producer, consumer (primary/secondary), and decomposers.
give examples of how predators and prey put selective pressures on each other contributing to coevolution in an arms race of which can catch and which can avoid being caught better.
discuss regulation of numbers of prey and predators.
describe ways in which all organisms interact with the environment and with other organisms (abiotic and biotic factors).
describe how an event which affects one organism affects others, directly or indirectly.
group organisms by how they obtain their food (energy)-- for example, sit and wait, ambush, stalk, etc.
explain how the science process and experimentation is used to answer questions.
identify plants as the base of all food chains/webs.
outline the steps used in a mark and recapture study to determine population numbers.
identify the assumptions behind a mark and recapture study and identify appropriate situations this would be used for.
apply concepts to new situations.