Contemporary Issues in Biology Online Course

Week 8, Chapter 15 -- Adopt-a-Species

Introduction

Extinction is a potentially devastating problem because all species are connected to other species and are involved in the normal functioning of ecosystems. The loss of one species can therefore have far reaching effects.

Some scientists have argued that people would be more willing to save threatened and endangered species if they understood how the extinction of a given organism could lead to the loss of other economically valuable species or ecosystem functions (e.g., nutrient cycling and removal of pollutants from water). However, we often lack the research necessary to know exactly what these impacts might be.

Your job in this assignment is to identify an organism or ecosystem function that is economically beneficial to humans and that is likely to be present or to occur in the environment where your adopted species lives. You will then design an experiment that will help determine how the extinction of your adopted organism could affect other economically important species or an ecosystem function.

Part 1 -- Gather background materials

Read about species interactions in your text (see chapter 15). Also, read about economically valuable ecosystem functions -- sometimes called ecosystem services -- in the same chapter and at the website entitled Ecosystem Services: A Primer.
Use the internet either to identify economically important species that share their habitat with your adopted organism, or to find an "ecosystem service" that your adopted species provides. You will need to find enough information to provide your audience with a bit of background on the economically important species or the ecosystem service. (If that information is not available for your exact species, you can find similar information for a related species -- but be sure to specify the source of your information).

Part 2 -- Write a research proposal

Pretend to be a scientist who is writing a grant proposal to the Save the (Your Adopted Species) Foundation. Your experiment should test how the extinction of your adopted species would affect another species or ecosystem function. You don't have to worry about how much money to ask for; instead, focus on the experiment(s) you would conduct to determine what would happen if your organism went extinct.

Your experimental design should include:

An introductory paragraph or two that describes the economically important species or ecosystem service and how your adopted species interacts with that species or contributes to that ecosystem service.
The specific question you are asking. "Would the loss of my adopted species affect economically important species X?" is too general. Examples of more specific questions are: Would extinction of your adopted species cause the population of the economically important species to decrease? To increase? Would the increase in population be sustainable? You may or may not be able to find the background necessary to formulate a realistic question. Just do your best, making sure it is specific enough that you can achieve clear-cut experimental results.
One or more paragraphs that describe the following components of your experiment:

your hypothesis
how you will test your hypothesis, including (not necessarily in this order):

the overall plan for your study
the independent variable in your experiment (mention it by name, e.g., "The independent variable will be ...")
specific treatments you would apply
your control group (mention it by name, e.g., "The control group will be ...")
your sample size for each treatment
how you will assign your subjects to your different treatments
the dependent variable and how you will measure it (mention it by name, e.g., "The dependent variable will be ...")
the most important standardized variable(s) (mentioned by name, e.g., "Variables to standardize include ...")
the duration of your experiment
your predictions

For full credit, your report must meet the following criteria:

length: 500-750 words, not including references.
spell-check and proofread your work.
You must include correctly cited links to all references you used.

View a sample assignment here

Part 3 -- Post your report to D2L

Post your documentary to your personal D2L Discussions forum, and click the "Save" button.

Because you're posting all your Adopt-a-Species assignments to the same forum, please include the words "Week 8" in the title of your post for this assignment. No matter what, always save a back-up copy of your assignment somewhere on your computer! Although you will save/post directly in D2L, you don't want to run the risk that it won't be there when you come back to access it.

Part 4 -- Respond to at least two others

Read both the first Adopt-a-Species assignment AND this week's assignment in the posts of two other students, as assigned in the D2L discussion board forum entitled "Adopt-a-Species: Response Grid" for this week. Add your comments to the D2L post of each student. Click on their name, then "reply" to their specific post. If one or both of the students you are supposed to respond to have not posted an assignment by the deadline, you can respond to another student (or students) of your choice from our section of the class.

Be sure your responses are substantive (check out this page for more on the topic of good and bad responses).

After you have responded to two other students, go to Desire2Learn to complete the Gradebook Declaration for this week's Adopt-a-Species assignment. (Your Gradebook Declaration is subject to the Honor Code.) You will self-report your responses to other students' posts, but I will grade your entry myself, according to the rubric posted below.

Here is the text of the Desire2Learn Gradebook Declaration:

(2 points) I have responded constructively to the posts of at least two other students (1 point for each response).

Grading rubric for Week 8, Chapter 15 Adopt-a-Species assignment:

I will use the following rubric to grade your Adopt-a-Species assignments. Notice that the rubric does not heavily reward creativity; I am much more interested in looking for evidence that you fulfill the assignment criteria.

	Standards
Criteria	Full Credit	Half Credit	No Credit
Uses same species adopted in first AAS assignment	Yes = 0.5 point		No = 0 points
Mentions a species or ecosystem function that would be affected by the extinction of your adopted species	Yes = 0.5 point		No = 0 points
Provides relevant background information about the economically important species or ecosystem service	Provides relevant information = 1 point	Provides information but it is of limited relevance to the proposed study = 0.5 point	No information or irrelevant information provided = 0 points
Describes how the adopted species interacts with the economically important species or ecosystem service	Complete = 1 point	Partial = 0.5 point	Absent = 0 points
Describes a question relevant to the loss of the adopted species on the economically important species or ecosystem function	Question is sufficiently detailed to be testable with one study = 1 point	Mentions question, but it's too general to be testable with one study = 0.5 point	No = 0 points
Mentions hypothesis	Yes = 1 point		No = 0 points
Mentions sample size and procedure for assigning subjects to treatments	Yes for both = 1 point	Mentions one but not the other = 0.5 point	Mentions neither = 0 points
Correctly specifies independent variable, including treatment groups and control group	Mentions both = 2 points	Mentions one but not the other = 1 point	No = 0 points
Correctly identifies dependent variable and how to measure it	Mentions both = 2 points	Mentions one but not the other = 1 point	No = 0 points
Correctly identifies one or more standardized variables	Yes = 1 point		No = 0 points
Mentions duration of experiment	Yes = 0.5 point		No = 0 points
Mentions predictions	Yes = 0.5 point		No = 0 points
All references cited correctly, including author, title, date, functioning hyperlink, and download date	Yes, without exception = 1 point	Yes, but not always = 0.5 point	No = 0 points

Please note that points will be deducted as follows if you fail to meet the "mechanical" requirements of the assignment:

0.5 point will be subtracted for every 2 spelling/grammatical errors (for helpful hints, click here);
1 point will be subtracted if your post is too short.

Contemporary Issues in Biology -- BIOL 1003
Mariëlle H. Hoefnagels, Ph.D. © 2004-2015.
biology1003 at OU dot edu (at = @, dot =.)
Last Updated August 5, 2014 11:02 PM

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