Summary
Essential Question(s)
Snapshot
Engage
Students examine models of temperature change over time to draw conclusions about climate.
Explore
Students compare the effect of temperature on insect and bird migration timing.
Explain
Students take notes over climate change and make predictions about the consequences of changes in migration timing.
Extend
Students explore a model of phenological mismatch.
Evaluate
Materials
Engage
Direct students to the “Temperature” page of the Shiny app. Give them time to explore the temperature change over time in various parts of the country. Suggest they select “Click map to choose” and pick their own state on the map. They might also consider
Next, have them toggle on the temperature anomaly graph. Explain the difference between temperature and temperature anomaly. They need to understand the concept of anomaly in order to interpret the focal model for this activity.
Explore
After the discussion, return to the Shiny app. This time the students will investigate the temperature variable for both the leaf hopper and the aerial insectivore data sets. Before turning them loose to complete their exploration of the models, present students with the following question: In what ways, if any, are leafhoppers and migratory birds responding to temperature? Give students a few minutes to discuss the question with their neighbor(s), having each pair or small group generate and write down one hypothesis for leafhoppers and one for migratory birds. Have groups share their hypotheses with the class.
Using the How I Know It strategy, have students collect evidence which supports or refutes their hypotheses as they play with the models. “What I know” comprises the inferences and conclusions students are drawing from the data, and '“how I know it” accounts for the specific evidence from the models that support those conclusions.
Class discussion of results.
Explain
Discuss patterns identified in and conclusions drawn from Shiny app models. Specifically ask students to assess how well they predicted the effects of temperature on the relationship between insects and migratory birds?
[Content - Why do we care about temperature effects in the first place?]
Climate change overview
Additional life history? (e.g., day length versus temperature effects)
Extend
Once students have a working understanding of this variable, they should move to the “Phenology Mismatch” page of the Shiny app. Orient them to how to interpret the graphs the model generates.
Provide students with the Lesson 3 Explore handout, and task students with answering the following questions using a CER format:
How does the rate of climate change affect the results of the model?
How is bird carrying capacity affected by climate change and life history (i.e., caterpillar and bird sensitivity to day length and temperature)?
Evaluate
[maybe] To conclude the lesson, ask students to create a visual representation of how insect arrival/activity and bird arrival are related to one another, including how they are changing over time. This could take a variety of forms, including but not limited to: graphs or tables, flow charts, concept maps, illustrations, etc. Additionally, have them include a 1-3 sentence explanation of their representation. These visual summaries will be used to kick off the next lesson.
Resources
Birds, Bugs, and Phenology https://aeroecology.shinyapps.io/Birds_Bugs_and_Phenology/
Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) strategy https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/156
Gallery Walk strategy https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/118
Research Poster strategy https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/49