Middle School Life Science

Resources and Populations

A sealed bag has only so much to go around.

Nothing is added to a Brainy Briny bag after Day 1, so the nutrients and light are fixed. Students measure the algae and count the brine shrimp over days and watch growth slow as a resource runs short.

Buy the Brainy Briny kit Back to Middle School

MS-LS2-1 NGSS, grades 6 to 8

6.12.A Texas, grade 6

SC.7.L.17.3 Florida, grade 7

How the lab meets it

What students do that satisfies the standard

Grades 6-8

NGSS MS-LS2-1

Standard: Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.

What the kit does: Students graph their own algae density and brine shrimp counts, and the leveling off of the curve is the evidence the standard asks for.

Grade 6

Texas 6.12.A

Standard: Investigate how organisms and populations in an ecosystem depend on and may compete for biotic factors such as food and abiotic factors such as availability of light and water, range of temperatures, or soil composition.

What the kit does: The algae depend on a fixed supply of light and nutrients, and the brine shrimp depend on a fixed supply of algae. Students track both populations and see growth slow as food and light run short.

Grade 7

Florida SC.7.L.17.3

Standard: Describe and investigate various limiting factors in the local ecosystem and their impact on native populations, including food, shelter, water, space, disease, parasitism, predation, and nesting sites.

What the kit does: Food and space are real limiting factors in the bag, and students measure what happens to the brine shrimp as they run short. Honest fit: partial. The bag is not the local ecosystem and brine shrimp are not a native population, so students need to carry the idea out to a local example.

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