Getting Hooked on Ecojars

Finding Nemo, and Shark Tale are two wonderful animated movies portrayed in aquatic ecosystems. The creators of these stories magically illustrated and captured many ecological principles. In this activity, you will work with a group of students to create and analyze a closed ecosystem for a period of time. This closed ecosystem will be called an Ecojar. The water cycle, nitrogen cycle, and carbon cycle are three important cycles that plant and animal life depends on. Measuring components in ecosystems and studying how they work are important parts of ecology.

Before your group prepares an Ecojar, you will visit a local pet or aquarium store on your own time. While at the store, you will answer the questions on the handout called “Getting Hooked on Ecojars”. While answering the questions, you will discover the variety of products the store sells to their customers. Some of these products will be used in building and analyzing your Ecojar. In this activity you will also discover the real world applications of the Essential Skills.

Once the Ecojar is built, each member of your group will rotate through the roles of a Project Manager, a Chemical and a Biological Laboratory Technician. Each of these roles utilizes several of the Essential Skills required to successfully participate in the Canadian labour market. The roles of the Project Manager and Laboratory Technicians are described below.

Project Manager (PM)

1. Collect the project folder from the teacher.
2. Record the attendance for the group in Table 2.
3. After task 3, record the role of each member in Table 2.
4. Record the data obtained from the lab technicians.
   • Record Chemical Analysis from CLT in Table 3.
   • Record Biological Analysis from BLT in Table 4.
5. If a student is absent from the group, share the duties with the other member(s).