1. Measuring our impact on abiotic and biotic factors In pairs, brainstorm different human activities that have an impact on the environment. In what ways do these activities affect an ecosystem? How could you monitor the effects?

2. Measuring changes in a system Learning outcomes All of you will be able to: Identify how specific human activities change abiotic and biotic factors. Most of you should be able to: Identify and describe different ways of measuring these changes to the abiotic and biotic factors. Some of you might be able to: Evaluate the methods for measuring these changes. Read the outcomes and answer these questions: What do the command terms mean? (HINT: check the wall) What ways can we measure changes in abiotic and biotic factors? (HINT: use your notes / textbook) What about ways to measure the impact of the activities that you just brainstormed? (HINT: think about the effects of each activity and the factors you would need to measure)

3. We know that human activities have an impact on the environment and cause changes to different abiotic and biotic factors! We will see more of these when we look at pollution management… Now we are going to look at some specific case studies: Measuring changes in a system

4. Group Work You have been given a case study describing a human activity that has caused changes to both abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem. Activity 1.Individually read the case study and identify the abiotic and biotic factors that have been affected. 2.Determine different methods for measuring the changes that have occurred. 3.Describe the different methods in detail. 4.Evaluate (strengths and weaknesses) how effective each method would be. 5.Nominate a spokesperson from the group who will be in charge of presenting your methods, the description and evaluation.

5. Recap – checking outcomes Learning outcomes All of you will be able to: Identify how specific human activities change abiotic and biotic factors. Most of you should be able to: Identify and describe different ways of measuring these changes to the abiotic and biotic factors. Some of you might be able to: Evaluate the methods for measuring these changes to the abiotic and biotic factors. For your specific case study who thinks they were able to identify and describe suitable methods for measuring changes? Could you do this for other human activities e.g. mining, landfills? Who thinks they were able to evaluate these methods (give both strengths and weaknesses)?

6. Homework 1.Choose one of the case studies that you didn’t see: – Chernobyl nuclear accident – The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone – Deepwater horizon oil spill Or you can pick your own example of a human activity that has had an impact on the environment e.g. mining, landfill, overexploitation. 2.Do some research and find out the following information: – Identify the abiotic and biotic factors that have been affected and describe how they were affected. – Identify and describe the methods that were used for measuring the changes that occurred. – Evaluate the different methods that were used. 3.Write up what you find out, dividing your work into the three sections above and including references.