1. Populations on the Serengeti Lesson 1

2. Warm-Up What do you know about the wildlife in Africa?
What types of animals are there?
What does the landscape look like?
(5 min) As the students enter the classroom, have them discuss the Do Now question in small groups. Then, begin with a Consensus Building Discussion 1- to help students establish that there are many different types of ecosystems in Africa. It is a huge continent! It has deserts, rainforests, grasslands, coastlines, etc. There are also an abundance of different types of animals, depending on the type of ecosystem is in the region.
1- Strategies for this Consensus Building Discussion
The goal of this discussion is to have students come to the consensus that there are many different types of ecosystems in Africa, all with unique animals.

3. Levels of Organization

4. African Buffalo
This is a photograph of the African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer), which is an animal that lives in the Serengeti National Park, in the country of Tanzania.
(5 min) Introduce the buffaloes in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to students. Show the picture of the African buffalo to the students and read the text. Visit to find Tanzania and the Serengeti National Park, located in the northeastern part of the country.
Although it is located just outside the Serengeti, this is an amazing aerial view of a herd of African buffalo on Google Maps. Copy and paste the following coordinates into Google Maps (satellite view) to see: 4°17’21.49″ S 31°23’46.46″ E
Image comes from

5. Serengeti National Park
(5 min) Introduce the buffaloes in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to students. Show the picture of the African buffalo to the students and read the text. Visit to find Tanzania and the Serengeti National Park, located in the northeastern part of the country.
Although it is located just outside the Serengeti, this is an amazing aerial view of a herd of African buffalo on Google Maps. Copy and paste the following coordinates into Google Maps (satellite view) to see: 4°17’21.49″ S 31°23’46.46″ E
Image comes from Google Maps and
Enter the following GPS coordinates on Google Maps! 4°17’21.49″ S 31°23’46.46″ E

6. Analyze the graph below
Analyze the graph below. What patterns do you notice in the table and graph? Record these in the space on your student worksheet.
(3 min) Pass out worksheet to each student (Ecosystems Lesson 20: Student Activity Sheet). Have students individually analyze the graph and write down the patterns found on the graph. Remind students to be specific and mention the years.
Look for the following student responses:
From 1961 to 1975, the population of African buffalo is increasing. The population increases from about 30,000 to nearly 80,000.
From 1975 to 1998, the population of African buffalo is decreasing. The population decreases from about 80,000 to 18,000.
The population of African buffaloes increases between 1998 and 2000.
There are sections of the graph where there are no data points. This could be because data was not collected during these years.
Suggested Prompts:
What years was the population of African buffaloes increasing/decreasing?
By how much was the population changing?
4. (2 min) In small groups, students will mention the patterns they notice and add more detail to their own Patterns box.
Data comes from: Packer, C. et al. (2005). Ecological Change, Group Territoriality, and Population Dynamics in Serengeti Lions. SCIENCE, 307. Retrieved July 11, 2017, from % pdf

7. With a partner, brainstorm some possible causes for the change in the Buffalo population you observed in the graph.
5. (10 min) Arrange the classroom so students are working with a partner. Ask them to fill in the Making Sense section of the worksheet. 2-
Suggested Prompts:
What do you think might be causing the population to increase between and 1975?
What do you think might be causing the population to decrease between 1975 and 2000?
2- Strategies for this Initial Ideas Discussion
Ask the extension questions in the suggested prompts to keep students thinking about possible reasons for the increase/decrease in the graph.
Data comes from: Packer, C. et al. (2005). Ecological Change, Group Territoriality, and Population Dynamics in Serengeti Lions. SCIENCE, 307. Retrieved July 11, 2017, from

8. Driving Question Board
6. (15 min) Start a Driving Questions Board Have a large piece of poster paper to record ideas regarding the reasons for the increase and decrease in the African buffalo population.
Listen for the following student responses: 4-
Serengeti
How big is the Serengeti?
Where is it?
Is it a desert?
What other animals live there?
Is this a lot of buffalos, given the size?
Buffalo Questions
Did the amount of food increase?
How often do adult buffalo have babies?
How old do buffalo have to be before they can mate
What do buffalo and wildebeest eat?
Does anything eat them?
Are there more plants for them to eat?
Other animals
Are other animals increasing like this? At the same time?
Who else eats the same food?
What competes with the buffalo for food?
People
Were there government regulations? Did they stop poaching or hunting?
What were the conservation efforts?
What were people doing in the Serengeti at this time? Did they live there?
Maybe something bad was happening before and it got fixed - like a war.
There are cities in Africa - I don’t know where. Maybe something happened with over building? Or we got rid of over building. Like habitat destruction.
((Did other bad things go away? Is there anything else people protected them from? - add in teacher support -- want to get to disease))
Climate
What happened with the rainfall? Temperature?
Regular Conditions of the Serengeti
Is this just part of the normal up and down in the food web?
How does the population look before and after this range?

9. Where should we go next?
What questions and ideas do we have for how we might investigate these questions in future lessons?
(5 min) Then, enter into a Consensus Building Discussion to determine what some of these questions are and some possible steps to take in the next lesson.
Suggested Prompts:
What ideas do we have for what we should investigate next?
Listen for student responses like:
I think there must be a lot of predators.
I think there has to be a lot more food or water.
Students decide to investigate more background information about the Serengeti. More specifically, we all want to know how big the Serengeti is and how many animals are living there.