Topic: Protocooperation and commensalism

Author Leokadia Stalewicz

Target group

8th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

General requirements

I. Knowledge of biological diversity and basic biological phenomena and processes. Student:

3. presents and explains the relationship between the organism and the environment.

Specific requirements

VII. Ecology and environmental protection. Student:

4. analyzes non‑antagonistic interactions: obligatory mutualism (symbiosis), facultative mutualism (protoccooperation) and commensalism.

General aim of education

You will learn the difference between protocooperation and commensalism

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• explain what commensalism and protocooperation are, and give examples;

• explain that symbiosis is a result of environmental adaptation.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion;

  • brainstorming.

• exposing

  • exposition.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

• Then he writes the subject of the lesson on the blackboard or interactive whiteboard. Students write it in notebooks..

Realization

• The teacher asks students to read the abstract themselves, paying particular attention to the illustrations.

• The lecturer presents an interactive illustration of „Non‑antagonistic relations in nature” and on the basis of it and on the basis of the resources from the lessons „Protoccooperation” and „Commensalism” in the abstract discusses the types of non‑antagonistic relations in nature.

• The instructor initiates a brainstorming whose aim is to provide as many examples of protocooperation and commensalism as possible in the immediate human environment. At the end of this lesson stage, the class discusses the importance of protocooperation and commensalism for exemplary ecosystems together.

• The teacher asks students to carry out the recommended interactive exercise themselves.

Summary

• The teacher goes on to summarize the lesson, during which the students can discuss any unclear issues and complete the notes..

• At the end of the lesson the teacher asks: If there was going to be a test on the material we have covered today, what questions do you think would you have to answer? If the students do not manage to name all the most important questions, the teacher may complement their suggestions.

Homework

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Protocooperation and commensalism

Another type of non‑antagonistic interaction between individuals of different species is protocooperation.It brings great benefits to organisms which, however, are independent.

Protocooperation combines for example, hermit crabs, crustaceans exceptional devoid of armor on the abdomen, with anemones. Hermit crab protect their soft abdomen in the shells of dead molluscs. The crab selects shells with anemones, but if there are none in the vicinity, chooses any available shell, to which the anemone might attach itself. In return coelenterata rely on free transport and crab food debris. It happens that the growing crab changes the shells to a larger and extremely carefully moves the coelenterata into a new shell.

Mutual services are also provided by birds‑cleaners and large mammals, such as a buffalo, an antelope, a rhinoceros. Savannah herbivores suffer from parasites feeding on and under their skin. They cannot get rid of them effectively. Red‑billed oxpeckers peck them, bringing relief to the mammals and getting valuable food in return. A similar dependence occurs in the environment of coral reefs where small fish (bluestreak cleaner wrasses) live and remove parasites and dead tissues from bodies of large fish and food remains from their mouths.

The least obliging non‑antagonistic interdependence between organisms is commensalism which is also called „facilitation”. It occurs when one organism benefits from the presence of the other, while the other does not gain benefits or lose anything. Commensals are mainly scavengers feeding on remains left by predators and animals using feces of other species. This is the case with a dung beetle which lays eggs in horse manure. The beetle benefits from the presence of horses, because its larvae would not have any food without their manure. In turn, the presence of beetles is completely neutral to the horse population.

• Non‑antagonistic dependencies bring benefits to at least one party.