Bottle Habitat

Submitted by: Jess Lang
Endorsed by: Dr. Don Descy

Date:February 1997

 Description: Students will construct an aquatic ecosystem in a two-liter pop bottle. The stock organisms will be: water plants, snails, and fish. Students will record data concerning the observations they make over a four-week period.

Grade Level: Intermediate

Goal: Students will exercise important early scientific skills, like observing, measuring, classifying, communicating data, inferring, and predicting.

Objectives:

 
1. Students will, in groups of four, construct aquatic habitats in pop bottles.
2. Students will create charts to record data from observations.
3. Students will observe the habitats over a period of four weeks, and record what they see--changes in population, plant growth, water quality, and animal growth.
4. At the end of the observation period, students will graph their data.
5. Students will write explanations for what they observe. Also, questions will be posed with specific questions, such as: "What would happen to your plant population if you added more snails?" or "What environmental factors do you think influenced the growth of your fish/snails/plants?" or "What do you think would happen if the fish population doubled? Quadrupled?"

1. 2 two-liter pop bottles for each group
2. water source
3. light source
4. guppies
5. elodea
6. duckweed
7. water snails
8. sand
9. scissors
10. graph paper

 
1. Cut The top off one bottle, at the shoulder (where it tapers). Cut the base off another bottle and score it with holes. This is the cover.
2. Fill bottom of bottle with sand, two inches deep.
3. Add water--slowly, to minimize sand displacement--and then root three ten-centimeter elodea stalks firmly in the sand. Sprinkle a small amount of duckweed onto the water's surface.
4. Let the aquaria stand overnight to let the sand settle, and to allow chlorine from water to dissipate (if tapwater is used).
5. Add two guppies and two snails.

During the observation period, have students research pond ecology and the organisms involved in the project.

At the end of the observation period, have the students graph the information they've obtained through observation. At this time, they should write hypotheses to explain some of the things they've seen.

Assessment:

 Are the aquaria appropriately stocked? Have they been well-maintained? Are observations recorded at regular intervals? Are graphs drawn correctly? Are hypotheses based in fact?

Information about bottle aquaria taken from _Bottle Biology_, copyright 1993, by the Bottle Biology Project, University of Wisconsin--Madison.