We will watch the movie Happy Feet over a couple of days this week. If you watch carefully, you will see some of the key concepts we have been talking about in action.
This week’s blog assignment has two parts:
The Basics
First, we have been learning some key concepts in ecology: Biotic Factors, Abiotic Factors, Habitat, Population, Community, and Ecosystem (click here if you need some help to remember the definitions).
Write a reflection about how you saw these concepts illustrated in the movie. There are lots of examples, and you should be as specific as possible.
Change happens
Another important part of our study in ecology is how an ecosystem deals with change. Does it adapt or does it die out? There are lots of changes shown in the movie.
I want you to write about at least 2 examples of how these changes have affected this ecosystem and the organisms that live there What are the causes of the change? Are they helpful or harmful or both? Or are they helpful to some organisms and harmful to others? How do the organisms adapt to the changes you observed?
As usual, I will ask you to post your responses by this Friday (May 4th) and to make comments on at least 3 other student’s work by next Monday (May 7th).
I look forward (as always) to reading your work.
80 responses so far ↓
1
jwhackdaddy
// May 3, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Members of an ecosystem are all important. If one is taken away or altered, nature has to balance it out again, or it will react differently.Aboitic or biotic factors, like precipitation or penguins/fish, if taken away can effect the rest of the ecosystem in a harsh way since it hasn’t adapted to the change yet. Biotic factors form populations and communities. Throwing in abiotic factors makes the ecosystem. Habitats are also important to biotic factors. They work with the organism to provide food, shelter and nesting for the organism. If there’s no habitat, there’s no organism. A zoo provides a habitat for an organism, like their natural habitat does. There can be a a lot of different habitats for organisms, and everything in an ecosystem counts.
2
Pooky star
// May 4, 2007 at 1:35 pm
In the movie, one example of change is when the fish supply goes low because of us taking it away. Then all the animals in that area starve because their main food supply has disappeared, and meanwhile the humans get more food. This would be unhelpful because nature has provided the animals in the ecosystem and if we are taking it away then we are going against nature.
My second example is when Loveless gets stuck in the plastic container. The plastic container is an Aboitic factor. You might think, but water, sun, snow and ice help the penguins or the other animals and they are Aboitic factors. But not all Aboitic factors are good. Plastic is man made but natural things like snow and ice are made from nature and in the movie the animals in Antarctica have been doing fine without man made materials. By us making the unnatural materials and not disposing them properly bad things have happened. The animals can choke on these materials or they can try to eat it thinking that its food but then it gets stuck inside of animal and the animal will die.
Living organisms can often adapt to natural changes but if the change is not natural than it is harder for the organisms to adapt to the change.
3
maximumpower
// May 4, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Biotic: The panguins, birds, fish, humans.
Non Biotic: The ice
The whole comunity, were the two types of panguins, the english, and the spanish, working together to contact the humans…and tap dance. The entire ecosytem was the north pole.
The first change that effected the panguins, was the fish that were captured by the humans. This meant that the panguins had no food to eat, so they would starve.
The second example, is when we see the beer can holder on that panguin, due to lazy humans. It almost killed him.
4
Monkeyspy
// May 4, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Biotic: The penguins, birds, humans and much more.
Non biotic: The ice, and water.
In the comunity there was two kinds of penguins the spanish and the english they both worked together to save there family’s and friends from the hunger issue.
And the one english penguin named mumble he was the penguin that was born with no singing voice and always in a dancing mood. Even though he was different he helped everyone and eveything even though they didnt like him much.
5
openthis99
// May 4, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Biotic: The penguins, birds, humans and more
Non boitic: ice and water
one of the changes is how the humans took away alot of the fish when the birds had to hunt the penguins to servie this change was harmful because all the penguins and birds were out of fish to hunt for food. The second change was when the humans gave back the fish and that was a good change because the penguins and the birds had there main food back to eat
6
cek
// May 4, 2007 at 2:34 pm
biotic the penguins the fish the birds
abiotic the water and the ice the penguins live on
population all the speicies in the movie
comunitie the english penguins and spanish penguins had seprate territories on the ice berg
7
bigfoot
// May 4, 2007 at 2:47 pm
The populatoin are the penguin. There are lots of populations in the movey. The cumunity is all of the spices to gether. The food chain was very importent in the movie. The penguins eat the fish and the sealion eats the penguin. The aliens (humans) are the ones who are tacking all of the fish. Mumbal is a penguin that cant sing. But he can dance very well. Even if Mumbal is different he still made a big difference.
I think the habitat was the ice and the rocks. all of the spices had a different way of things. in conclution i think it was a very good movei and talked about a lot of things.
8
dramaqueen
// May 4, 2007 at 8:27 pm
To jwhackdaddy:
I liked how you explained all of the terms thoroughly, and it was very informational.
9
dramaqueen
// May 4, 2007 at 8:29 pm
To Monkeyspy:
I liked how you explained the changes very well, but I think you should have added more about the terms.
10
dramaqueen
// May 4, 2007 at 8:31 pm
To Pookystar:
You did a really good job explaining the requirements for the assignment. Great job!
11
Rocket Man
// May 4, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Happy Feet’s Happy Science Report
In the movie “Happy Feet”, there are many parts that show ecology. The habitat of these penguins is the Antarctica ice that you may see them on. The penguins and all the other animals are the biotic factors and the ice, rocks, water and more are the abiotic factors. The population is the emperor penguins. They are a community with all the other penguins and they interact with other penguins from other territories, like Mumble and the Spanish penguins. These are all different things that are in the movie, but the main issue is a big part of the ecosystem.
In the movie the “Aliens” are fishing way to much and not leaving any fish for the penguins, seagulls or any other animals that the fish. The fish is the main part of the ecosystem. If the penguins can’t eat the fish then they die. Then the seals don’t have food and nether do the orca whales. Then all of these animals die. Since there’s no fish, there’s no there’s no animals. If one thing gets taken away then everything starts to change. The seagulls will die out too. If there’s no fish they eat the baby penguins, but if there aren’t fish no penguins. So if the seagulls die. In the movie, there is a penguin that stops this tragedy from happening and gets all the fish back for the animals. This penguin was determined to stop us from taking to many fish.
I thought this was a great movie that showed plenty of science which I did not realize before science class.
12
hotdawg911
// May 4, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Happy Feet
Happy Feet was the perfect movie to explain the ecosystem. It shows how abiotic (non-living) factors, such as snow, ice, and wind, along with biotic (living) factors such as fish, birds, and people can effect an organism’s habitat. An ecosystem is very delicate, because one change can effect a ton of other things. In Happy Feet, humans (biotic factors) started to take to many fish, which had a ripple effect, hurting fish, penguins, and many other species. When the humans were taking the fish, the birds or the penguins had less and less to eat, causing a lot of suffering. Not all changes are harmful. Some changes can benefit the organism. Changes in temperature and/or weather can some times be helpful.
An organism does not always die out if a change occurs. For example: In the summer/spring birds are fine in the warm weather, but in the winter, the birds have adapted to migrating to the south for warmer weather. Although, sometimes, species are know to die out if a change occurs to fast;not giving the organism enough time to adapt.
13
Rocket Man
// May 4, 2007 at 10:56 pm
to:cek
I really liked how you expained all the terms on ecology. maybe a little more writing.
14
Rocket Man
// May 4, 2007 at 11:02 pm
to: hotdawg911
I think you did an exelent job explaining ecology and the events of the movie. Great job.
15
Rocket Man
// May 4, 2007 at 11:07 pm
to: openthis99
I really like how you explained the problem, the facts and the solution.
16
hotdawg911
// May 5, 2007 at 10:09 am
To Rocket Man- Good job on interpreting the movie, and on explaining the different parts of an ecosystem.
17
hotdawg911
// May 5, 2007 at 10:11 am
To bigfoot- Nice job on describing the movie and it’s key points.
18
bigfoot
// May 5, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Happy Feet
I think the movie was really cool. The penguins were the population. There are many populations in the movie. All the animals made a community. The penguins ate the fish and so did the seagulls. The sea lions ate the penguins. The aliens (people) are fishing too much. So the penguins are now suffering because the fish population is going down. The people should not fish too much.
One of the changes was that the humans were fishing too much. So the penguins staved and were hungry because the people had fished too much. Another change was that because mumbal they got there fish back. Mumbal chased the fishing bout. He ended up in a zoo. They let him free because he was trying to tell them to give the fish backe by dancing. In the end it all tuned out good.
19
bigfoot
// May 5, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Happy Feet
I think the movie was really cool. The penguins were the population. There are many populations in the movie. All the animals made a community. The penguins ate the fish and so did the seagulls. The sea lions ate the penguins. The aliens (people) are fishing too much. So the penguins are now suffering because the fish population is going down. The people should not fish too much.
One of the changes was that the humans were fishing too much. So the penguins staved and were hungry because the people had fished too much. Another change was that because mumbal they got there fish back. Mumbal chased the fishing bout. He ended up in a zoo. They let him free because he was trying to tell them to give the fish backe by dancing. In the end it all tuned out good.
20
big foot
// May 5, 2007 at 12:17 pm
to mr ardito
I didnt think the first blog whent go through so i did it again.
SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
21
openthis99
// May 6, 2007 at 2:13 pm
good aricle bigfoot nice job saying what the changes were
22
openthis99
// May 6, 2007 at 2:16 pm
jwhackdaddy- good job explaning what an ecosystem is and the example of what wood happen if you took one away
23
openthis99
// May 6, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Rocket Man- great job on the aricle
24
JAM
// May 6, 2007 at 6:44 pm
In the movie Happy Feet, the Humans were taking the fish while fishing so in turn the seagulls had no fish so they had to eat the penguins. So when one thing is taking away it does affect everything else. The penguins were getting eaten by the seagulls or were die from staving. This was a great movie to show how the ecosystem works.
25
JAM
// May 6, 2007 at 6:47 pm
openthis99
Great job explaining as always!
26
JAM
// May 6, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Pookeystar
Great job alot of good information.
27
JAM
// May 6, 2007 at 6:54 pm
jwhackdaddy
Good job and great examples!
28
bigfoot
// May 6, 2007 at 7:01 pm
to: hotdawg911
Very good report. You ecplaned all of the things well. You are totaly righte about the movie. It dose show the things a lot in the movie.Good job!!!
29
bigfoot
// May 6, 2007 at 7:14 pm
to: jam
Good job. You are so right about the food chain.
30
bigfoot
// May 6, 2007 at 7:17 pm
to: openthis99
Good job. nice explainig. The two choces on the efect were good.
31
purplepower94
// May 6, 2007 at 7:48 pm
The movie Happy Feet, illustrated many of the important parts of ecology. Both abiotic and biotic factors were shown repeatedly throughout the movie. Abiotic factors included, wind, sunlight, temperature, ice, and many more had a huge impact on how the penguins in the movie lived, for better or for worse. For example, the penguins need a cold temperature to live. If the temperature was cranked up in a penguin habitat, it would have made it difficult or impossible for the penguins to survive. If you give them a colder habitat, however, it makes them thrive. Biotic factors, such as fish, birds, other penguin populations and humans also affect how the penguins live. In the movie, we saw how the penguins and birds depended on the fish for survival and how it hurt the animals if their food source was taken away. That shows how important other living things, or biotic factors are to one group of animals. The habitat in the movie was Antartica, which was cold and icy. This illustrates the habitat a penguin needs for survival. The main population of organisms that we saw in the movie, were the group a penguins we saw living and helping each other for most of the movie. The number of them that were there tells us what the population is. The community included all the different populations of penguins, from Mumble’s group of penguins to the Spanish penguins we saw. They were able to demonstrate how everyone was connected to help the others survive. In the movie we saw how one small thing can throw off the entire ecosystem. For example, when the humans, or “aliens” fished in Antartica’s waters, there was less food for the penguins and made survival for them very difficult, showing us how one small change in a population can change everything. This changed the ecosystem for worse because it caused a shortage of food, not only for the penguins, but also for the birds living there. This could eventually cause a population to be endagered, if animals die out because they cannot get food for themselves. Another change we saw in the movie was when Mumble moved from Antartica to a city setting. You could see how we was barely managing in such a drastic change of habitat. If Mumble was left there for too long, it would have killed the penguin because he is not adapted to live in a place like that. If other penguins had been there, it would have possibly wiped out many of them, had they not been moved to a cold setting.
32
purplepower94
// May 6, 2007 at 7:50 pm
To Bigfoot:
I thought that you did a very good job describing the communities of animals from the movie. It really sounded like you knew what you were talking about. Your examples were also very descriptive.
33
purplepower94
// May 6, 2007 at 7:52 pm
To hotdawg911:
In your reflection, I liked how you said how changes can be a good thing or a bad thing. I think that is important to remember about an ecosystem. Nice job describing the abiotic and biotic factors, too.
34
purplepower94
// May 6, 2007 at 7:55 pm
To openthis99:
When you told about how the change in a population can switch from being a good thing to a bad thing, I thought that was a very good example. After the humans took the fish, you wouldn’t necessarily think of the fact that the second change was a great change. Well done.
35
cek
// May 7, 2007 at 8:54 am
to jwackdady your article was very interesting
36
cek
// May 7, 2007 at 8:56 am
to purplepower94 i liked your article
37
cek
// May 7, 2007 at 8:58 am
to maximumpower you did a great job keep it up
38
march
// May 7, 2007 at 9:10 am
This movie HAPPY FEET was importaint because it shows you something that might be happening that we do not know about and we are not noticing that at all. When the alians (people) were taking the fish away from the penguins they were starving and they were going to die and that will change something about the ecosystem and then all the other animals that eat the penguins will starve also and then on each animal will starve and there will be no more of that population.
39
nickigrad
// May 7, 2007 at 9:12 am
In the movie “Happy feet” The movie kind of told us that they survive in cold weather. It showed of a lot about eclogy, like abiotic and biotic factores. You saw the facters many times in the movie. Fish is a exsample of a biotoc factor because penguins eat them to survive. If you make the weather colder the pengins would find it hard to live. There habitat was antartica. And it was cold and that is how they survived
40
march
// May 7, 2007 at 9:16 am
purplepower94
I think that you did a great job on your aticle and you define the ecosystem
41
nickigrad
// May 7, 2007 at 9:17 am
to puprplepower: You did a great job on your artical. You had a lot of information. I really liked it.
42
march
// May 7, 2007 at 9:19 am
purplepower94
I think that you did a great job on your aticle
43
nickigrad
// May 7, 2007 at 9:22 am
to bigfoot:
Ireally liked your artical. It had alot of information and it was very dicriptive.
44
march
// May 7, 2007 at 9:24 am
nickigrad
I think that you told us something importaint and you did a great job
45
nickigrad
// May 7, 2007 at 9:26 am
to bigfoot, You were very discribtive good job
46
march
// May 7, 2007 at 9:30 am
bigfoot
I think that you define the ecosystem verry well and that you did a great job
47
dramaqueen
// May 7, 2007 at 10:08 am
In Happy Feet, the penguins in Antarctica made up an ecosystem. The abiotic factors in the movie were: the ice cold temperature, oxygen, pollution, wind, the ocean, and the sun. The biotic factors were: the fish, seagulls, and penguins. The population was the penguins in Antarctica, and the community was the penguins in one part oof Antarctica. The habitat was Antarctica, and the ecosystem were the seagulls who ate the penguins who ate the fish.
One change that happened that couldv’e affected the ecosystem was when the humans were taking all the fish from the ocean, so the penguins didn’t have enough food, which could cause them to starve. Another change that happened was the pollution, because it could affect the penguins habitat, and kill them.
48
jwhackdaddy
// May 7, 2007 at 10:08 am
to bigfoot- you did a good job of contemplating all the factors and changes of ecosystem
49
smellymellly
// May 7, 2007 at 10:09 am
In the movie Happy Feet i saw all different things that had to do with ecology. For exampel (when the humans take the fish it is hard for the penguins to survive.) When the humans pulit the puloution goes into the water and the penguins get tangeld up in the garbage.
The change in the ecosystem is like the food chain if one thing does not have a big population everything elce suffers. One exampel of how the ecosystem changes is that in the movie like i said before when the human take the fish the penguins suffer. Another exampel is when the humas pilute the penguins get tangeld up in the garbage. Most of the changes that happen to the animals are harmfull.
50
jwhackdaddy
// May 7, 2007 at 10:12 am
dramaqueen- good job listing the factors of an ecosystemand how the movie related to it
51
to:jwhackdaddy from:smellymelly
// May 7, 2007 at 10:12 am
Great job, I really conected to your reflection!
52
to:nickigrad from:smellymelly
// May 7, 2007 at 10:15 am
Great reflection you had really good thoguths in your reflection…Keep up the good work!
53
monky girl
// May 7, 2007 at 10:15 am
Happy Feet
This is what eats what in happy feet
Fish and elephant seals eat plants
Penguins, seagulls and penguins eat fish
Seagulls, leopard seals and killer whales eat penguins
The populations in happy feet are listed above
The habitats where the artic and possibly the Bronx Zoo
54
to:openthis99 from:smellymelly
// May 7, 2007 at 10:17 am
Good job you really concted in a certain way to this movie… Great reflecton.
55
maximumpower
// May 7, 2007 at 10:18 am
to pookeystar
Very nice job! Your reflection was really in-depth and informative.
56
jwhackdaddy
// May 7, 2007 at 10:19 am
to-dramaqueen: You did a good job of relating a real ecosystem to the movie
57
Pooky star
// May 7, 2007 at 10:23 am
To dramaqueen, good job explaining the abiotic factors.
58
maximumpower
// May 7, 2007 at 10:23 am
To Jwackdaddy
Nice, your reports are always good, but this ones the best!
59
Pooky star
// May 7, 2007 at 12:26 pm
To bigfoot, I kike how you included that the penguins were the population.
60
Pooky star
// May 7, 2007 at 12:55 pm
To jwhackdaddy, good job I like how you didnt just refer to the movie.
61
striking ferret
// May 7, 2007 at 4:16 pm
striking ferret 5/7/07
Happy Feet project
Everything in an ecosystem is important. Everything is important because if you take one thing away everything messes up. It is like a scale, if you take something off of the scale, everything becomes unbalanced. I was able to learn a lot about how this works when I saw the movie Happy Feet. In the movie the humans take away the fish in the Antarctic. All the penguins blamed one penguin named mumbles. The reason the other penguins were so mad is because if they take away the fish than they die. And if the penguins die, then the birds die. That becomes a whole chain and later there is nothing left in an ecosystem. That is why everything in an ecosystem is important.
62
striking ferret
// May 7, 2007 at 4:18 pm
to maximum power:
great report! I really rhought you chose your words carefully.
63
striking ferret
// May 7, 2007 at 4:21 pm
To smellymelly:
I thought your report was very good. I liked how you described the effects of taking away one thing from an ecosystem.
64
striking ferret
// May 7, 2007 at 4:23 pm
To Jwhackdaddy:
great report, I thought it was very good.\
65
stinkychesse
// May 7, 2007 at 5:42 pm
I liked the movie Happy Feet a lot. It also did a great job of showing how an ecosystem works. There are a lot of biotic factors in this movie like the penguins, fish, birds, seals, and humans. Those are also the population in this movie. This movie also did a good job of showing how those biotic factors lived in a community. It shows how the different kinds of penguins interact and how the penguins interact with seals. The habitat and the ecosystem are the arctic. The abiotic factors are the water, ice, and temperature.
Many things can change an ecosystem, even the smallest things can change it. In the movie the humans were taking to much fish causing the penguins and the birds to have very limited food. This was a harmful change because the birds had to eat things they wouldn’t naturally like penguins. Another change in the ecosystem is globe warming. This is a harmful change because the polar ice caps are melting and causing animals that need them to die. The cause of global warming is mostly air pollution.
66
stinkychesse
// May 7, 2007 at 5:44 pm
to hotdawg911
Good job, I agree with the changes you said
67
stinkychesse
// May 7, 2007 at 5:45 pm
To Pooky star
Great job, I never knew that non-natural things could be abiotic factors.
68
stinkychesse
// May 7, 2007 at 5:46 pm
To bigfoot
good job but you need to be a little more careful on you spelling.
69
Monkeyspy
// May 7, 2007 at 5:48 pm
To Hwchackdaddy: Very nice report, i thought it was amazing!
70
Monkeyspy
// May 7, 2007 at 5:49 pm
To cheese: I liked your report, its very good that you made it that long!
71
hotdawg911
// May 7, 2007 at 8:03 pm
To smellymellly- Good job on explaining the key points of the movie.
72
jwhackdaddy
// May 7, 2007 at 8:11 pm
to cek- good job listing all the factors of a ecosystem
73
laugh-Cackle-SHOP!
// May 7, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Happy Feet Report
In the movie Happy Feet there are many examples of key concepts in ecology. For instance most of the whole movie takes place in the South Pole or Antarctica, which is the habitat of the main species, the penguins. Some biotic factors that the penguins have include fish, sea lions and other living things that effect their survival. Abiotic factors are important too, for instance the penguins couldn’t survive without their cold climate, ice, water and those love rocks the Mexicans used to build their little structures. But their aren’t only good abiotic factors, there are fishing nets and pollution, like Loveless (not exact spelling) had around his neck. The penguins themselves are a population of penguins living in the South Pole or Antarctica. The community is all the species: Sea lions, penguins, whale, fish and penguin living in a habitat and living together. Each one affecting each other in a different way. As for the eco system that’s the whole entire thing. Adding all the ingredients together. Plus the food web: Penguins eat fish, fish eat plants (seaweed and other underwater plants), birds eat fish and when there are none they eat penguins, sea lions eat fish and whales eat krill. Everything fits together in a great way. In real life and in the movie.
74
laugh-Cackle-SHOP!
// May 8, 2007 at 7:31 am
To Stinky Cheese
Good Job! Though the population is ONE species in a particular place and I think you sad Globe Warming at one time. Also where did they mention that in the movie, other than that WAY TO GO!
75
laugh-Cackle-SHOP!
// May 8, 2007 at 7:33 am
Maximum Power
Good Job though penguins are spelled P-E-N-G-U-I-N-S not pAnguins. It’s ok though. Well done!
76
laugh-Cackle-SHOP!
// May 8, 2007 at 7:35 am
Monkey Spy
Good job, it’s nice you gave a summary.
77
Monkeyspy
// May 8, 2007 at 6:57 pm
To: laugh-cackle-SHOP: Nice article, i liked how you have lots of information!
78
spongebob
// May 8, 2007 at 8:23 pm
In the movie happy feet i learned a lot about ecology. In the movie they are in atartica wich is a habbitat. Biotic factors are the penguins and the fish, Aobiotic factors were the cold climate, the cold weather and water. The population is the penguins in each colony. The comunity are they differnt animals like there was a comunity of sealions, fish, and penguins. Thats about the ecology of happyfeet
79
spongebob
// May 8, 2007 at 8:31 pm
NIce article i like the info
80
spongebob
// May 8, 2007 at 8:36 pm
To:Monkeyspy: i like ur article nice information
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