• Plants and animals vary according to their environment and function.
• Organisms have specific characteristics unique to their species. Organisms can adapt to their environment. Organisms need food, water, air, space, shelter, and sun in order to survive within their habitat.
• An ecosystem is a community of organisms and their interaction with their environment.
• A biome is made up of ecosystems that have similar climates and organisms. Different biomes such as tundra, grasslands, rainforest, taiga, desert, temperate forest, exist on Earth.
• Plants need sunlight, air, and soil to survive in an ecosystem.
•  The organisms in an ecosystem include producers, consumers, and decomposers
• Energy is transferred from producers to consumers to decomposers within a food chain. All are important for a balance in the ecosystem.
•  An ecosystem requires a balance between producers and consumers.
• Factors that affect growth and reproduction of organisms in an ecosystem that include light, water, temperature, and soil.

Essential Questions - most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer after completing learning activities.

• How do terrarium organisms differ from aquarium organisms?
• How do specific characteristics help an organism survive? How do living organisms adapt to their environment?
• What is necessary for organisms to survive within a system? What is an ecosystem? What are the living/nonliving parts of an ecosystem? What is the ecosystem represented by the eco-column?
• How are the plants needs met in an ecosystem? What kinds of organisms are in an ecosystem? Who consumes who?
• How is the energy transferred within an ecosystem?
• What is the relationship between consumers and producers in an ecosystem?
• What are the stages in the life cycle of a mosquito fish and seed and how are they affected by non-living factors?

Standards

Highest Frequency Standards  High Frequency Standards  Other Standards & E-skills

Standard 1: Students understand the processes of scientific investigation and design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such investigations. (1.a, 1.b, 1.c, 1.d, 1.e, 1.f, 1.g, 1.h, 1.i)
Standard 3: Life Science: Students know and understand the characteristics and structure of living things, the process of life, and how living things interact with each other and their environment. (3.1.a, 3.1.b, 3.1.c, 3.1.d, 3.1.e, 3.2.a, 3.2.b, 3.2.c, 3.2,d, 3.2.e)
Standard 5: Students know and understand interrelationships among science, technology, and human activity and how they can effect the world. (5.a, 5.b, 5.c, 5.d)
Standard 6: Students understand that science involves a particular way of knowing and understand common connections among scientific disciplines. (6.a. 6.b, 6.c, 6.d, 6.e, 6.f)

Students are expected to:

• use a hand lens, pH paper, measuring devices, and other testing equipment appropriately.
• conduct, record, and organize daily observations.
• plan, implement, and analyze experiments and draw conclusions from the results.
• make and test predictions.
• identify ecosystems as stable or disturbed and recognize the causes of a disturbed ecosystem as natural or human-made.
• read for more information about ecosystems and pollution.
• communicate information through writing, drawing, and discussion.
• apply previously learned information to analyze a problem and suggest solutions.
• develop sensitivity toward living things and understand that human behavior can positively or negatively affect them.
• respect evidence from an experiment and recognize that evidence can inform a decision.
• develop interest in investigating ecosystems.
• recognize the importance of repeating experiments to get valid test results.