Standards
.L.1 Understand how structure and systems of organisms (to include the human body) perform functions necessary for life.
- 5.L.1.1 Explain why some organisms are capable of surviving as a single cell while others require many cells that are specialized to survive.
- 5.L.2.1 Compare the characteristics of several common ecosystems, including estuaries and salt marshes, oceans, lakes and ponds, forests, and grasslands.
- 5.L.2.2 Classify the organisms within an ecosystem according to the function they serve: producers, consumers, or decomposers (biotic factors).
- 5.L.2.3 Infer the effects that may result from the interconnected relationship of plants and animals to their ecosystem
Essential Questions
How are plants and animals connected to each other and to their natural environment?
Vocabulary
Abiotic: Non-living; examples of abiotic factors include soil, water, temperature, rocks, etc. Adaptations: Characteristics that help an organism survive in a particular ecosystem (ex. thorns, camouflage) Bacteria: single celled organisms; decomposers Carnivores: animals that eat only other animals Consumers: animals, must eat other organisms to survive Decomposers: organisms that break down dead and dying materials into useful material (examples include bacteria, fungi, and earthworms) Ecosystem: everything living and non-living in an area Food Chain: shows a linear progression of “who eats whom,” the flow of nutrients and energy through an ecosystem; arrows point from what is eaten to the eater (ex. carrot -> bunny) Food Web: similar to a food chain, but more complex; branches show all of the nutritional relationships for an entire ecosystem; can demonstrate the balance of an ecosystem Herbivores: animals that eat only plants Omnivores: animals that eat both plants and other animals (ex. humans, bears) Photosynthesis: process that plants use to produce their own food (sugar); occurs in the chloroplasts Predator: animals that hunt, kill and eat other animals (ex. lion) Prey: animals that are hunted and killed for food (ex. rabbits) Producers: organisms that make their own “food” via photosynthesis Scavengers: animals that eat dead organisms (ex. vultures, millipedes, flies) |