In the next month or so, your child will learn about ecosystems, biomes, and human impacts on the environment. By the time the students have fi nished this unit, Ecology, they should be able to explain the following BIG ideas:
• Matter and energy together support life within an environment.
• Living things within an ecosystem interact with one another and the environment.
• Humans and human population growth affect the environment.
The BIG ideas in the chapters support an understanding of the following Unifying Principle of life science:
• Living things meet their needs through interactions with the environment.
Listed below is an activity you may want to do with your son or daughter at home. The activity involves observing an ecosystem in your own neighborhood and predicting how it might change over time. Note that an ecosystem can be any area where living and nonliving factors interact. It might be a tree, a wall, a park, or a city block. It could be your backyard.
1. Take a walk with your student. Find a place where you can identify at least three different organisms that live together in the area. Field guides might help you identify plants and animals in the area.
2. Talk about how the organisms interact. In what ways do the organisms help one another? Do they compete? If so, how?
3. Discuss how the area you are observing might change over the next week, month, or year. How might the area change? What might stay the same? Talk about why those changes might happen.
• Matter and energy together support life within an environment.
• Living things within an ecosystem interact with one another and the environment.
• Humans and human population growth affect the environment.
The BIG ideas in the chapters support an understanding of the following Unifying Principle of life science:
• Living things meet their needs through interactions with the environment.
Listed below is an activity you may want to do with your son or daughter at home. The activity involves observing an ecosystem in your own neighborhood and predicting how it might change over time. Note that an ecosystem can be any area where living and nonliving factors interact. It might be a tree, a wall, a park, or a city block. It could be your backyard.
1. Take a walk with your student. Find a place where you can identify at least three different organisms that live together in the area. Field guides might help you identify plants and animals in the area.
2. Talk about how the organisms interact. In what ways do the organisms help one another? Do they compete? If so, how?
3. Discuss how the area you are observing might change over the next week, month, or year. How might the area change? What might stay the same? Talk about why those changes might happen.