Your “Do Now” CH15 5/08

• Get a Learning Targets Sheet & Copy first target:

1) I can explain how energy & matter flow through an ecosystem

Agenda 5/08

• Ch 15 Notes #1 on Energy Flow• Reading in Critical Partners• Practice problems

• Check your name for test re-takes!• Friday = Progress Reports Home– Get your grade up!

CH 15 Notes 1 Flow of Energy

BIG PICTURE

• Organisms in an ecosystem are interdependent (rely on each other to live) and transfer energy through their interactions.

• Ecosystem: Community of organisms interacting with their environment

• Ecology: Study of how living things interact with their environment

Flow of Energy through an Ecosystem

A. Producers (Autotrophs):organisms that use the sun’s energy to make food. Examples: plants, algae, some bacteria

B. Consumers (Heterotrophs): organisms that get their energy by eating other organisms

1. Herbivores: eat plantsExamples: Cow, deer, grasshopper

2. Carnivores: eat other animalsExamples: cougar, snake, spider

3. Omnivores: eat plants or animalsExamples: bears, humans, raccoons

• Decomposers: organisms that get their food by breaking down other dead organisms

• Examples: mushroom, bacteria, worms

Summarizing the flow of energy through an ecosystem

• Sun producers consumers

Food Chains and Food Webs

• Food chain: The flow of energy & matter from one organism to another(shows the order one organism feeds on another)

SUN

PRODUCER

CONSUMER

CONSUMER

WHERE WOULD DECOMPOSERS GO???

Food web: all of the interacting food chains in an ecosystem

WHERE WOULD DECOMPOSERS GO???

Trophic level: the position an organism has in a food web/chain

• Organisms in each level get energy from the organisms in the level below them.

• Why is it showing fewer organisms on top?

• Biomass: The mass of all living organisms in an environment.– Biomass describes how much energy is stored in

living things

Why look at biomass?

• Not all parts of an organism are edible• Some biomass is left and decomposers break

it down

What we’re doing now1. Get with your critical partners– Tallest person is the timekeeper (you have 10 min)– Shortest person is the Leader (keep team on task)

2. Skim the rest of your notes to see what you’re looking for

3. Read the article & fill in the rest of the notesWhy: practicing group skills, reading skills, and

mastering new content!What Next: Ask for practice problems. You can get a

head-start on them!

• Why is it showing fewer organisms on top?

• Chain Reaction• http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/fr

ogs/chain_reaction/play_chainreaction.cfm