1. Watch the video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW7PlTaawfQ
Activating Strategy:
Watch the video clip:
Talk with an elbow partner about what Mufasa means by the circle of life.

2. Essential Question: How does energy flow through an ecosystem?
Standards:
S7L4a. Demonstrate in a food web that matter is transferred from one organism to another and can recycle between organisms and their environment.
S7L4b. Explain in a food web that sunlight is the source of energy and that this energy moves from organism to organism.

3. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space.
What is matter?
Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space.
What happens to matter in the “circle of life”? Does it just disappear?

4. Matter in an ecosystem may change form, but it never leaves the ecosystem.
The movement of matter through the living and non-living parts of an ecosystem is a continuous cycle.

5. What does the diagram to the right illustrate about our environment?
You learned about various cycles in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere in sixth grade. Now, we are going to examine cycles in the biosphere.

6. What are some cycles you have learned about before in science?
Three of the most important cycles in ecosystems involve water, carbon, and nitrogen.

7. Water Cycle

8. Carbon Cycle
What processes are involved in the Carbon Cycle? [Hint: You learned them in the Cell Processes unit]
Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration

9. Nitrogen Cycle

10. Why are the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles important?
All three cycle elements necessary for life through the atmosphere, soil, and living organisms.

11. Energy is the ability to do work or to cause a change.
Energy also cycles continuously through the environment.
Energy is the ability to do work or to cause a change.

12. Energy Strip Activity

13. Energy comes directly or indirectly from the Sun.
Energy is essential to all living things. Where does this energy come from?
Energy comes directly or indirectly from the Sun.

14. Organisms obtain the energy they need in different ways.

15. Producer
An organism that captures energy from sunlight and changes it into chemical energy
Producers are autotrophs because they make their own food
Producers are a source of food for other organisms

16. Photosynthetic Bacteria
Producer: Examples
Photosynthetic Bacteria
Plants
Algae

17. Consumer
An organism that gets its energy by eating, or consuming, other organisms
Consumers are heterotrophs because they feed on other organisms to get their energy
There are different types based on what it consumes

18. A consumer that feeds on plants or algae
Consumer: Herbivore
A consumer that feeds on plants or algae
Squirrel
Zebra
Elephant

19. A consumer that feeds on both plants and animals
Consumer: Omnivore
A consumer that feeds on both plants and animals
Skunk
Hedgehog
Bear

20. A consumer that feeds on other animals
Consumer: Carnivore
A consumer that feeds on other animals
Alligator
Hawk
Cheetah

21. A consumer that feeds on dead animals
Consumer: Scavenger
A consumer that feeds on dead animals
Earthworm
Vulture
Raccoon

22. Decomposer
An organism that breaks down dead plant and animal matter into simpler compounds
Decomposers return matter to soil or water where it may be used again and again

23. Decomposer: Examples
Bacteria
Fungi
Mr. Parr Decomposers Song [3:20]

24. Watch the video clip and write down your observations using the following guidelines: 1. What’s occurring in the video? 2. Is the process shown harmful or beneficial? Why? 3. What would happen if the process shown did not occur? 4. The process shown can be described as a cycle, why?

25. Energy Roles Song [3:47 introduces additional concepts]
Study Jams: Ecosystem
Energy Roles Song [3:47 introduces additional concepts]

26. Organism Card Activity

27. Food Chains
Food chains are used to describe the feeding relationship between a producer and a single chain of consumers in an ecosystem.

28. Food Chains
Why does the grasshopper eat the plant? What about the owl and the snake?
Organisms eat or make their own food so the food can be converted into energy.

29. Food Chain Notice the direction of the arrows.
Energy is going from the corn to the locust
Energy is going from the locust to the lizard
Energy is going from the lizard to the snake
The arrows show the direction in which the energy from the food is moving
Notice the direction of the arrows.

30. Where does the energy for the food chain always begin?

31. Based on the two food chains, what do you think terrestrial means?
Terrestrial means land and marine means sea

32. Which type of organism is circled in the food chain and why is it shown differently?
The decomposers get energy from the dead bird which then gets transferred back to plants in the soil.

33. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWfEn8J5xKM [Food Chain Song 3:33]
Study Jams: Food Chain
[Food Chain Song 3:33]

34. Constructing a Food Chain Activity

35. Food Web
A food web is a model of feeding relationships between many different consumers and producers (several food chains together).

36. Food Web

37. Food Web

38. Food Web Game Constructing a Food Web Activity

39. Study Jams: Food Web

40. Food Chains/Web
Both food chains and food webs show how different organisms receive their energy. They also show how different organisms depend on one another.
If one organism is removed from the food web or food chain, it may affect many other organisms in the ecosystem.

41. Use the Food Web Interdependence handout provided by the teacher and with an elbow partner discuss and describe what might happen if the fish population was suddenly removed from this ecosystem?
See Food Web and Interdependence for possible answers

42. Within an ecological food chain/web, consumers are categorized into three groups.
A Tertiary consumer feeds only on secondary consumers
Secondary consumers, on the other hand, are mainly carnivores, and prey on other animals
Primary consumers are usually herbivores, feeding on plants and fungus

43. Each level is referred to as a Trophic Level
Within an ecological food chain, consumers are categorized into three groups.
Each level is referred to as a Trophic Level
The students do not have to know this, but it is helpful to go over so students do not get confused when they see the word trophic in diagrams used to apply the concepts.

44. As energy moves from organism to organism, the amount of energy available for transfer decreases.

45. What does this mean for the polar bear?
The polar bear has to eat more than the seal, cod, shrimp, etc. to get the amount of energy it needs.
Amount of Energy

47. Another way to picture the flow of energy in an ecosystem is to use an energy pyramid.

50. Identify the different levels of the energy pyramid on your notes and answer the additional questions.

51. Why is bacteria shown at both the top and the bottom of the pyramid to the right?

52. Pyramid Model Activity

53. Food Web Formative Assessment Practice

54. How is the flow of energy in ecosystems like our money
How is the flow of energy in ecosystems like our money? Turn to a seat partner and discuss.
Example: Our money comes from one source: the US Mint. The money is then transferred from one person to another, each person using the money for their own needs. On average, only 10% is transferred to others in need or “given to charity”.

55. With a different seat partner, discuss our lesson activating question, what did Mufasa mean by the “circle of life”?