1. Unit 1 – Living Things in Their Environment
Lesson 1 – What are Living Things?

2. Organism
Any Plant, animals or other thing that is living.

3. Environment
Everything around an organism or the place that it lives.

4. Reproduce
Living things making more of their own kind.

5. Oxygen
A basic need of living things to help get energy.

6. Wastes
Solids or liquids expelled from organisms.

7. Life functions
Activities that organisms perform to stay alive.

8. Unit 1 – Living Things in Their Environment
Lesson 2 – How do scientists Study Living Things?

9. Biology
The study of living things.

10. Ecology
The relationship of living things to their environment.

11. Biosphere
The part of the earth in which life exists.

12. Observing
Is the act of using one’s senses (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting)

13. Measurement
A form of observation, it includes any form of counting

14. Hypotheses
Is a guess or possible answer that scientists will make based upon the information that they collect.

15. Experiments
Tests done to prove or disprove hypotheses.

16. Conclusions
Are final explanations.

17. Lesson 3 – What is an Ecosystem?
Species
Various types of living things.

18. Population
All of the members of one species that live in an area.

19. Community
More than one population living together.

20. Ecosystem
Combined living and non-living (environment) together.

21. Lesson 4- How are Materials Cycled in Nature?
When a material goes through steps that lead back to where it started. (i.e. Water, Oxygen/Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen Cycles)

22. Lesson 5- What is a Food Chain?
Producers
They make food for other living things (i.e. Plants)

23. Consumers
Organisms that feed on other living things.

24. Food Chain
Different level consumers feed on one another.(i.e.1) rabbit, 2)snake 3)hawk

25. Predator
An animal that eats other animals.

26. Prey
The animal a predator eats.

27. Lesson 6- What is a Food Web?
Two or more food chains that link together.

28. Herbivores
Organisms that eat only plant foods. (i.e. cows)

29. Carnivores
Organisms that eat only meat. (i.e. lions)

30. Omnivore
Organisms that eat both.

31. Decomposer
Breakdown or decompose wastes and dead organisms.

32. Scavenger
A kind of decomposer (i.e. vultures)

33. Lesson 7- What are Food Pyramids?
Illustrates how much food each predator eats. At the bottom are producers. Each level above shows different level consumers.

34. Lesson 8- What is a succession?
A series of changes.

35. Pioneer Plants
The first new plants that grow naturally. (i.e. weeds)

36. Pioneer community
First plants, insects, and animals in an area.

37. Dominant
Overpowering other plants or animals.

38. Climax Community
A stable, continuing collection of plants and animals.

39. Lesson 9- What is a Biome?
Climate
A pattern of weather over time.

40. Biome
A large area with the same climate. There are six major types; 1) tundra, 2) coniferous forest, 3) deciduous forest, 4) grassland, 5) desert, 6) tropical rain forest

41. Lesson 10- What are Habitats and Niches?
Is the place where a species lives.
(i.e. a bear-the forest)

42. Niche
Is how each population fits into its habitat.

43. Limiting factors
Keep limits on the population of a species. (i.e. amount of food available)

44. Lesson 11- Can an Ecosystem Get Out-of-Balance?
Balanced
The average size of a population does not change.

45. Pollute
Anything that upsets the environment (i.e. harmful chemicals from factories).

46. Endangered Species
Living things in danger of dying out.

47. Extinct
Species that have died out.