1. Investigation 2, Part 1
Ecosystem Card Sort

2. Warm up What are the characteristics of life? Exchange gases
Need water
Reproduce
Needs energy
Made of cells
Respond to environment
Grow
Adapt to environment
Movement is NOT a characteristic of life

3. Ecology Vocabulary
Ecologists study ecosystems. They have specific terms they use and we are going to learn the first five now.
Individual
Population
Community
Ecosystem
Abiotic
Discuss with neighbors what you think these words mean.

4. Definitions Record these in your journals: Organism: Any living thing.
Individual: One single organism.
Population: All of the individuals of one kind (one species) in a specified area.
Community: All the interacting organisms in a specified area.
Ecosystem: A system of interacting organisms and nonliving factors in a specified area.
Biotic: Living organisms and products of organisms.
Abiotic: Nonliving.

5. Card Sort Work with one other person in your lab group.
If you are a lab group of three, work with both people.
Sort your cards into piles. They should represent:
Individuals
Populations
Communities
Ecosystems
Abiotic factors
As you work with your partner, you should be discussing your reasons for card placement.

6. Results Complete lab sheet 11, Ecosystem Card-Sort Results.
Work with your partner to check where you placed each card and list a brief reason for each one why you placed the card there.
I am now going to give each group a few cards, but bigger.
Decide in your group where each card should go. When I call on you, be ready to place them on the chart.
Do we need to make any changes?

7. Biotic v. Abiotic
The cards you identified as individual, population and community represent the biotic factors in an ecosystem. Biotic means living.
Things in an ecosystem that are NOT alive like conditions (hot, cold, wind, elevation) and resources (light, carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, minerals) are called abiotic factors. The prefix “a” means not, so abiotic is not alive.
An ecosystem is a system of interactions and relationships between the biotic and abiotic factors that exist in a specified area.

8. Review Cards Again
What did we learn last year about the characteristics of life?
What does it mean to be “alive?”
Discuss…..
Should we make any changes to abiotic and biotic?
Populations: When you look at your cards, are all the organisms on each card you placed in this category the same kind? If there are, it is really a population?
Communities: Does pond and ocean belong in community or ecosystem?

9. Ecosystem Look again at the pond, forest, hillside and ocean cards.
Is there anything biotic on these cards?
Trees, fish, whales, etc.
Is the anything abiotic on these cards?
Water, light, salt, etc.
An ecosystem is composed of all biotic and abiotic elements and their interactions in a certain area.

10. Reading
Review your lab sheet and make any changes you need to based on our discussion.
Read Life in a Community, pages 6-7
Answer the questions from the last paragraph of the story on the back of lab sheet 11.
In complete sentences!!!!