Overview

In this learning sequence students investigate ecosystems to find out more about how plants and animals within an ecosystem are interrelated. Students construct and use food chains and food webs to show how living things get their energy and nutrients in an ecosystem, specifically exploring Australian ecosystems. Students consider the important role of science in better understanding how living things interact with each other to ensure the natural balance and diversity of these ecosystems is protected. Opportunities are provided for students to explore human impacts on ecosystems and propose solutions. Throughout this learning sequence, students are provided with optional further exploration ideas and resources. 

Students are learning to:  

• understand how plants and animals are interconnected in an ecosystem 

• construct and use food chains and food webs to show energy flows in an ecosystem 

• describe how changes to one species in a food chain affect other species  

• understand how ecosystems can be impacted by human activities.

Success criteria 

• I can successfully construct and use food chains and food webs.

• I can describe how changes to one species in a food chain affect other species.

• I can explain how human activities have impacted on ecosystems.

Outcomes:  

• SC4-4WS  identifies questions and problems that can be tested or researched and makes predictions based on scientific knowledge  

• SC4-7WS  processes and analyses data from a first-hand investigation and secondary sources to identify trends, patterns and relationships, and draw conclusions 

• SC4-8WS selects and uses appropriate strategies, understanding and skills to produce creative and plausible solutions to identified problems 

• SC4-9WS presents science ideas, findings and information to a given audience using appropriate scientific language, text types and representations 

• SC4-15LW explains how new biological evidence changes people's understanding of the world 

Students will explore different ecosystems to find out more about how plants and animals within an ecosystem are interrelated. They will construct examples of terrestrial and aquatic food chains and consider energy flows. Students will be introduced to using food webs. 

• Activity 1: Exploring food chains

• Activity 2: Building food chains

• Activity 3: Investigating food webs

Students will complete a guided investigation measuring the effect of distance from the sound source on sound intensity. They will then design a scientific investigation, using fair testing, to compare the ability of different materials to reduce the transmission of sound. Students will develop an understanding of text structures and features of a scientific informative text. 

• Activity 1 - Putting sound to the test - practical activity 

• Activity 2 - Block that noise!  - practical activity 

• Activity 3 - Science News  - literacy activity 

In this lesson, students investigate the impact of human activities on various ecosystems, considering both useful and detrimental effects. They consider in more detail the impact of plastic pollution in the oceans. Finally, students follow a scientific investigation into the effect of temperature on the growth of algae. Using the data provided, students practice tabulating, graphing and making a conclusion in an experiment as well as features of fair testing. 

• Activity 1: What do you already know about this topic?

• Activity 2: Changing ecosystems

• Activity 3: Plastic pollution

• Activity 4: Science at work

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