After completing this unit, you will be able to:

• Collect and evaluate global environmental data using technology such as maps, visualizations, satellite data, GPS, GIS, weather balloons and buoys

• evaluate data over a period of time from an established aquatic environment documenting seasonal changes and the behavior of organisms

• analyze interrelationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers, in a local aquatic ecosystem

• identify the interdependence of organisms in an aquatic environment such as in a pond, river, lake, ocean, or aquifer and the biosphere

• identify the major properties and components of different marine and freshwater life zones

• identify biological, chemical, geological, and physical components of an aquatic life zone as they relate to the organisms in it

• classify different aquatic organisms using tools such as dichotomous keys

• compare and describe how adaptions allow an organism to exist within an aquatic environment

• identify how energy flows and matter cycles through both freshwater and saltwater aquatic systems, including food webs, chains, pyramids

Vocabulary you will learn in this unit:

• Global Environmental data

• Weather blocks

• Buoys

• Seasonal

• Aquatic Environment

• Saltwater Environment

• Producers

• Consumers

• Decomposers

• Pond

• Lake

• River

• Ocean

• Aquifer

• Biosphere

• Marine Life Zone

• Freshwater Life Zone

• Biological Components

• Chemical Components

• Geological Components

• Physical Components

• Aquatic Life Zone

• Dichotomous keys

• Adaptions

• Aquatic Organisms

• Matter

• Energy

• Food chains

• Food webs

• Food pyramids