Standards

Questions

1. What is ecology?

2. How does energy cycle through ecosystems?

3. How does matter cycle through ecosystems?

4. How do Earth's living and non-living parts interact and affect the survival of organisms?

Standards

• 1. Matter tends to be cycled within an ecosystem, while energy is transformed and eventually exits an ecosystem

Relevance

• 1. When the matter or energy flow in an ecosystem is disturbed, there are measurable effects such as the eutrophication of water. Matter and energy are cycled in natural systems such as wetlands in both similar and different ways than in human-managed systems such as waste water treatment plants.

Outcomes

• 1. Analyze how energy flows through trophic levels

  2. Evaluate the potential ecological impacts of a plant-based or meat-based diet

  3. Analyze and interpret data from experiments on ecosystems where matter such as fertilizer has been added or withdrawn such as through drought

  4. Develop, communicate, and justify an evidence-based scientific explanation showing how ecosystems follow the laws of conservation of matter and energy

  5. Define and distinguish between matter and energy, and how they are cycled or lost through life processes

  6. Describe how carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and water cycles work Use computer simulations to analyze how energy flows through trophic levels