Blog Archives - What's going on in Mr. Solarz' Class?

Players in an Ecosystem

4/23/2018

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Answers

Choose one of your Food Chains that you created and explain how it works.
Can a Food Web be considered a "system"? Why or why not?
What happens if a plant or animal all of a sudden disappears from the food web?
Using this food chain, "sunlight to apple to worm to bird to cat," How do organisms in this food chain get the matter they need for body repair and growth?
Using the same food chain in #4, How do organisms in that food chain get the energy they need for body warmth and motion?
What do you think happens to the matter that is NOT used by the organisms in a food chain or food web? Is it wasted or does something else happen?

The sun gives it's energy to the grass which converts that into it's own type of sugar. The deer eats the grass and the deer gets it's energy and matter from the deer. Then the mountain lion eats the deer.
Yes it can because the definition of a system is "a set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole, in particular." seeing as there are different parts that work together, I would consider that a system.
If a plant or animal goes away from the food web then most to even all of the other species would either overgrow or go extinct.
The apple tree gets it matter from the water and nutrients soil and the tree converts that into sugar and then it uses that matter to grow the apple. The worm eats the apple which gives it matter because it has stuff/material. Then a bird eats the worm and since the worm had matter the bird gets its matter. Then the bird’s matter gets eaten by a cat and then the cat has the matter that it needs to survive.
Pretty much the same things happen as in #4 but instead of taking the matter, they take all of their food's stored energy.
I think the matter that is not used leaves the body and depending on what's inside it could have seeds from plants so it would start a new plant. Or decomposers such as fungi decompose the food back into the soil.

Food - Matter & Energy

4/16/2018

Questions About Food Labels

On the human food label:

How do we find the energy (calories) per serving?
How do we find the matter (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals)?
Where can we locate the list of ingredients?

On the pet food label:

Where can we locate the list of ingredients?
How do we find the percentage of different types of matter in the food?

You find the words amount per serving calories and the number to the right is the calories per serving.
You find all of the words of the types of matter you are looking for and you look at the number to the right. Also Iron is the mineral.
It is under the dietary fiber at the bottom of the nutrition label.

Pet food label:

It is the first thing at the top of the label.
Next to each of the different types of matter is a percentage.

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Answers

What does food provide to animals, including humans?
Do the pet food and human food have the same nutrients? In what ways are they different?
Does a higher calorie count mean a food is better for pets to eat? What makes pet owners think that?
What is it in food that helps us repair our bodies and grow?
What in food helps us move and stay warm?
In what way does energy transfer when animals eat food?
Look at the nutrition label below for milk. How much energy is in the food?
What matter is in the food?

It provides them energy and matter. It gives them the energy to work and the matter to grow and do body repairs.
They have different nutrients because pets and humans need different types of nutrients. The pets can break down some things that humans can't so they can eat different nutrients. Some ways the nutrients are different are that there are a lot of different types of acids in the pet foods and not as much strong acids in the humans foods.
No it doesn't but most pet owners think that it does because they think it will give their pet more energy.
The matter in food helps us repair our bodies.
Energy, the energy helps us move and stay warm.
First the plants get there energy from the sunlight and then an animal eats the plant. Then other animals, eat that animal that ate the plant. Then after a while of that the animals will decompose and go into the soil to start the cycle again.
160 grams per serving.
The matter that is in the milk is, proteins, sugars, fats, calcium, vitamins and iron.

What is an Ecosystem?

4/10/2018

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a System of Living Things

Between Living and Non-Living Things

Ducks eat plants and bugs.
Ducks quack at each other.
Ducks care for their ducklings.
Ducks are swimming around plants.

Ducks breathe air.
Ducks swim in water.
Ducks fly in the air.
Ducks use grass and sticks to make nests.

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a System of Living Things

Between Living and Non-Living Things

The fish is touching the plants.
The fish eats small fish.
A bigger fish eats the fish.
A person fishes for the fish with a live bait.

The fish is swimming in the water.
The fish is swimming over dirt.
The plant is growing in the dirt.
The algae is growing on the water.

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

What kinds of living things (organisms) do you see in both pictures?
What other living things might be here, even if you can't see them in the photos?
Why might living things in these photos interact with each other?
Read the BIG IDEA below. How do these pictures depict an ecosystem?

Answers

In these picture there are: plants, and animals.
In these pictures there might be: bugs, humans, other fish and algae.
Animals, plants and other living things interact to survive. Like animals eat the plants and that is interacting.
The first picture shows an ecosystem because the ducks are interacting with each other and the ducks and some of the non-living things. In the BIG IDEA it says living and non-living things interact and that is exactly what the ducks are doing in that photo. Just like the first photo, the second photo shows living and non-living things interacting with each other and that is exactly what an ecosystem is.

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Answers

What do living things get from their ecosystems?
What evidence do you have to support your answer to Question 1?
What does the term ecosystem mean, based on your experience in this lesson? (Don't use the definition from the BIG IDEA here. Put it into your own words.)
Brainstorm at least one question you have about Ecosystems that you hope you learn from this unit.
Look at the image below that shows a portion of a forest ecosystem. Name at least five components (living or non-living things) of the ecosystem that you can either observe directly or infer.
What are three (or more) interactions that might occur in this portion of the forest ecosystem?

They get lots of things from their ecosystems. The main thing that they get is energy because energy comes from food and rest. They rest in their habitats and they go hunting for food in their ecosystems. Then they eat and rest.
When I went outside I saw ants scurrying around carrying food, robins flying to their nests in the trees, and worms crawling through the soil. They were going to their homes and getting food which is what I said in my answer to the last question.
In my own words, ecosystems are areas where living things interact with other living and non-living things.
I wonder if different species of animals' home's be in the same niche without having fights?
In the picture below I can see: deer, grass, trees, water, and rocks.
The deer may eat the grass. The water may be drunken by the deer. Another interaction is the rocks sitting on the grass.

Skills21 Superhero Rehabilitation Center

4/9/2018

5th grade classroom website