What is an Ecosystem?

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

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

Answers

1. In these picture there are: plants, and animals.
2. In these pictures there might be: bugs, humans, other fish and algae.
3. Animals, plants and other living things interact to survive. Like animals eat the plants and that is interacting.
4. 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

1. ​What do living things get from their ecosystems?
2. What evidence do you have to support your answer to Question 1?
3. 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.)
4. Brainstorm at least one question you have about Ecosystems that you hope you learn from this unit.
5. 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. 
6. What are three (or more) interactions that might occur in this portion of the forest ecosystem?

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. In my own words, ecosystems are areas where living things interact with other living and non-living things.
4. I wonder if different species of animals' home's be in the same niche without having fights?
5. In the picture below I can see: deer, grass, trees, water, and rocks.
6. The deer may eat the grass. The water may be drunken by the deer. Another interaction is the rocks sitting on the grass.