What is an Ecosystem?

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a system of living things

Between living and non-living things

• Ducks play with other ducks
• Ducks eat plants/water bugs
• Bugs eat plants
• Animals live in trees

• Ducks swim with water
• Plants sway with the water
• Ducks drink the water
• Ducks fly in the wind
• Ducks breathe air
• Plants drink the water to survive

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a system of living things

Between living and non-living things

• Fish swims through the plants
• Fish breathes in water to survive
• Fish eats plants and other water animals
• Plants interact with the seaweed

• Plant sways in the water
• Plant drinks water to survive
• Fish drinks water to survive
• Plant gets energy from the sun shining through 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 (show) an ecosystem?

1. In both pictures, there are plants in a lake.
2. There might be some water organisms in the lake in both pictures.
3. I think that the living things might interact with each other because, for instance, the water bugs might need to eat plants to survive, so that's why they interact.
4. In the pictures, there are living and non-living things, and they interact with each other and that makes an ecosystem.

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

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. Living things get energy and matter from their ecosystems, and they get that from the animals and plants that are there. If they didn't have the stuff that they need in that ecosystem, then they would have to move.
2. Plants and animals have to have the things that they need to survive in their ecosystem because they have to survive, of course. That means that they would have to move and be in a different ecosystem so that they can live.
3. An ecosystem is a place that living and non-living things interact with each other in their environment to help and compete with each other to survive.
4. I would want to learn if animals could live one week in a place that isn't their own ecosystem.
5. Some of the living and non-living components of the ecosystem are: Deer, Trees, Grass, River, and Clouds. These living and non-living components of the ecosystem are interacting with each other by eating them, and many other things.
6. Some interactions are: the deer eats the grass, the grass gets water from the river, and deer gets water from the river as well.