Ecosystems 2: Food - Matter & Energy

Organisms we saw

• Animals/Insects 
• Squirrels
• Worms
• Centipedes
• Armadillidiida
• Bird 


• Plants
• Trees
• Grass
• Flowers
• Bushes

Animals/Insects need

• Food (carbon)
• Water (lakes, puddles, rain
• Warmth
• Shelter 
• Air
• Sleep

Plants need

• Food (carbon)
• Water (roots)
• Nutrients
• Soil (Nitrogen, Oxygen, Sulfur, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Boron, Copper, Iron, Hydrogen, Chlorine, Manganese, Molybdenum, Zinc)
• Sunlight (sun)
• Air

We get energy from food 

Questions

On the human food label:

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

On the pet food label:

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

Answers

On the human food label

1. You look at the top above the second bold line after calories before fat calories.
2. You look in between the to bold lines and next to the thing you are looking for.
3. Under the last bold line next to ingredients.  First ingredients make up the most of the serving.   

On the pet food label
   
  1.  We can see it at the very top next to ingredients.  First ingredients make up the most of the serving.  
  2. After you find the ingredient in the middle follow the dotted line cross until you see the percentage.

Questions

1. As a result of looking at food labels, what did you learn about food?
2. Look at the ingredients of one human food label. Write down the food name. What ingredients came from animals?
3. What ingredients in the above food label came from plants?
4. What similarities and differences did you notice between the human food and pet food labels you looked at?
5. Choose an animal/insect from the ecosystem walk. What do you think it eats? Explain what you think it gets from its food.

Answer

1. I learned many of the ingredients that most foods have.  (they are listed in the middle portion of the label) and even though it may be 0mg or 0g it still tells you that most foods have it.
2. Food: Tomato Soup.  Ingredients from animals: None?
3. The tomato puree came from a tomato plant, the soybean oil came from soybeans,  corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup both came from corn, and sugar came from sugar cane.
4. They both have a lit of ingredients but in the pet food label the list of ingredients is at the top.  Also in the human food label their is % daily values and amounts of food not just percentages.
5. Animal: Squirrel.  What it eats: nuts, seeds, fruits, and green vegetation. 

Questions

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

Answers

1. It provides energy.  Without food we wouldn't have the energy to move or do work.  Food also gives us matter to help us grow and repair our bodies.
2. Since humans and animals bodies need mostly the same think the things like Calcium or sugar are the same but the actual ingredients like tomato puree are different depending on the type of food it is.  
3. The calorie count just means how much energy you can get from the food.  It is up to pet owners to decide how many calories they want to give their pet.  Sometimes more calories is appealing to pet owners because it means their pet will be more hyper but sometimes pet owners just want some peace and quiet like everyone else.
4. I think it is the vitamins that help us heal and the matter is the fat and protein.
5. I think the calories in the food give us energy to move and help us stay warm. 
6. The energy goes from the plant to the animals and it gives the animal energy to move around.