Before starting the Gizmo “Food Chain,” briefly review the following vocabulary words:
Vocabulary •
Consumer – an organism that obtains energy by feeding on organic matter.
o Organic materials are carbon-based compounds produced by living things.
o All animals, all fungi, and even some plants are consumers.
o A cow chewing grass, a person eating a steak, earthworms digesting manure, and mold growing on bread all represent consumers in action. In each case the organism is consuming organic matter.
• Ecosystem – a community of living things along with their natural environment.
• Equilibrium – a stable situation in which opposing forces are balanced. o If an ecosystem is in equilibrium, the population of each organism will not change much from year to year.
• Food chain – a sequence of organisms in which each organism feeds on the one below.
o Example: Grass Rabbit Snake Hawk. In this food chain, rabbits eat grass, snakes eat rabbits, and hawks eat snakes.
• Population – all organisms of a certain kind within a defined region.
• Predator – an animal that kills and eats other animals.
• Prey – an animal that is killed and eaten by other animals.
• Producer – an organism that converts simple inorganic matter (such as water and carbon dioxide) into organic matter (such as sugar and protein).
o Most plants use the energy of the Sun to create organic matter from carbon dioxide and water. This process is called photosynthesis.
o No sunlight reaches the ocean floor, but some bacteria can use energy from hot water vents on the ocean floor to produce organic material. These producers support entire ecosystems deep below the ocean surface.
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Open the following http://www.explorelearning.com , logging in with secondp112 and cow864
[Copy the questions below into the comments area, answering as many questions as possible]
Gizmo Warm-up
The SIMULATION pane of the Gizmo shows the current population, or number, of each organism in the food chain.
1. What are the current populations of each organism?
Hawks: _____
Snakes: _____
Rabbits: _____
Grass: _____
2. Select the BAR CHART tab, and click Play ( ). What do you notice about each population as time goes by? If populations don’t change very much over time, the ecosystem is in equilibrium.
3. Compare the equilibrium populations of the four organisms. Why do you think populations decrease at higher levels of the food chain?
ACTIVITY B
Get the Gizmo ready: • Click Reset. • Select the GRAPH tab
Question: An ecosystem is a group of living things and their physical environment. How do ecosystems react to major disturbances?
1. Observe: Kill off most of the hawks using the – button, and then click Play. Observe the GRAPH for about 12 months, and then click Pause. What happens?
Analyze: Explain why you think the population of each organism changed the way it did. (Use extra paper if necessary.).
Experiment: Click Reset. Try making other changes to the ecosystem. Use the + or –buttons, or choose Diseased from the dropdown lists. Click Play and observe for at least 12 months. Record what happens BELOW.
4. Summarize: Give at least one example of each of the following: A. A major disturbance that the ecosystem was able to recover completely from.
. A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to stabilize at a new equilibrium.
. A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to completely collapse.
. (Challenge) A major disturbance that almost caused a total collapse, but that the ecosystem was able to recover from eventually.
PMCS - SCIENCE 3 
The SIMULATION pane of the gizmos SHOWS THE CURRENT POPLATOIN,OR EACH ORGANISM IN FOOD CHAIN. 1.WHAT ARE THE CURRENT POPLATION OF EACH ORGANISM? HAWK;42 SNAKE;278 RABBIT;2,566 GRASS;27,300 2.SELECT THE BAR CHART TAB,AND CLICK PLAY WHAT DO YOU NOTICE ABOUT EACH POPLATION AS TIME GOES BY IF THE POPULATIOBN DONT CHANGE VERY MUCH OVER TIME,THE ECOSYSYSTEM IS IN EQUITBRAM.NO I DONT THINK SO
Gizmo Warm-up
The SIMULATION pane of the Gizmo shows the current population, or number, of each organism in the food chain.
1. What are the current populations of each organism?
Hawks: healthy_____
Snakes: _healthy____
Rabbits: healthy_____
Grass: __healthy___
2. Select the BAR CHART tab, and click Play ( ). What do you notice about each population as time goes by? If populations don’t change very much over time, the ecosystem is in equilibrium. (the numbers thats under the animals are moving
3. Compare the equilibrium populations of the four organisms. Why do you think populations decrease at higher levels of the food chain?
ACTIVITY B
Get the Gizmo ready: • Click Reset. • Select the GRAPH tab
Question: An ecosystem is a group of living things and their physical environment. How do ecosystems react to major disturbances?
1. Observe: Kill off most of the hawks using the – button, and then click Play. Observe the GRAPH for about 12 months, and then click Pause. What happens?
Analyze: Explain why you think the population of each organism changed the way it did. (Use extra paper if necessary.).
Experiment: Click Reset. Try making other changes to the ecosystem. Use the + or –buttons, or choose Diseased from the dropdown lists. Click Play and observe for at least 12 months. Record what happens BELOW.
4. Summarize: Give at least one example of each of the following: A. A major disturbance that the ecosystem was able to recover completely from.
. A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to stabilize at a new equilibrium.
. A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to completely collapse.
. (Challenge) A major disturbance that almost caused a total collapse, but that the ecosystem was able to recover from eventually.
1. What are the current populations of each organism?
Hawks:42 _____
Snakes: 278_____
Rabbits:2566 _____
Grass:27300 _____
2. Select the BAR CHART tab, and click Play ( ). What do you notice about each population as time goes by? If populations don’t change very much over time, the ecosystem is in equilibrium.
It is equilbrium
3. Compare the equilibrium populations of the four organisms. Why do you think populations decrease at higher levels of the food chain? Because they have less recourses
ACTIVITY B
Get the Gizmo ready: • Click Reset. • Select the GRAPH tab
Question: An ecosystem is a group of living things and their physical environment. How do ecosystems react to major disturbances?
1. Observe: Kill off most of the hawks using the – button, and then click Play. Observe the GRAPH for about 12 months, and then click Pause. What happens?it increase rapily
Analyze: Explain why you think the population of each organism changed the way it did. (Use extra paper if necessary.).because since the hawk was decrease all the other animal increase in population since they cant die fast
Experiment: Click Reset. Try making other changes to the ecosystem. Use the + or –buttons, or choose Diseased from the dropdown lists. Click Play and observe for at least 12 months. Record what happens BELOW. every thing was losing population but the grass was increasing
4. Summarize: Give at least one example of each of the following: A. A major disturbance that the ecosystem was able to recover completely from. all of the hawks had die which increase grass which gives the rabbits and snake more food to consume
Snakes:278
Rabbits:2566
Grass:27300
2. The population of grass and rabbits decreases while the population of the snakes and hawks remains constant.
3. looking at the simulation and from my own personal opinion i think that the population of some organisms decrease at a higher level than others because rthey are eatin by more than 1 type of species.
3. The population of each organism decreases except the hawk its population ascends.i think the population of each organism changed the way it did because there was a lack of predators so some organisms didin’t have to compete for food.
4. A. A lack of grass for the 1st consumers.
B. A small population of healthy hawks and diseased snakes.
C. No energy is given off from each consumer.
D.Lack of grass lack of rabbits, snakes, and hawks.
Ronys Work !
1. What are the current populations of each organism?
Hawks: 42
Snakes: 278
Rabbits: 2566
Grass: 27300
2. Select the BAR CHART tab, and click Play ( ). What do you notice about each population as time goes by? If populations don’t change very much over time, the ecosystem is in equilibrium.
3. Compare the equilibrium populations of the four organisms. Why do you think populations decrease at higher levels of the food chain?
Because The Higher Organisms Survive At From The Lowest Organisms
ACTIVITY B
Get the Gizmo ready: • Click Reset. • Select the GRAPH tab
Question: An ecosystem is a group of living things and their physical environment. How do ecosystems react to major disturbances?
The Decrease To Major Disturbances
1. Observe: Kill off most of the hawks using the – button, and then click Play. Observe the GRAPH for about 12 months, and then click Pause. What happens?
The Hawk starts off at a Low Level the Snakes Start off Higher and the Rabbits Start out Lower
Analyze: Explain why you think the population of each organism changed the way it did. (Use extra paper if necessary.).
I think without the hawk the snakes can grow more because the hawks won’t be there to eat them and the rabbits decrease because there are more snakes to eat the rabbits
Experiment: Click Reset. Try making other changes to the ecosystem. Use the + or –buttons, or choose Diseased from the dropdown lists. Click Play and observe for at least 12 months. Record what happens BELOW.
I Decrease the hawks by almost 10 and I increase the snakes majorly and decreased the rabbits by almost 100 and decreased the grass majorly. The snakes died off and so did the rabbits and the hawks increased so do the grass.
4. Summarize: Give at least one example of each of the following: A. A major disturbance that the ecosystem was able to recover completely from.
. A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to stabilize at a new equilibrium.
. A major disturbance that caused the ecosystem to completely collapse.
. (Challenge) A major disturbance that almost caused a total collapse, but that the ecosystem was able to recover from eventually.