3^rd Quarter

Analyze the living and nonliving factors that affect organisms in ecosystems.

Analyze how systems function, including the inputs, outputs, transfers, transformations, and feedbacks of a system and subsystems.

Understand how organisms, including cells, use matter and energy to sustain life and that these processes are complex, integrated, and regulated.

Week 1-3

Compare different ecosystems in terms of the cycling of matter and/or flow of energy.

Identify or describe how matter and energy are transferred and cycled through ecosystems (i.e. matter and energy move from plants to herbivores/omnivores, to carnivores, and then to decomposers).

Week 4-5

Identify or describe how population changes cause changes in the cycle of matter and/or the flow of energy in ecosystems.

Week 6-7

Identify or describe the living and nonliving factors that limit the size and/or affect the health of a

population in an ecosystem.

Week 8

Identify, describe, or explain how the use of renewable and nonrenewable natural resources affects the sustainability of an ecosystem.

Week 9 (Culminating Project)

Identify, describe, or explain how human activities affect Earth’s capacity to sustain biological

diversity (e.g. global warming, ozone depletion).

Identify or describe the function of a system’s parts or subsystems.

Identify, describe, or explain the inputs, outputs, transfers, transformations, and feedbacks of energy, matter, and/or information in a system.

Identify, describe, or explain the interconnections between a system’s parts or subsystems.

Document Respository