
SILO F.4 (DRAFT) Foundation, Term 4: Ecosystems Scope and sequence: Food chains Focus: Ecosystems
Learning intention: Students learn about systems in the context of living things and the environment.
Overview: Ecosystems are systems formed by the interaction of living things and their environment. This unit extends the previous learning from SILO F.2 'Living things' to look at systems in general and ecosystems in particular. In this unit we explore how organisms can live together.
NSW Syllabus	Australian Curriculum
"A student describes observable features of living things and their environments" (ST1-4LW-S).	"Student identify the basic needs of plants and animals, including air, water, food or shelter, and describe how the places they live meet those needs" (AC9S1U01).

Introduction to ecosystems

A system is a group of things which interact with each other. In an ecosystem there are living things, but also life sustaining resources such as water and energy. The two mains types of ecosystems are those located on land and water. However, even ecosystems on land still require water as all living things require water. The following video (6:22) provides a good introduction to how things work together in an ecosystem.

Soil

There are five key ingredients in good soil, namely:

Minerals
Organic matter
Water
Air
Organisms

The following video (6:23) specifies the first four of these ingredients and then adds the 'FBI' (i.e., fungus, bacteria and invertebrates) for the organisms.

Introduction to food chains

The following video (2:34) is an animated version of the nursery rhyme There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly.

Ecosystem engineers

The following video (4:45) describes beavers as 'ecosystem engineers' due the the clever ways in which they build dams.

Beavers are a great example of engineers in our natural environment. Their identified problem is the inability to build their homes on rushing water, and to fix this problem they create dams – an engineering feat mimicked by humans for use in our communities as well. Here is another video (6:40) by Mystery Science which shows how and why beavers build dams.

Some real-world examples of dams created by humans are the Hoover Dam in the United States, and the Three Gorges Dam in China. Both of these are very large dams that achieve the same goals of controlling water movement that beaver dams do, but these ones took years to build by humans, using some major machinery to assist in the process.

Dam building activity

To demonstrate how a dam works, we are going to create one of our own.

Take a large plastic bottle and punch holes at varying depths and distances apart. You might need your teacher to help with punching the holes for your safety.
Cover the holes with duct tape and fill with water.
Remove the tape and watch how the water exiting the bottle is controlled and regulated by the holes.

This is a small-scale version of what a dam does to control lake levels and water flow rates.

Moderated self-assessment

Discussions with students around the key components of conceptual topics and how they fit together can generate insights into student achievement.

We welcome your feedback and suggestions

The chief investigator for The SILO Project is Associate Professor Brendan Jacobs, Head of Department STEM Education, University of New England. The SILO Project thrives on incremental improvement so constructive feedback is greatly appreciated. Please contact Brendan via email at bjacobs7@une.edu.au to share your thoughts and recommendations.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

SILO F.4 (DRAFT)

Foundation, Term 4: Ecosystems

Scope and sequence: Food chains

Focus: Ecosystems

Learning intention: Students learn about systems in the context of living things and the environment.