- To be able to describe the structure of the ecosystem at Nap Wood. - To know how Nap Wood has been managed by The National Trust. - To know that The National Forest is a large scale afforestation scheme. - To consider whether The National Forest has been a success.
- To know the main features of a British Woodland ecosystem and how they link to each other. - To be able to construct a food web for the British Woodland ecosystem. - To know that the ecosystem is under threat from human interference.
This lesson addresses Key Question 4.2 from the exam specification.
You need to be able to give examples of plants and animals at each level of the ecosystem. The Forestry Commission website hosts several webcams that will give you an insight into how the British Woodland ecosystem operates. You can see videos and webcams showing some of the animals that live in the forest here. There is a factsheet about some of the animals in the New Forest here. The BBC Bitesize revision pages contain useful information about the links between the components of ecosystems. Make sure that you can define the key terms from today's lesson: producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore, decomposer, trophic level.
Producer: Usually a green plant that produces its own food by photosynthesis.
Primary Consumers: Animals that consume only plant matter. They are herbivores - eg rabbits, caterpillars, cows, sheep, and deer. Secondary Consumers: Animals that eat primary consumers (herbivores). Tertiary Consumers: Animals that eat secondary consumers (i.e. carnivores that feed on other carnivores).
Decomposers: Organisms such as bacteria and fungi that break down dead organisms and their wastes. They do not 'eat' the food like scavengers, as they have no mouth-parts. Instead they break down solid matter into liquids which they can absorb. Examples: bacteria and some fungi.
Tropic Level: A trophic level is each level in a food chain. Matter is always 'lost' as heat energy at each trophic level.
There are several online interactive activities here and here which let you make your own food webs. If you have a printer connected to your PC, it would be useful for you to print out the completed webs and stick them into your exercise book.
Here is the worksheet we used to practice choropleth mapping skills. These skills are often tested in paper 1/2 in the final GCSE exams.
- to know that, on a world scale, climate is the main factor determining the nature and extent of natural vegetation cover. - to understand the term ‘biome’. - to learn the names of the world’s main biomes. - to be able to describe the changes in vegetation cover from the equator to the polar regions.
This map shows the world's main biomes. Can you define the word 'biome'?
Biomes: Large ecosystems at the global scale where the climate and vegetation is uniform.
Foundation tier: Make sure that you can describe the changes in vegetation cover from the equator to the poles.
Higher tier: Make sure that you can describe and explain the changes in vegetation cover from the equator to the poles.
- to be able to define the term 'ecosystem' - to recognise that ecosystems can be any size - to understand that energy flows are crucial to an ecosystem - to be able to list the main inputs, processes and outputs of an ecosystem
The lesson focuses on Key Question 4.1 from the exam specification:
Here is a copy of the image we used for the memory game. You could try to draw your own copy without looking at the screen and then check back to see how much you have remembered.
You should make sure that you know the definitions of the key words we used today:
Ecosystem: A system of links between plants and animals (the living, or biotic, community) and the habitats where they live, including the non-living, or abiotic, environment.
Photosynthesis: The process whereby plants take in the sun's energy with carbon dioxide and water to produce energy, oxygen and plant tissue.
Food web: The transfer of energy through an ecosystem from primary producers to consumers and decomposers.
A food chain shows how each living gets its food - i.e. who eats what (or who). A food chain always starts with a green plant. A food web consists of many ood chains. A food chain follows only one path (eg. a hawk eats a snake, which has eaten a frog, which has eaten a grasshopper, which has eaten grass) whereas a food web shows the many different oaths through which plants and animals are connected (eg. a hawk might also eat a mouse, a squirrel, a frog or some other animal; the snake may eat a beetle, a caterpillar, or some other animal, and so on for all the other animals in the food chain).
The PowerPoint from the lesson is here:
Make sure that you can name at least 3 inputs, processes and outputs of a named ecosystem. Here are some examples for a British Woodland ecosystem:
Inputs: sunshine, rainfall, air, soil, fertiliser Processes: photosynthesis, tree clearance, reproduction Outputs: water into rivers, evapotranspiration, timber
There are four key ideas that underpin this part of the course. They are:
(a) Ecosystems operate at a variety of scales. (b) Ecosystems can be perceived as a resource for human benefit. (c) Changes occur in ecosystems as a result of natural processes and/or human activity. The consequences of such changes may go beyond the immediate ecosystem. (d) The impact of human activity on ecosystems needs careful management to achieve sustainability.
The document below outlines this section of the course.
Well done to the Class of 2007. Your results were superb and we are really proud of you. 77.6% of you achieved A*-C grades, which was almost 10% above your target as a group. Best of luck with your future plans.
As the blog wasn't up and running at the end of the year 9 course, I'm a little bit behind in blogging about each of the lessons. I will create a summary of the hydrosphere section of the course and post it here.
The GCSE course that we are following is OCR Specification B. There are four main units:
Climate, the Environment and People (weather and climate; ecosystems; an issue of international concern) Water, Landforms and People (the hydrosphere; rivers and coasts) People and Place (inequalities in urban areas; changing the urban environment; urban-rural interaction) People, Work and Development (employment structures and patterns; development, trade and aid; economic activity; economic activity and the environment)
You can download the course specification from the OCR website by clicking here. Alternatively, here is a copy of the course summary guide that you were given in the first lesson.
