Name Date

Activity Page 1.1 Use with Lesson 1.

Library Scavenger Hunt

Use the library’s resources to research a living thing.
Which living thing did you choose?

Complete the chart to explain what makes your living thing alive.

Life Process How It Works

Does it move?
If so, how?

Does it breathe or
respire? If so, how?

Is it sensitive to changes
in its environment?
If so, how?

Does it grow?
If so, how?

Does it reproduce?
If so, how?

Does it get rid of waste?

If so, how?

Does it take in or make

nutrients? If so, how?

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Activity Page 1.2 (Page 1 of 2) Use with Lesson 1.

Plant Data Sheet

There are many ways to grow plants! Today you will use simple materials to see how a plant will grow.
Collect your materials.
What materials will you use to grow your plant?

Take measurements of the plant.

How will you measure the original length of your plant?

Fill the container with water. Draw a line with your marker at the water level.
Place the plant into the water.
Weigh the plant, water, and container together.
How will you weigh the plant, water, and container?

Fill in the data table below.

Measurements Lesson 1 Lesson 5 Lesson 9

Length of plant

Weight of water,
plant, and container

Other observations

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Activity Page 1.2 (Page 2 of 2) Use with Lesson 1.
Answer the questions that follow for Lesson 5.
What observations can you make about how the plant changed from Lesson 1 to Lesson 5?

What do plants need to grow?

Write an argument about plant growth based on your observations.

What evidence do you have to support your argument?

Answer the question that follows for Lesson 9.

Review your answers from Lesson 5.
Was your argument about plant growth accurate, based on your observations and evidence from
Lesson 9? Explain your answer using evidence from your latest observations.

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Name Date

Activity Page 2.1 Use with Lesson 2.

Organisms and Chemical Energy

Complete the table. Select one living organism for each line, and answer each question
that follows. Be sure to choose both plants and animals. You may choose any plant or animal that
hasn’t been used in class already. The first example has been done for you.

Living Thing Where does it get Does it move to get How does it stay
its food, or chemical food? warm?
energy?

muskrat It gets energy from It uses its arms and Its body generates
the plants and other legs to walk and swim heat to help keep it
animals that it eats. to get food. warm. Its body has
a covering of hair to
help keep it warm.

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Activity Page 3.1 Use with Lesson 3.

Photosynthesis Model
Draw a model of photosynthesis. Show the source of the energy the plant uses, as well as where
in the plant the process takes place. Label what, besides energy, the plant uses and what it
releases once the process is completed.

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Activity Page 4.1 Use with Lesson 4.

Model Checklist
Build your model. Choose from one of the following types:
• four-sided box
• flip-book
• diorama
Use the information below as you build your models.
• Four-sided box
• Draw one part of the food chain on each side of the box.
• Use arrows in your drawings to show how the box should be turned in the order of how
energy flows through the food chain.
• Use labels to show important parts of the energy passing through the food chain.
• Flip-book
• Use a separate piece of paper for each part of the energy passing through the food chain.
• Use labels to show important parts of energy passing through the food chain.
• When you put the pages together, put the beginning of energy passing through the
food chain on the bottom, and work your way to the top. The top of your book should
have the final part of energy passing through the food chain.
• Fasten the pages together in this order to make a book.
• Diorama
• Show the progression of energy passing through the food chain.
• Begin on the left, and move to the right side of the diorama.

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Activity Page 4.2 Use with Lesson 4.

Energy’s Path Through Living Things

Answer each question below to help you build your model.
Which model will you build?

Where does the energy in the food chain begin? Make this the starting point for
your model.
You should be the final organism in your model. When possible, include at least three other organisms
between the starting point and you.
Before you build your model, plan it out first. Draw it in the box below.

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Activity Page 6.1 Use with Lesson 6.

A Needy Plant in the Neighborhood

Like animals, all plants have needs they must meet to survive, grow, and reproduce.
Research a plant that grows in your neighborhood. You can choose any plant you wish. It can
be a kind of tree, bush, weed, flower, or crop. Explain what needs the plant has and how it meets
those needs.
Write the name of your plant here:
Draw what your plant looks like in the box.

What are your plant’s needs?

How does your plant meet those needs?

What consumes your plant?

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Activity Page 7.1 Use with Lesson 7.

A Rough Draft of Your Model

Today you will model how photosynthesis works!
Think about the kind of model you want to make. Use the space below for notes or to sketch a
rough draft of your model.

Collect your materials.

Make your model. Use the following criteria:
• Include the following terms in your model: sunlight, carbon dioxide, water, glucose, oxygen.
• Include arrows in your model that show how the parts of the process connect.

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Activity Page 8.1 Use with Lesson 8.

Energy from the Sun to You

Energy passes from the sun into plants and then into everything that eats the plants.
Draw the path energy gets from the sun to you. Where possible, your path should include a
producer, a consumer, a secondary consumer, and then you.
After you have completed the path, label each organism as a producer or a consumer. Then,
label each consumer as an herbivore, a carnivore, or an omnivore. When you are done, go back
to your path, and add a scavenger.

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Activity Page 9.1 (Page 1 of 3) Use with Lesson 9.

Research Guide Day 1

Over the next three days, you will conduct an activity that includes researching an organism, preparing
a presentation with your group, and presenting information about how energy from the sun flows
through the organisms within an environment.
Answer these questions before you start.

What organism are you researching?

How will you research this organism?

Perform your research. Answer the following questions as you learn about your organism.

Where does your organism get its energy?

What does your organism eat?

What other organisms eat your organism?

Do you think your organism is a producer, consumer, scavenger, or decomposer? Why?

What kind of environment does your organism live in?

Print or photocopy a picture of your organism. You can also check out a library book with
pictures in it.

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Activity Page 9.1 (Page 2 of 3) Use with Lesson 9.

Research Guide Day 2

Find your group based on the environment where your organism lives.
Discuss the following with your group:
• which organism is the producer
• which organisms are the consumers
• which organism is the scavenger
• how all of the organisms in your group link together to keep energy moving through
the environment
• how each organism relates to the link before it and after it in the energy chain
• possible omnivores that would be found in the same environment
Answer the questions that follow.

What is your environment?

Which organism in your environment is the producer?

Which organism in your environment is the primary consumer?

Which organism in your environment is the secondary consumer?

Which organism in your environment is the tertiary consumer, or main predator?

Which organism in your environment is the scavenger?

Write down the order in which energy flows through the organisms in your environment.

How does your assigned organism relate to the organism before and after it?

What kind of omnivore would you expect to find in your environment?

Study the presentation criteria on the next page to make sure your group is ready to present.
Rehearse your presentation with your group.

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Activity Page 9.1 (Page 3 of 3) Use with Lesson 9.

Research Guide Day 3

Present your group’s organisms and environment. Use the following criteria for your
presentation:
• Team members stand in order from producer to scavenger.
• Team members take turns presenting.
• The first team member to present introduces the environment.
• Each team member states two or three sentences about his/her organism and does the following:
introduces the organism
talks about the organism in the order in which energy flows through the environment, starting
with the producer and ending with the scavenger
tells where the organism gets its energy
explains the organism’s link in the chain of energy by telling how the organism relates to the
organism before or after it (example: My organism gets its energy from , which gets
its energy from , which gets its energy from .)
shows the audience a picture of the organism
• Teams present for three to five minutes each.
• Teams identify a possible omnivore that would exist in their environment.
• Teams use the following terms: sunlight, energy, photosynthesis, herbivore, omnivore, carnivore,
producer, consumer, scavenger.
Listen carefully to each presentation as an audience member. See whether each team uses the
terms mentioned above.

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Name Date

Activity Page 10.1 Use with Lesson 10.

Ecosystem: Yes or No
Ecosystems exist all over the world. But what is an ecosystem?

Complete the table below as your teacher shows you pictures.

What is the picture of? Yes, this is an ecosystem. No, this is not an ecosystem.

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Activity Page 11.1 Use with Lesson 11.

Ecosystem Investigation
Ecosystems can be small or large, but they exist everywhere, including at your school!
Describe the ecosystem you are investigating.
What living organisms, including plants and animals, did you notice in the environment?

What nonliving things did you notice in the environment?

How do the living and nonliving things interrelate and affect each other?

What do you think would happen if one of the living or nonliving things were taken away? What kind of
impact would it have on the environment?

Do you think this is an example of an ecosystem? Why or why not?

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Activity Page 12.1 Use with Lesson 12.

Chains and Webs

Draw a picture of a food chain with at least three different organisms.

Draw a picture of a food web in an ecosystem. Include the food chain you drew as well as five
other organisms.

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Activity Page 13.1 Use with Lesson 13.

Modeling the Cycling of Matter and Energy

You read about an ecosystem in a rain forest. Now it’s time to make your model.
Gather your materials, including the notes you took while reading Chapter 7 Rain Forest
Ecosystem Field Diary.
Make a poster that shows how matter and energy cycle through the organisms identified in the
rain forest ecosystem. Use the following as a guide and criteria list for your models:
• Model the flow of matter and energy as a flowchart.
• Show what happens to gas (oxygen), water, and plant materials throughout the cycle.
• Identify and label the specific organisms from the reading, including producers, consumers,
scavengers, and decomposers.
• Make folded paper captions that tape to the poster board, open up, and describe the
interdependent relationships and steps in the cycle. (See below for an example.)

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Activity Page 14.1 Use with Lesson 14.

Things That Disrupt Ecosystems

Ecosystems exist all over the world. But they can often be changed by events that occur within or
near them.
Complete the table below to tell whether each event is something caused by nature, human
activities, or both.

Event Caused by Nature Caused by Humans Caused by Both

Volcanic eruption X

Overhunting

Introducing new
species

Drought

Disease

Overfishing

Wildfires

Pollution

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Activity Page 15.1 (Page 1 of 2) Use with Lesson 15.

Research and Writing Guide

Over the next two days, you will conduct research on a human activity that disrupts an ecosystem. You
will gather evidence that supports how that activity disrupts the ecosystem and write a report about it.
Day 1
Answer these questions.
What is the human activity you are researching?

Describe the ecosystem being disrupted.

What sources are you using for your research?

What three pieces of evidence show that the human activity disrupts the ecosystem?

Day 2
Use the five-paragraph outline below to organize your report. Write what you will cover in each
paragraph on the line.
Paragraph 1 (Introduction):

Paragraph 2 (Body):

Paragraph 3 (Body):

Paragraph 4 (Body):

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Activity Page 15.1 (Page 2 of 2) Use with Lesson 15.
Paragraph 5 (Conclusion):

Use the following criteria for your report:

• Report is five paragraphs.
• Paragraph 1 introduces the human activity.
• Paragraphs 2–4 describe evidence that the human activity has disrupted the ecosystem
by discussing interdependent relationships.
• Paragraph 5 provides a conclusion.
• Report explains that changing an aspect of an ecosystem will affect other aspects of the
ecosystem.

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Name Date

Activity Page UR.1 Use with Unit Review.

Energy and Matter Review Game

Game Rules
In this game, you will work with your team to answer the most questions and score the most points.
• One student from each team will approach the board or chart paper and have their markers or
chalk ready.
• The teacher will read a question.
• The students from each team will race to write the correct answer on the board or chart paper
(or draw a correct model/diagram on the board or chart paper).
• Students will get thirty seconds to answer the question, and they will be timed.
• The team that gets the answer correct first wins a point.
• If no student answers the question correctly, the teacher opens up the question to the rest of the
class, and students can race to raise their hands and answer it first.
• After each question, a new student from the team approaches the board or chart paper and has
a chance to answer. All students will get at least one chance to answer a question at the board or
chart paper.
• Students can bring their Core Vocabulary cards with them to the board or chart paper and use them
to search for the answers.
• The team with the most points at the end wins.
You can use the scorecard below to keep track of your team’s points.

My Team’s Points

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Activity Page UR.2 (Page 1 of 2) Use with Unit Review.

Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle

Review the cards in your Core Vocabulary deck before you begin.
Use the words in the word bank to complete the crossword puzzle. Not all words will be used.

carnivore ecosystem glucose metabolism predator

consumer energy herbivore natural producer
decomposer food chain* hunting oxygen scavenger
deforestation food web* metabolism photosynthesis sunlight

*No spaces between words are included in the puzzle.

Across Down

3. the process of converting food into energy 1. multiple connected food chains in an
ecosystem
4. a series of organisms listed in a way that
shows which is a food source for another 2. a process in which plants make energy from
the sun
6. a type of human activity that disrupts an
ecosystem 5. the sugar that is made during photosynthesis
8. the main source of energy for plants 7. a gas that is released during photosynthesis
10. an animal that only eats plants 9. an example of this type of organism is seaweed
14. the type of organism that helps return 11. lakes, deserts, and forests are examples of this
matter back to the earth
12. an animal that eats other animals
15. an animal that feeds on dead or decaying
matter 13. an organism that eats another organism

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Activity Page UR.2 (Page 2 of 2) Use with Unit Review.

Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle, continued

1

6 7 8

10

11 12

13

14

15

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Activity Page UR.3 (Page 1 of 2) Use with Unit Review.

Vocabulary Review
Complete each sentence with the correct Core Vocabulary term. Not every term in the word bank will
be used. Review the cards in your Core Vocabulary deck before you begin.

balanced carbon dioxide carnivores chain consumer decomposer

ecosystem energy environment glucose herbivores human levels
metabolism nature omnivores photosynthesis predator producer
scavenger sun unbalanced water web

1. Overfishing is an example of a(n) -caused disruption to an ecosystem.

2. When a plant uses energy from the to make , this is known

as .

3. A tree is an example of a(n) .

4. A(n) helps break down organic matter to return it to the earth for new
organisms to grow.

5. If you want to study the linear relationship between organisms that depend on each other for

food, you would look at a food .

6. If you want to study the flow of energy between multiple organisms and how they depend on

each other for food, you would look at a food .

7. The process that converts food into fuel or energy that an organism can use for growth is called

8. A(n) eats other organisms, such as plants.

9. Rabbits eat grass and other plants. This makes them .

10. A community in which multiple organisms interact and depend on one another for balance is

a(n) .

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Activity Page UR.3 (Page 2 of 2) Use with Unit Review.

Vocabulary Review, continued

11. Fires, floods, and droughts are examples of -caused disruptions to ecosystems.

12. Photosynthesis uses and to make glucose.

13. An ecosystem in which organisms have what they need to survive is called .

14. A vulture is an example of a(n) .

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 Unit Assessment (PAge 1 of 7)
Name Date

Unit Assessment: What Have I Learned About

Energy and Matter in Ecosystems?
Answer the items below to show what you have learned.

1. Which of the following words or phrases are true of all the organisms shown in the illustrations
below? Circle all the correct answers.
a) dying f) take in energy
b) growth g) eat meat
c) larva h) take in water
d) metamorphosis i) pupa
e) reproduction j) hatch from egg

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 Unit Assessment (PAge 2 of 7)
2. On each line, tell whether the organism is a producer or a consumer. Then explain where it gets
its energy.
a) corn

b) rabbit

c) wolf

d) human

e) apple tree

3. Using organisms from the illustrations in item 1, draw in the box below how energy gets from the
sun to you.

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 Unit Assessment (PAge 3 of 7)
4. Based on your answers to the previous questions, tell where the energy for most life on Earth
comes from. Explain how it gets from one organism to another.

5. Read the paragraph below, and then answer the question.

Most plants grow in soil. They take in sunlight and carbon dioxide through their leaves and
nutrients through their roots. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil. Plants
are placed in water instead of soil. Even without soil, they still grow.

Which of the following statements are correct?

a) Plants take in energy from the sun through their leaves.
b) Plants take in nutrients from water even without soil.
c) Plants take in nutrients from the sun through their leaves.
d) Plant roots take in nutrients from water in the soil.
e) Plant roots take in energy from water in the soil.
f) Plant leaves take in carbon dioxide from the air.
g) Plant leaves take in carbon dioxide from water.

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 Unit Assessment (PAge 4 of 7)
6. In the box below, draw a model of how photosynthesis works. Label your model with the
following words:

energy

oxygen

carbon dioxide

water

glucose

7. Complete the paragraph below. Be sure to use the Core Vocabulary that you have learned during
this unit.

use the process of photosynthesis to make food using energy from

the . Organisms that eat plants to gain energy are known as .

Organisms that eat other animals to gain energy are known as . Organisms that

eat both plants and other animals to gain energy are known as .

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 Unit Assessment (PAge 5 of 7)
8. An ecosystem is all the living and nonliving things that make up a specific environment. It includes
sunlight, water, air, plants, animals, rocks, soil, and everything else in that environment. Ecosystems
can be found on land or in water.

Write the words ecosystem or not an ecosystem to describe whether each term represents an
ecosystem.
a) desert

b) tropical rain forest

c) rivers and streams

d) air

e) space

f) coral reef

g) tundra

h) forest

9. A food chain is one path that energy moves along. A food web is made up of many paths that
energy moves along.

Based on the definition above, complete the following activities.

a) Write a food chain with at least four organisms in it.

b) Describe a food web with at least three food chains in it.

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 Unit Assessment (PAge 6 of 7)
10. In the box below, draw an ecosystem. Use arrows to show how energy and matter cycle through
the system. Be sure to include decomposers. Name the ecosystem, and label each part. When
labeling the parts of your system, use the Core Vocabulary that you have learned during this unit.

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 Unit Assessment (PAge 7 of 7)
11. For each activity below, identify if the activity disrupts or protects the ecosystem.
a) building a dam:
b) restoring wetlands:
c) conserving forests:
d) dumping waste in the oceans:
e) removing waste from the oceans:
f) chopping down forests:
g) rerouting rivers:
h) building roads:

12. Think about the area in which you live. Do you live in the country, a small town, or a city? Describe
what the area around you is like. If you live in a city, what is the country around your city like? Then,
use evidence to explain how people have changed the environment there over time or are changing
it today. Evidence can include things you have seen on TV, read about on the internet, or seen with
your own eyes. Explain how these changes might have affected the ecosystem in the area.

158 TEACHER RESOURCES