Environments Review Sheet

Name _________________________________________________

Goals

All living things depend on the conditions in their environment. The study of the relationships between one organism and its environment builds knowledge of all organisms. With this knowledge comes an awareness of limits. Changes in an environment can be hard on organisms. Such knowledge is important because humans can change environments. To do so without awareness of possible consequences can lead to disasters. The Environments Module consists of investigations that introduce students to these basic concepts in environmental biology.

Expectations

• Develop an attitude of respect and understanding for life.
• Gain experience with the major environmental factors in terrestrial and aquatic systems.
• Conduct controlled experiments with plants to determine ranges of tolerance.
• Determine an organism's optimum conditions and environmental preferences.
• Organize and analyze data from experiments and investigations with plants and animals.
• Observe and describe changes in complex systems over time.
• Relate laboratory studies to natural systems.
• Acquire vocabulary associated with environmental biology.
• Use scientific thinking processes to conduct investigations and build explanations: observing, communicating, comparing, organizing, and relating.

Investigation Summaries

Investigation 1: TERRESTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS

Students set up terrariums, observed them for 2 weeks, and described the environmental factors that contributed to the terrarium environment.

• Everything that surrounds an organism makes up the organism’s environment.

• Terrestrial environments include both living and nonliving factors.

• Observed and described changes in a terrarium over time.

• Organized and communicated observations.

Investigation 2: BUGS AND BEETLES

Students constructed runways to investigate how isopods and darkling beetles respond to environmental factors such as water and light, and determine the environmental preferences.

• Each organism has a set of preferred environmental conditions.

• Isopods prefer moist, dark environments; beetles prefer dry, dark environments.

• Set up and observed animal investigations.

• Organized data and communicated results of investigations.

• Related the behavior of an animal to environmental factors.

Environments Word Bank

1. adapt
2. biome
3. ecosystem
4. environment
5. environmental factors
6. fungus
7. larva
8. microorganisms
9. organisms
10. photosynthesis
11. precipitation
12. predator
13. terrarium

Have fun reviewing the FOSS Environments Kit at…

http://www.fossweb.com/modules3-6/Environments/index.html

FOSS Science Stories: Environments