Ecosystems & Food Webs
What is a producer?
An organism that makes its own food (like plants)
What are the three main states of matter?
Solid, liquid, gas
What causes day and night?
Earth rotating on its axis
What is energy?
The ability to do work or cause change, move/grow.
What is a hypothesis?
An educated guess
What role do decomposers play?
They break down dead organisms and recycle nutrients
What is mass?
The amount of matter in an object
What is erosion?
Movement of sediment by water, wind, or ice
What is renewable energy?
Energy from sources that don’t run out (like sunlight)
What is a variable?
Something that can change in an experiment
What happens if a predator is removed from a food web?
Prey populations increase and the ecosystem becomes unbalanced
What happens to particles when matter is heated?
They move faster and spread out
How do Earth systems interact?
The geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere ALL affect each other
What is the purpose of an engineer?
To design solutions to problems
Why are models used in science?
To represent and explain systems
Define an ecosystem
A community of living and nonliving things interacting
Difference between physical and chemical change?
Physical = no new substance
Chemical = new substance formed
How do mountains change over time?
Weathering and erosion wear them down
What are constraints in engineering?
Limits/limitations, such as cost, materials, or time
Difference between observation and inference?
Observation = what you see
Inference = a smart guess you make using what you observe plus what you already know
What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
A food chain is one line of who eats who, but a food web is all the lines connected together.
Why does a gas fill its container?
Its particles move freely and spread out
How can human activity affect Earth systems?
By causing pollution, erosion, or changing habitats
Why is testing important in engineering design?
To improve and refine solutions
What makes evidence reliable?
Repeated results and accurate data