Vocab #1
This is an animal that only eats plants.
Herbivore
This is an animal that only eats other animals.
Carnivore
Name the three main things that are needed in the photosynthesis process.
Sunlight, air, water.
What is a producer? Define it and give an example.
A producer is a plant that creates energy through photosynthesis. An example is grass.
How do plants and animals depend on each other in an ecosystem?
Plants provide food and oxygen for animals, while animals help plants by spreading their seeds and producing carbon dioxide that plants use to grow.
What is Chloroplast?
A chloroplast is a green cell found in plants that absorb light to make glucose during photosynthesis.
This is an animal that eats both animals and plants.
Omnivore
Plants and animals
A snake eats other animals such as a mouse. The snake is then eaten by a hawk. What are two words that describe the role of the snake in this food web? (ex: consumer, decomposer, producer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, etc.)
Consumer and carnivore
How do plants and animals depend on each other in an ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a community of living things (like plants and animals) and non-living things (like water, sunlight, and soil) that work together in a specific environment.
This is a type of sugar and it is the main source of plant food for growth.
Glucose
A _______________ is an organism that consumes or eats, a plant or animal for energy.
Consumer
Name an example of an abiotic factor.
Water and sunlight
What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
A food chain shows how energy moves in a straight line from one living thing to another, like a plant being eaten by a rabbit, and the rabbit being eaten by a fox. A food web is like a big map that shows how many food chains are connected, because animals eat lots of different things, not just one.
What is the role of decomposers in keeping an ecosystem balanced?
Decomposers, like fungi and bacteria, break down dead plants and animals, returning nutrients to the soil to help plants grow and keep the cycle going.
____________ is the ability to do work. the sun is the primary source of this in any ecosystem.
Energy
What is a decomposer?
This is an organism that breaks down dead plants or animals and returns nutrients to the soil.
Explain how plants get the material they need to grow from the sun, water and air.
Plants use sunlight to make their own food through a process called photosynthesis. They take water from the soil and a gas called carbon dioxide from the air to grow and stay healthy.
What is the difference between a consumer and a producer?
A producer is a living thing, like a plant, that makes its own food using sunlight, water, and air. A consumer is a living thing, like an animal, that eats plants or other animals to get energy.
Give an example of an unbalanced ecosystem. Provide evidence to support your answer.
An unbalanced ecosystem is like a team where some players aren’t doing their jobs, causing problems for the whole group.
For example, in a pond with too many algae (algae bloom) and fewer fish or frogs, the water becomes murky, plants struggle to grow, and animals may die, showing that the system is no longer healthy.
What is the definition of photosynthesis?
Photosynthesis is the process plants use to make glucose using sunlight, air, and water.
What is a biotic factor vs. an abiotic factor?
Biotic factors are are living components of an ecosystem.
Abiotic factors are nonliving component of an ecosystem.
Explain the role of carbon dioxide in the photosynthesis process.
Carbon dioxide is a gas in the air that plants take in through tiny holes in their leaves. During photosynthesis, plants use carbon dioxide, along with sunlight and water, to make their food and produce oxygen as a bonus!
How does energy from the sun eventually provide energy for the consumers in a food chain/web?
The sun gives energy to plants, which use it to make their own food. When animals (consumers) eat the plants, they get the energy the plants stored, and when other animals eat those animals, the energy keeps moving through the food chain or web.
What happens when one part of an ecosystem, like a species, disappears?
If a species disappears, it can cause problems for other parts of the ecosystem, like less food for predators or overpopulation of other species, leading to an unbalanced system.