1. Introduction to Ecology
Ms. Blalock, Ms. Hartsell and Mr. Luckman

2. Do Now (3 minutes)
What makes you a living thing?

3. AIM and Agenda
Does an organism depend upon its environment and other individuals in order to thrive and survive?
Agenda
1. Do Now
2. Gallery Walk
3. INM: Characteristics of Living Things
4. Act 1: Making Connections
5. Act 2: Hierarchy of an ecosystem
6. Act 3: Interdependence
7. Exit Ticket

4. Gallery Walk: Living and the Nonliving (5 minutes)
Directions: Using your observation skills, make a list of the nonliving and living things you discover in each of the illustrations.
Make a list of both the living and nonliving things that you find in the chart in your guided notes.
You will have 1 minute in each station.

5. Turn and Talk: What’s my rationale?
How did you determine which things in the pictures during the gallery walk were living versus nonliving things?

6. INM: Characteristics of Living Things (10-12 minutes)
There exists a set of characteristics that ALL living things share.
Something” that does NOT have ALL of these characteristics is said to be nonliving

7. Characteristic 1: Synthesis
ALL living things have the ability to make new things
Example:
These “new things” include the production or synthesis of:
- Proteins such as hormones or enzymes

8. Characteristic 2: Transport
ALL living things have the ability to move in their environment and move substances internally
Examples:
Move in their environment: walk, run, gallop
Move substances internally: diffusion and active transport

9. Characteristic 3: Reproduction
All living things have the ability to produce new offspring or cells
Examples:
Cells: mitosis (cell division)

10. Characteristic 4: Respiration
ALL living things have the ability to exchange gases with the external environment
Example:
We breathe in oxygen and breathe out CO2
Plants take in CO2 and release oxygen through their leaves

11. Characteristic 5: Regulation
ALL living things have the ability to control your internal environment.
Example:
The process of diffusion/osmosis makes sure your body has a balance of molecules inside and outside of the cells in your body

12. Characteristic 6: Excretion
ALL living things have the ability to remove waste from the body
Example:
Urination
Breathing out CO2

13. Characteristic 7: Nutrition
ALL living things have the ability to take in specific elements that they need from their environment
Example:
A plant taking in water and nutrients from the soil
You eating breakfast, lunch or dinner

14. Characteristic 8: Growth
ALL living things have the ability to increase in size and number of cells
Example:
What would be an example?

15. Characteristic 9: Metabolism
ALL living things have the ability to perform chemical reactions that allow for energy to be made and used.
Metabolism converts the fuel in the food we eat into the energy needed to power everything from moving to growing. 
Example:
break down the sugar in our foods to make energy

16. Characteristic 10: Homeostasis
ALL living things have the ability to maintain a stable internal environment regardless of their external environment
Example:
What would be an example of homeostasis?

17. Activity 1: Making Connections (10 minutes)
What do the terms abiotic and biotic factors mean?
Are these terms the same as saying living versus nonliving things?

18. Biotic and Abiotic factors
All the living things
or the materials that directly or indirectly affect an organism in its environment
For example:
All living things (plants and animals)
Waste from an organism
An organism’s body parts
Abiotic Factors
Those non-living physical and chemical factors which affect the ability of organisms to survive and reproduce. 
For example:
Light intensity, temperature, soil type, pH, level of pollution, and water

20. Discussion (5 minutes)
Looking at the list you made during the gallery walk of living and nonliving things:
Are all of the things on your “living” list biotic?
Are all of the things on your “nonliving” list abiotic?

21. Why are we learning about abiotic and biotic factors?!

22. Unit 7:Ecology
Ecology is the study of the interactions between organisms and their interactions with their environment.
In other words, it is the study of the relationships between biotic and abiotic factors that exist within a given environment.

23. Components of Ecology
There exists a hierarchy of organisms and the relationships between these organisms and their environment.
In this next activity, you will explore this hierarchy that exists

24. Activity 2: Hierarchy of an ecosystem
Directions: Using the PowerPoint titled “Ecology Hierarchy”, respond to the questions in your guided notes.
You will have 10 minutes to complete this activity.

25. Activity 3: Interdependence (10-12)
Directions: Watch the following video from the Discovery Channel and respond to the questions in your guided notes
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26. Exit Ticket (5 min)