1. Changes in Environments
Unit 9

2. I will understand how environmental changes affect organisms.
It’s All Around You
Learning Goal:
I will understand how environmental changes affect organisms.

3. Pictures
Please cut out pictures of ANY animals, plants, flowers, insects, etc. that you like!
You can get these pictures from magazines or print them (in color) from the internet.
The more pictures that we have the better the activity!

4. It’s All Around You
Environment – is all of the living and nonliving things in nature.
We depend on the environment for:
Food
Air
Water
shelter

5. It’s All Around You water air sunlight land
Examples of nonliving things found in Earth’s environment:
water
air
sunlight
land

6. It’s All Around You
Ecosystem – a community of living things and nonliving things around them that interact with each other.

7. It’s All Around You Brain Pop!

8. It’s All Around You
Together lets make a list of everything in your environment.
Now draw a picture of you local environment on page 395.

9. It’s All Around You
Can the nonliving parts of the environment affect each other?
What are some ways that living things in an ecosystem interact?
What is the difference between an environment and an ecosystem?
Name four living and four nonliving things in the school ecosystem?

10. Change Comes Naturally
In the pictures on page 396 and 397, what changes have happened because of natural events?
How might some of these changes affect the ecosystem?

11. Change Comes Naturally
Natural events that affect our environment:
Events that occur quickly
floods
earthquakes
volcanic eruptions
droughts
forest fires
Hurricanes
Events that occur slowly
ice age

12. Change Comes Naturally
Climate is a long-range average of weather.

13. Change Comes Naturally
Drought is a long period of time during which there is less-than-normal rainfall.
Rain falls unevenly across the land (think climate zones) and a drought is rainfall over a long period of time at the low end of that average.
Ice Age – occurs when Earth has colder-than-normal temperatures for a very long time.
Volcanic eruption – causes rapid changes when the hot flowing lava scorches the land.
It can also cause changes over time because it sends gases and dust high into the air which blocks sunlight from reaching earth’s surface.
This can cause temperatures to drop for months or years.

14. Change Comes Naturally
What effect might drought have on an ecosystem, including humans?
Why might a volcanic eruption cause long-term changes in an ecosystem?
Look at the map of the Ice Age on page 396. What kinds of living things might be affected by advancing ice.
How might an overall drop in temperature over many years affect Earth’s environment?
Why are forest fires both bad and good for the ecosystems?

15. Animal Architects
Beavers may be small but they can have a huge impact on the environment:
Beavers build a dam in a stream
trees are harmed
ponds and wetlands form
Stream organisms move out or die
pond organisms move in

16. Animal Architects
What are some ways that dam building by beavers might negatively affect organisms in the ecosystem?
In what ways might dam building benefit organisms in the ecosystem?
Can plants cause changes to environments?
What are some other ways in which living things change their environment?

17. Animal Architects
Invasive animal or plant – a plant or animal that is not native to the region.
Fire ants accidentally came to the US. They spread rapidly.
Harvester ants are native ants they eat seeds. Fire ants began to eat these ants.
Horned lizards are native to this region and eat harvester ants. What will eventually happen to these lizards if the fire ants continue to grow in population?

18. Animal Architects
List several examples of organisms that depend on each other for food, beginning with plants and organisms that eat plants.
MAKE A MODEL
Get out the pictures that you have been collecting.
Glue them down on your poster.
Use sharpies or yarn to connect each organism to the food that it eats.

19. Animal Architects
What does the structure that you have built look like?
What happens if the number of plants decreases?
How would horned lizards be affected if they had food sources other than harvester ants to eat?
How could a decrease in the number of predators negatively affect the prey?
Give me and example of an invasive animal we read about. Why are they considered invasive?

20. Humans Change the Environment
Some human activities that are harmful to our environment:
mining – people mine coal to get energy to power homes and businesses.
Open-pit mining kills all the plants living in the area.
Burning coal for energy is harmful to the our air.
Cutting down trees – people use the wood for items or to clear space for homes.
Organisms that usually live in the forest must move or die, this effect is called habitat destruction.
Waste – people produce a large amount of waste. This waste ends up in landfills. If the landfills are not built the wastes can pollute soil and water.
Pollution is any harmful substance that gets into the environment.
Pollution can kill organisms or cause diseases.

21. Humans Change the Environment
Conservation - protecting ecosystems and the organisms that live in them.
Ways people try to help the environment:
replanting trees
cleaning up pollution
removing invasive plants and animals
caring for animals injured or orphaned by natural disasters.

22. Humans Change the Environment
Brain Pop!

23. Humans Change the Environment
How can people solve the environmental problems listed below?
Coal mining can harm habitats and cause pollution
Cutting a forest destroys habitats and can lead to soil erosion.
Waste from garbage in landfills can enter the ground and pollute soil and water.
Teachers pg. 410

24. Humans Change the Environment
What do the three pictures on pages 400 have in common?
How do the pictures on this page contrast with those on page 401?
What are three things that would be important in the habitat of an animal?
How does clearing and paving land for buildings and roads change the environment?
Does replanting trees that are cut down immediately solve the problem of habitat destruction in an area? Explain your answer.

25. Living Things Change Activity: hunting for beans (flip chart pg. 37)
Imagine that you are a hawk. What would make you notice prey in a field of grass?

26. Living Things Change Why is variation in a population beneficial?
When an environment changes, why do some individuals survive while other die?
Suppose less rainfall was received than normal. Which plants would be more likely to survive?
Infer – Do you think that all variations that individual organisms have can be seen? Why or why not?

27. Gone! Extinction – the death of all organisms of a species
Many causes:
Climate changes
Amount of food available decreases
Increase in human population that takes over environment
Giant reptiles like the Tyrannosaurus rex could not survive a cooler environment and became extinct.
The Tasmanian wolf is extinct because of too much hunting.

28. Gone!
Some scientists estimate that species become extinct each day.
most live in tropical rain forests
majority are insects or plants that were not yet discovered by humans
Most are the result of forest clearing and other human disturbances

29. Gone!
Brain Pop!

30. Gone! Could the extinction of the dodo bird have been prevented?
Why or why not?

31. Gone! How might human actions lead to extinction?
What are some ways to help an endangered species recover?
What steps lead to the extinction of a certain type of organism? (sequence)