Unit: Biomes, Ecosystems, and Food Webs

Key Words: food web, biome, tropical rain forest, temperate rain forest, temperate
deciduous forest, tundra, taiga, desert, grassland, symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism,
parasitism, ecosystem

Standards Addressed In This Unit

Focus Standard: S7L4. Students will examine the dependence of organisms on one another
and their environments.

Supporting Content Standard:

a. Demonstrate in a food web that matter is transferred from one organism to another and can
recycle between organisms and their environments.
d. Categorize relationships between organisms that are competitive or mutually
beneficial.
e. Describe the characteristics of Earth’s major terrestrial biomes (i.e. tropical rain
forest, savannah, temperate, desert, taiga, tundra, and mountain) and aquatic
communities (i.e. freshwater, estuaries, and marine).

Characteristics of Science Standards: S7CS5. Students will use the ideas of system, model,
change, and scale in exploring scientific and technological matters.

Nature of Science Standards

Enduring Understandings: Essential Questions:

● How matter is transferred from one
organism to another
● The differences in the types of symbiosis
(mutualism, commensalisms, and
parasitism)
● The differences in the different biomes
● How is matter transferred from one organism
to another?
● What are the differences between the types of
symbiosis?
● What are the differences in the different
biomes?

Students will know… (knowledge) Students will be able to… (skills)

● the organisms that are located in the ● tell how the biomes are different
different biomes ● explain the differences of the types of
● the types of symbiosis and how each occurs symbiosis
● the different biomes and the identifying
characteristics of each
Lesson Hook: Students will complete a KWL chart over a food web and biomes.

Common Misconceptions:
● Plants do not depend on other organisms.
● Organisms do not depend on one another.
● Interdependence is primarily predator/prey relationships.
● Systems only exist as parts of an organism or process.
● Ecosystems consist of only a few interactions among living things in an area.

Evidence of Learning

Culminating Performance Assessment: (G.R.A.S.P.)

1. The students will research animals and other organisms living in certain biomes
including the animals’ diets. The students in the groups will create a food web with
the animals or organisms that they have researched. Next, the students will create
costumes and props that are similar to their animals and biomes. The students will
act out the food web in front of the class wearing their own costumes.
2. The students will create a diorama of their chosen biome. Rubrics will be given to
the students.
3. Students will create a bulletin board with pictures of biomes that they find from
various sources.
4. Students will create a huge graphic organizer demonstrating a food web in the
classroom. This will be done as a whole group. The organizer will be placed on the
wall.
Other Evidence:
There will be quizzes and chapter tests.

Plan of Action
Learning Tasks
Day 1
Teacher will read, Who eats What? by Patricia Lauber, over food chains. The students
will then get into groups and decide on which animals they want to act out and have the
students act out a food chain. They can do this by wearing costumes or making puppets.

Day 2
The teacher will read, What is a Biome? by Bobbie Kalman, over biomes. The students
will then draw a biome of their choice. They must follow the rubric that they are given.
(This is found at the end of this unit.)

Day 3
The teacher will read, Lives Intertwined byAllen Young, over biomes and food chains. The
students will create a pathfinder over the different biomes and food chains that would be
present in that biome. I have started one to show them how to complete it. They must
locate and analyze relevant websites for biomes and food chains.

Day 4
Students will complete a quiz over biomes and food chains.

Tasks:
● Students will create graphic organizers and fill them in with the information on biomes.
● Students will create mini drawings of food webs for each biome studied.