Instructional Material

INTERACTIONS WITHIN ECOSYSTEMS

Subject: Science 7
Time Allotment: 8 hours
Objectives:
-differentiate biotic from abiotic components of an ecosystem

-describe the different ecological relationships found in an ecosystem

-predict the effect of changes in one population on other populations in the ecosystem

ACTIVITY 1: What Does It Mean to Be Alive?

(Bring the class to a chosen place near the school where there are more vegetation. OR Ask each group
to choose a place where there is more vegetation within the school.)

Distribute the checklist of questions to be answered by each group.

QUESTIONS: ANSWERS
1. What are the things that you see in your respective
area?
2. Which of these things are living?
3. Which are non-living?
4. Look at the things that you have identified as living.
What do they have in common?
5. Observe the things that you identified as nonliving.
What do they have in common?
6. What interactions do you observe happening among
the living and non-living things?
7. What makes living things different from non-living
things?

(Bring the class to the riprap near the Science Room or behind the academic building where there are
small plants stuck on the rocks.)

8. What do you see on the rocks?

9. Where do you usually find these rocks that are
inhabited by these organisms?
10. Why do find them in these places?

(Back at the classroom, process the answers of the different groups.)

Make a chart of the living and non-living things.
VOCABULARY: Introduce the terms BIOTIC and ABIOTIC

ACTIVITY 2: [Let students imagine the Balas-iyan River/Present pictures/Watch a video of a particular
ecosystem (Choose one which was taken in the locality)]

PAIRWORK: Create a chart of the biotic and abiotic parts of that particular
ecosystem.
Which is more important - biotic or abiotic parts of the ecosystem? Why?

ACTIVITY 3: BIOTIC ROLES

Sort the following organisms below according to the work they do then think of
Headings that will suit the job they do.

Moss (lumot) houseflies

ants mosquitoes
bacteria mold
bats (liplipot) mushrooms
beetles (abeb/ses-eetan) pine
serpent eagle (koling) raspberries
civet (motit) eel (dalit)
deer (ugsa) paltat (catfish species)
dragonflies (soyaw/galgal- “wading”
adan/kallipatong/)
Spiders (kawa)
earthworms
squirrels (alimaong)
grass
termites (aney)
(Discussion: What types of headings did students come up with? Process the answers of the learners
and organize their answers as to how scientists give names to the groups they have come up with. (For
example, organisms that eat other animals are carnivores), other terms: herbivores, omnivores,
consumers, producers, decomposers (note: expound more on carnivore, herbivore and about
consumers – want to get to consumers, producers and decomposers).

VOCABULARY: Consumers, Producers, Decomposers

ACTIVITY 4: INTERACTIONS IN AN ECOSYSTEM

Demonstrate interactions among organisms in this game.

Materials: cards with a component of an ecosystem written in it; 2 meters string

Procedure:

 Choose a card/component which you will represent in an ecosystem and pick a string.
 One at a time, read your card and give the other end of your string to an organism that you have
an interaction with.
 After all are linked, find out which organisms are holding the most strings and which the least.

Generalization/Conclusion:

What have you observed about the result of your game?

(Predators will have the least, producers and decomposers the most.)

ACTIVITY 5:
ESSAY/COMPOSITION WRITING:
@Think of our school or community – what happens to the waste that nobody wants? Suggest
ways by which the school/community can dispose its waste.@What wastes are produced in nature?
How does nature get rid of waste? - Dead animals, dead plants, leaves, manure.