Pupil and parent learning sheet Week beginning: 27 th April 2020 This week's work for Year 8 Geography is an introduction to Life on Earth. By the end of this week, you should be able to: 1. Discover the names of some animals that live in the UK. 2. Use the internet to help try and identify some plants and animals 3. Describe how plants and animals interact with each other. 4. Find out more about an ecosystem. Your work this week will include the following activities: (You do not need to print any resources!) • Using your amazing observation skills to identify plants and animals. • Thinking about how to identify plants and animals. • Reading or researching more about Biomes and Life on Earth. If you complete all your work to a high standard, you may also want to explain the challenges facing Biomes around the world. For extra help with Geography learning, you may also want to look at the links on different slides.
Transcript
Pupil and parent learning sheet
Week beginning: 27th April 2020This week's work for Year 8 Geography is an introduction to Life on Earth.
By the end of this week, you should be able to: 1. Discover the names of some animals that live in the UK.2. Use the internet to help try and identify some plants and animals3. Describe how plants and animals interact with each other. 4. Find out more about an ecosystem.
Your work this week will include the following activities: (You do not need to print any resources!)• Using your amazing observation skills to identify plants and animals.• Thinking about how to identify plants and animals.• Reading or researching more about Biomes and Life on Earth.
If you complete all your work to a high standard, you may also want to explain the challenges facing Biomes around the world.
For extra help with Geography learning, you may also want to look at the links on different slides.
Can you identify these living things?
1 2 3
54 6
Answers, how many did you get right?
1 2 3
54 6
Badger
DeerFoxDaffodil
Oak TreeBlack Bird
Bronze: You can identify living organisms, possibly naming some.
Silver: You can identify at least 15 living organisms, naming some
Gold: You can identity a range or organisms, dividing them into animals (Fauna) and plants (Flora)
Diamond:You build on Gold and identify most organisms
TASK:Use the image on the next slide and on a piece of paper list what you can find – you may want to draw the table on slide six to help record your ideas
Links that may help you identify organisms or give you extra information about animals should you want to find out more:
List as many things as you can from the image you have been given which
are living and non living - can you give names to species not just the type
of species. Bronze: You can identify living organisms, possibly naming some.
Silver: You can identify at least 15 living organisms, naming some
Gold: You can identity a range or organisms, dividing them into animals (Fauna) and plants (Flora)
Diamond:You build on Gold and identify most organisms
Question Answer
What is an Ecosystem?
What is the term for living organisms?
What is the term for non-living things?
What is the term for animals?
What is the term for plants?
Using what you have studied from the previous tasks, answer the questions below.
A simple food chain…
What does this diagram show?
Which way does energy move?
What happens to energy as it moves?
Food webs
Study the food web, some arrows are missing, make a copy of the diagram (you can just use the names if you want) and add in some more links (arrows), some organisms have more than one arrow going to or from them
Challenge: Can you extend your diagram add more organisms to the food web?
Food web challenge. Which answers can you get? Choose a medal to have a go at (you do not need to do all of them!)
Bronze: Look at the food web. If all the foxeswere wiped out, what might happen to the number of wood mice? Explain why.
Silver: What could then happen to the food chain because of your answer to the bronze question? Explain why.Look at the food web again. What would happen to the number of shrews if all the owls were wiped out. Explain why.
Gold: All ecosystems depend on the sun. To what extent do you agree with this statement?Explain what your decision is; yes/or no.Use features; animals, food chains, food web of the oak wood ecosystem to help you explain your decision.
Well done on your work so far!
• Now may be a good time to take a break from this week’s Geography work and try something different!
• If you do take a break, remember to keep your work safe for finishing at a different time this week!
Watch the clips about Ecosystems. This YouTube clip is a good starting point –https://youtu.be/GWlPYupCT48Afterwards, try to answer some of these questions (if someone in your home has watched with you, you could try testing them!)• Which two things interact in an ecosystem?• Give examples of living and non-living things that interact in an ecosystem.• Can a puddle be an ecosystem?• When an ecosystem is as large as a rainforest, what is the term used to
describe it? _ _ _ _ _• What have animals in the desert had to do to survive with very little water?• Why do snakes tend to be larger in tropical rainforest?• Why isn’t the soil in the rainforest very rich in nutrients?• What two things do some animals do in deciduous forests to help cope with
the winter?• Can you think of any other ecosystems or biomes?(Answer are on slide 16! Try to have a go before looking!)
If you can't get to access the clip, there is helpful information on the next two slides.
What is an Ecosystem?: An ecosystem is made up of all of the living and non-living things in an area. This includes all of the plants, animals, and other living things that make up the communities of life in an area. An ecosystem also includes non-living materials—for example, water, rocks, soil, and sand.
Size of Ecosystems: Ecosystems have no particular size. An ecosystem can be as large as a desert or a lake or as small as a tree or a puddle. If you have a terrarium (a glass container with plants in it), that is an artificial ecosystem. The water, water temperature, plants, animals, air, light and soil all work together.
Ecosystem or Biome? Biomes are very large areas of vegetation that include several living organisms making up various different ecosystems. There is almost always more than one ecosystem to be found in a single biome. A biome is actually the largest living unit that can be found on the earth and can cover a significant portion of a continent.
Living in Ecosystems: Many plants and animals live in ecosystems. They have had to adapt to living in these places. Animals in deserts have adapted to live with very little water – some get all their water from the food they eat. In rainforests animals and plants tend to be bigger than in other places. For example snakes are bigger as there is a lot more food for them to catch and eat. In Tropical Rainforests, despite all the rich plant and animal life the soils are very poor in nutrients as the plants take the nutrients up very quickly otherwise all the rain washes them away.
Life in Temperate Deciduous Forest (this is what we live in): In Deciduous Forest, the weather changes in four seasons a year – Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn – cold, hot, wet, dry are all words commonly used to describe our weather. Animals have had to adapt to this changing weather. Some animals hibernate through the winter – this means they sleep through the winter – for example bats, hedgehogs and door mice. Other animals migrate – this means they either leave the UK for the winter or arrive here for the winter. Those leaving usually fly south – swallows and sky larks. Those arriving here come from the Arctic – Brent Geese, Redwing.
Other Biomes: The map on the next slide will help you identify some other Biomes:
Have a look at these answers - how many did you get?• Which two things interact in an ecosystem? Living and non living things.• Give examples of living and non-living things that interact in an ecosystem.
(animals and plants are living, and soil and the weather are non living)• Can a puddle be an ecosystem? Yes! Although it is a very small one!)• When an ecosystem is as large as a rainforest, what is the term used to
describe it? Biome• What have animals in the desert had to do to survive with very little water?
They keep water in their bodies or get it from the food they eat.• Why do snakes tend to be larger in tropical rainforest? They eat lots!• Why isn’t the soil in the rainforest very rich in nutrients? There are so many
plants that the nutrients get used up quickly.• What two things do some animals do in deciduous forests to help cope with
the winter? They migrate (travel elsewhere) or hibernate.• Can you think of any other ecosystems or biomes? Two examples are Grassland
and Savanna!
Parts of an ecosystem
There are different types of organisms that make up an ecosystem. Try to match the term with the meaning:
Omnivorean animal adapted to eating plant material to grow and get energy
Carnivoreproduces food through photosynthesis
Herbivorean animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter.
Produceran animal that eats mainly other animals, whether through predation or scavenging.
Parts of an ecosystem
These are the answers – how many did you get right?
Omnivorean animal adapted to eating plant material to grow and get energy
Carnivoreproduces food through photosynthesis
Herbivorean animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter.
Produceran animal that eats mainly other animals, whether through predation or scavenging.
Our ecosystem
MAKE A PREDICTIONWhich biome do you think the UK belongs to?Look at the next slide to find the answer....
Our ecosystem – the answer
The UK belongs to the temperate deciduous forest ecosystem.
Deciduous means the trees lose their leaves in Autumn – when it gets cold, so significant temperature changes happen in this part of the world. Most trees in the UK are deciduous, but there are coniferous trees too which keep their leaves all year round.
5000 years ago, most of the UK was covered in great deciduous forests. It would still be like that if no-one lived here. Over the centuries however we humans have cut down the forests for wood and to build villages, towns, cities etc. Now there are not many forests left.
What do different ecosystems look like? Take a look at this clip for inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIy0ZlyPPDg&list=PLmqecn8eUvFzeWKr3Kc21FG
Choose any one of the major ecosystems. Describe its distribution (location) using the structure below. You will need to look back at the ecosystem map. Be careful not to get the tropical rainforest and chaparral mixed up.
Bronze: Make a General Comment – Where is the ecosystem generally located (use compass directions North, East, South and West)?
Silver: Give Specific Examples – Which continents is it on? Is it near the coast or inland?
Gold: Any Exceptions? - Are there any exceptions to the general pattern you described? Does the ecosystem appear where you don’t expect it to?
Challenge: do the same for a contrasting (opposite type of ecosystem).
Our ecosystem – the answer
Project task
Create a fact file poster or even a mini project if you like! for at least two biomes, one must be aquatic (water) and one must be terrestrial (land). By the way, you can do more than 2 if you would like!
Use this website to focus your research: http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/index.html
For each biome you should include:•Climate; temperature and rainfall•Specific plants and animals and how they have adapted to their environment.CHALLENGE: Include what challenges are facing your biomes – the plastic problem? Too much tourism? • You could create this however you like – a poster, a project it is up to you – be
creative!• You could even get all David Attenborough and present your work to the other
people in your house – like an episode of Planet Earth – Ipsley Edition!
Go to the BBC Bitesize website – this will give you more information about ecosystems and you can also test yourself – GOOD LUCK! https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zh2p34j/revision/1
