Ecosystems in Nature

Objectives:

• Students will be able to describe the features of an ecosystem.

• Students will be able to distinguish abiotic and biotic factors in an ecosystem.

• Students will be able to state the roles of consumers, producers and decomposers in an ecosystem.

Suggested Grades:

4th Grade - 5th Grade - 6th Grade

Lesson Procedure:

Print the reading comprehension worksheet passage and questions (see below).

Students should read the passage silently, then answer the questions. Teachers may also use the text as part of a classroom lesson plan.

Lesson Excerpt:

An ecosystem is an area in which living and nonliving things exist together. Every area in nature contains both living and nonliving things. Living things depend on each other and on nonliving things in order to survive. Ecosystems can be very small or very large. For example, a backyard is an ecosystem and so is an entire desert. There are rainforest ecosystems, underwater ecosystems in oceans and lakes and many other ecosystems as well. The city or town that you live in is an ecosystem.

The nonliving things in an ecosystem are known as abiotic factors. The living things are biotic factors. All living things depend on nonliving things like water, minerals, sunlight and air, to survive.

Continued...