Science Unit 10 Notes

10.1 How do Organisms change with the seasons?

Vocabulary:

1. Dormancy: In a state of rest or inactivity

2. Hibernation: A dormant, inactive state in which normal body activities slow.
3. Migration: The movement of animals from one region to another and back.

Notes:

 During winter, places get less direct sunlight, there are fewer hours of daylight and
temperatures go down.
 During summer, places get more direct sunlight, there are more hours of daylight, and
temperatures go up.
 Seasonal changes in temperature and sunlight affect living things (organisms)
 When a plant is dormant, it does not grow or reproduce. Plants become dormant when
temperatures go down. This helps plants save energy during the winter when there is less
sunlight.
 In spring, when there is more sun and the temperature begins to rise the plant will no longer be
dormant. It starts to produce buds, which will turn into leaves or flowers.
 Flowering plants can grow fruit; the fruit is what allows it to reproduce because fruits have
seeds.
 In summer, temperatures are warmer. Plants continue to grow during the summer.
 In the fall, when the temperature starts to cool down, plants begin getting ready to become
dormant. Their leaves change colors and fall to the ground.
 During the winter, some animals enter hibernation. During hibernation, the heart barely beats,
the body temperature drops, and the body is barely working.
 A hibernating animal does not use much energy and doesn’t need to eat.
 If an animal doesn’t hibernate then they prepare for winter in different ways. Some animals may
change their fur color to blend with its surroundings.
 Other animals take a break from the cold and they migrate. This means they move to a warm
place for the winter.

10.2: How do Organisms obtain and use food?

Vocabulary:

1. Nutrients: The parts of the soil that help plants grow and stay healthy.
2. Producer: A living thing, such as a plant, that can make its own food. (Plants)
 3. Consumer: A living thing that can’t make its own food and must eat other living things. (Animals
and Humans)
4. Energy: The ability to do work and cause changes in matter
5. Photosynthesis: The process that plants use to make sugar
6. Decomposer: A living thing that gets energy by breaking down dead organisms and animal
wastes into simpler substances

Notes:

 Living things need water, shelter, air, and food.

 Plants make their own food; they get their nutrients from the soil.
 Animals cannot make their own food; they get their nutrients from EATING food.
 Food gives living things energy.
 Food is broken down in your body into smaller material that your cells use to help you grow,
move, think, and talk.
 Most plants are producers; they make their own food through photosynthesis.
 During photosynthesis, producers use water, carbon dioxide, and the energy from the sun to
make food.
 Photosynthesis takes place in a plants leaves.
 During photosynthesis, producers give off oxygen.
 Animals and humans are consumers, they eat food for energy. We can eat both plants and
animals for energy.
 Decomposers break down waste to get energy. Worms, crabs, mushrooms, and millipedes
are examples of decomposers. They usually break down dead plant and animal matter.
 Decomposers are known as nature’s recyclers.

10.3 What are Food Chains?

Vocabulary:

1) Food Chain: A series of organisms that depend on one another for food
2) Carnivore: An animal that eats only other animals
3) Food Web: A group of food chains that overlap
4) Herbivore: An animal that eats only plants, or producers
5) Omnivore: An animal that eats both plants and other animals

Notes:

 A food chain shows the transfer of energy in a sequence of living things. The arrows show how
the energy moves.
 Producers always make up the first link of a food chain.
 Consumers eat other living things. They are placed into groups based off of what they eat
(herbivores, omnivores, carnivores)
  Scavengers are consumers that eat dead plants and animals
 You can also group consumers by whether they hunt or are hunted.
 A predator is an animal that hunts other animals.
 An animal that is eaten is called prey.
 Some animals can be both predators and preys.
 Food webs show the relationship among different food webs. They use arrows to show who eats
what.
 Changes in food webs can affect all parts of a food web. For example, if plants die because of
the weather then everything after them in the food web is affected.
 Food webs can be disrupted when one member of the food web goes away or increases in
numbers.
 If food webs are affected then the environment is affected.

10.4 How do Organisms affect their environment?

Vocabulary:

1) Pollution: Waste products that damage an ecosystem

2) Conservation: The preserving and protecting of a resource

Bell Ringer: How can planting a garden on a rooftop help the environment?

Notes:

 Living things can change their environment.

 Plants are helpful to the environment; they provide food, oxygen, and shelter.
 Plants can also harm the environment, some have poison (poison oak) others grow so fast that
they become pests.
 Animals are also helpful for the environment; they provide us with important foods for people
and other animals.
 Animals can change their environment; they can be helpful or harmful.
 People can be harmful to their environment. We can cause pollution by riding buses, cars,
dumping waste, from factories and many other ways.
 People can also be helpful to the environment. We can conserve natural resources. We can
plant new trees and gardens, use less energy, recycle, etc.