This document discusses ecosystems and defines key related terms like population, community, and ecosystem. It explains that a population is one species living in an area, a community is made up of all populations in an area, and an ecosystem includes the interactions between living and non-living elements. The document provides examples of living and non-living parts of a community and how they affect each other, such as buildings driving animals from habitats and pollution impacting all living things. Learners are asked to write a paragraph discussing the effects living and non-living things have on each other using facts from the presentation.

1. Ecosystem

2. Learner Expectations
• Content Standard: Interactions Between
Living Things and Their Environment.
• The student will investigate how living things
interact with one another and with non-living
elements of their environment.
• Learning Expectations:
• 2.1 Investigate the relationships among
organisms in a specific ecosystem.

3. In this activity you will:
• Learn how living things interact
with one another and with non-
living elements of their
environment.
• Write a paragraph using three
facts you learned from this
presentation.

4. What is a Population?
• A population is one species living in
a specific area.
• For example, all foxes living in an
area form a population.
• Another example, all dandelions
growing in an area form another
population.

5. What is a Community?
• A community is formed from all living
populations found in an area.
• All the foxes, dandelions,
grasshoppers, snakes, hawks, deer,
and skunks living in one area each
form their individual populations, but
together make up a community.

6. What is a Ecosystem?
• An ecosystem is formed by the
interactions between all living
and non-living things
• How do living and non-living
things interact in an
environment?

7. What is Ecology?
• Ecology is how living and non-living
things affect each other in their
environment.
• We have already named several
living things found in a community.
Can you name non-living things in
your community?

8. Non-living parts of your
community
• Buildings
• Roads
• Bodies of water
• Automobiles
• Traffic lights

9. How non-living and living
things affect each other
• Building more homes drives many animals
out of their natural habitats or communities.
• Littering can destroy an animals habitat.
• Air pollution from automobiles and factories
will affect the quality of life for all living
things in a community, including people.

10. Writing Activity
• Write a paragraph about the
effects that living and non-living
things have on each other.
Include three facts from this
presentation and one fact that
you discovered on your own.