6th Grade Science Guide

6.4: Ecosystems 3 Dimensions & Progressions

Unit 5

Skill Building

Have students create a food chain that also models the amount of energy at each level. For instance, select 100 cm to represent producers and cut a piece of paper 100 cm long. Draw pictures of producers in the strip of paper. Next, students should fgure out what 10% of 100 cm is and then cut their next strip of paper that size to demonstrate primary consumers, and so forth to display an energy accurate food chain. This will allow students to see why so many producers and primary consumers are important to support tertiary consumers.

Extension

Students should research why the Bee population is declining, and then discuss how a declining population is affecting the agriculture and economy of the United States.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

6.4.3 Formative Assessment

ELA CONNECTIONS

● Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.

MATH CONNECTIONS

● Use variables to represent two quantities in a real-world problem that change in relationship to one another; write an equation to express one quantity, thought of as the dependent variable, in terms of the other quantity, thought of as the independent variable. Analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables using graphs and tables, and relate these to the equation.