Organisms and environments

The student knows that there are relationships, systems, and cycles within environments. The student is expected to:

Observe the way organisms live and survive in their ecosystem by interacting with the living and nonliving components;

Describe the flow of energy within a food web, including the roles of the Sun, producers, consumers, and decomposers;

Predict the effects of changes in ecosystems caused by living organisms, including humans, such as the overpopulation of grazers or the building of highways; and

Identify fossils as evidence of past living organisms and the nature of the environments at the time using models.

The student knows that organisms have structures and behaviors that help them survive within their environments. The student is expected to:

Compare the structures and functions of different species that help them live and survive in a specific environment such as hooves on prairie animals or webbed feet in aquatic animals; and

Differentiate between inherited traits of plants and animals such as spines on a cactus or shape of a beak and learned behaviors such as an animal learning tricks or a child riding a bicycle.