Lesson 5 — Living and Nonliving: An Ecosystem Web

Summary

An ecosystem is everything — living and nonliving — in a place, and they all depend on one another. Learners sort the parts into living (a plant, a worm, a fish, a bird) and nonliving (soil, water, sunlight, air), then build a string web that shows the dependence: the plant needs soil, water, sunlight, and air; the animal needs the plant and the water; the worm returns life to the soil. Take one part away and the whole web pulls. Learners see that a worm and a river are as vital as a lion.

Objectives

• Explain how living and nonliving things in an ecosystem depend on each other (such as soil, water, and sunlight). (D06.S2.04.02)

Connection

Think of the place where you live — a field, a garden, a riverbank, a city park. The plants there do not grow alone. They need sunlight to make food, water to drink, soil to stand in, and air to breathe. The animals need the plants and the water. And when living things die, tiny living things and soil break them down so new plants can grow. That is an ecosystem — living and nonliving things depending on each other, the way the people in a village depend on the well, the soil, and each other. Pull out one part and everyone notices.

Materials

• Ecosystem picture cards (Sun, water, soil, air, a plant, a worm, a fish, a person or bird)
• A ball of string
• Paper and crayons

Preparation

• Prepare and shuffle the picture cards.
• Clear a circle of floor or ground for the string web.
• Keep a large sheet ready to draw the finished web together.

Facilitator note

This lesson is written to the learner (“you”). Teach with a worked example — model one connection (“the plant depends on sunlight”) — then let learners build the web together (guided practice) before drawing their own. The central value: an ecosystem is a circle of dependence, not a ladder; the nonliving parts — soil, water, sunlight, air — are not “background” but full partners in keeping life alive (the egalitarian, ethics, and environment lenses). Use ecosystems from many places — a rice paddy, a coral reef, a desert, a forest — so no single landscape is the default (global lens). This is evidence from ecology, gathered by observing many places over many years; hold it with wonder and care. The web activity doubles as a kinesthetic and social lesson: everyone holds the string, and everyone matters.

Procedure

1. Gather and remember (5 min). Yesterday you saw how an animal’s body parts help it survive. But an animal never survives alone. Today: who does everything depend on?
2. Sort living and nonliving (10 min). An ecosystem is all the living and nonliving things in a place. Sort the cards: which are living (they grow, move, and need food)? Which are nonliving (soil, water, sunlight, air)? Say each name as you sort.
3. Build the web (15 min). Hold the cards in a circle. Pass the string from each thing to what it depends on: the plant to the sunlight, the plant to the water, the plant to the soil; the worm to the plant; the fish to the water; the bird to the fish. Say each connection aloud.
4. Feel the web (10 min). Everyone pulls gently on the string. Now imagine one part is gone — the water dries up, or the soil washes away. Let that part drop the string. What happens to the web?
5. Close (5 min). Living and nonliving things depend on each other. Every part of the web matters — the soil and the sunlight as much as the lion. Tomorrow you will draw your own ecosystem.

Differentiation

• Support: Sort just three cards — one living, two nonliving — and say who depends on whom with a partner.
• Support (non-speaking): Pass the string from a living card to a nonliving card it needs; a partner names the connection.
• Support (blind/low-vision): Feel soil, water, and a leaf, and describe what each gives to a plant; build the web by passing the string and listening for names.
• Extension: Choose a second ecosystem (a desert or an ocean) and tell how its living and nonliving parts depend on each other differently.

Assessment

• Formative (observation): Can the learner name one nonliving thing a plant depends on and one living thing that depends on the plant?
• Artifact (portfolio): The learner’s ecosystem web drawing with living and nonliving parts labeled, kept for the unit portfolio.

Home connection

At home, find one small ecosystem with a grown-up — a windowsill plant, a garden patch, or a puddle — and name two living and two nonliving things in it and how they depend on each other.

Resources

• BBC Bitesize (KS2 Science), “How do ecosystems work?” — living and nonliving things in a habitat and how they depend on each other. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z6wwxnb/articles/zbd4g7h