Throughout the unit, students nurture the ecosystems within the ecocolumn, observe change in each environment, and prepare for pollution experiments to determine the effects of pollutants on organisms in an ecosystem. An ecosystem is a community of organisms and its interaction with its environment. Organisms in an ecosystem have dependent and interdependent relationships, which can be illustrated by food webs. Factors that affect growth and reproduction of organisms in an ecosystem include light, water, temperature, and soil. A pollutant is anything that can harm living organisms when too much of it is released into an ecosystem.
Pollution is the condition that results when pollutants interact with the environment.
Students understand the processes of scientific investigation and design, conduct, communicate about, and evaluate such investigations. Students know and understand the characteristics and structure of living things, the process of life, and how living things interact with each other and their environment. Students know and understand interrelationships among science, technology, and human activity and how they can effect the world. Students understand that science involves a particular way of knowing and understand common connections among scientific disciplines. In the Ecosystems kit, assessment is an ongoing, integral part of instruction.