Ecology
Course Description
During this course students will gain a deep understanding about the delicate interrelationships that exist between the living and the nonliving components of an ecosystem. They will study positive and negative impacts caused by human activities and learn to be stewards of their own communities.
By the end of this course you will be able to…
- discuss characteristics all living things share and explain why these characteristics are essential to life.
- explain the role each process has in maintaining homeostasis and support a claim about living things using reasoning and evidence.
- describe some characteristics of each kingdom and organize the levels of classification in order from the most general to most specific.
- use a dichotomous key to sort and classify a group of organisms.
- Identify levels of organization within an ecosystem.
- give specific examples how ecosystems are organized and can explain the niche of a species.
- identify how energy is transferred in an ecosystem using a food chain and food web and give examples of symbiotic relationships that occur between species.
- explain what happens to the amount of energy available at each trophic level and explain why chemicals become more concentrated as they move through a food chain.
- explain how limiting factors can affect the size of populations within an ecosystem.
- identify some problems humans cause and recommend actions to improve the environment.
- identify the main parts of the carbon, water and nitrogen cycles and explain the role bacteria on the roots of plants have in the nitrogen cycle.
- describe causes of each type of succession and compare the time it takes for each to reach a climax community.
