Learning Standards

Students will:

• discuss how human decisions and activities have had a profound impact on the physical and living environment;
• value how living things, including humans, depend upon the living and nonliving environment for their survival;
• list and give examples of all individuals of a species that are found together at a given place and time;
• describe how the community and the physical factors interact compose an ecosystem.

 

New York State Standards

Level: Intermediate (7-8)

New York State learning Standard: MST

Area: Science

Content Standard: Content (4)

Area of Study: Living Environment

Key Idea 6: Plants and animals depend on each other and their physical environment.

Performance Indicator
1) describe how plants and animals, including humans, depend upon each other and the nonliving environment.
2) describe the relationship of the sun as an energy source for living and nonliving cycles.

Key Idea 7: Human decisions and activities have had a profound impact on the physical and living environment.

Performance Indicator
1) identify ways in which humans have changed their environment and the effects of those changes.

Level: Commencement (9th, Living Environment)

New York State learning Standard: MST

Area: Science

Content Standard: Content (4)

Area of Study: Living Environment

Key Idea 6: Plants and animals depend on each other and their physical environment.

Major Understandings
6.3a The interrelationships and interdependencies of organisms affect the development of stable ecosystems.

Key Idea 7: Human decisions and activities have had a profound impact on the physical and living environment.

Major Understandings
7.1c Human beings are part of the Earth's ecosystems. Human activities can, deliberately or inadvertently, alter the equilibrium in ecosystems. Humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, consumption, and technology. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems may be irreversibly affected.

National Standards

Level: Intermediate (7-8)

Area: Science

Content Standard: C

POPULATIONS AND ECOSYSTEMS

• A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time. All populations living together and the physical factors with which they interact compose an ecosystem.
• Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in an ecosystem. Plants and some micro-organisms are producers--they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
  
  

Level: Intermediate (9-12)

Area: Science

Content Standard: C

THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF ORGANISMS

• Organisms both cooperate and compete in ecosystems. The interrelationships and interdependencies of these organisms may generate ecosystems that are stable for hundreds or thousands of years.
• Living organisms have the capacity to produce populations of infinite size, but environments and resources are finite. This fundamental tension has profound effects on the interactions between organisms.
• Human beings live within the world's ecosystems. Increasingly, humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, technology, and consumption. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors is threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems will be irreversibly affected.

 

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Updated: February 22, 2008
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