Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Lesson 1 Organisms and Their Needs

Vocabulary:

Interdependence: dependence among organisms

o Depend on others for survival

Adaptation: A structure or behavior that helps an organism live

and reproduce in a particular environment

Notes:
4 Basic Needs of All Organisms

Water: every cell needs water to maintain its shape

Air (oxygen):
o animals need oxygen for chemical reactions to take place that
release energy
o plants need CO2 to carry out photosynthesis
Food: provides organisms with the energy that they need to
survive and maintain structure
Right Environment: organisms must live in a place that has the
conditions they need to survive

3 Factors of the Right Environment

Temperature
Shelter
Space

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Lets Practice
Use the word bank to fill in the blank.
1. The dependence among organisms in order to survive is called
interdependence.

2. The 4 basic needs of all organisms are water, food, air and
environment.
3. Adaptation is the behavior that helps an organism live and
reproduce in a particular environment.
4. The three factors of the right environment are temperature,
space and shelter.

Water

Environment

Temperature

Food

Interdependence

Space

Air

Adaptation

Shelter

True or false.
1. The right environment for polar bears is the jungle. False
2. We need our cell phone in order to survive. False
3. If we do not have food, water, air and the right environment we will not
survive after a certain amount of time. True
4. The three factors needed for the right environment are temperature,
space and internet. False

Lesson 2 Staying Balanced

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Vocabulary:

Homeostasis: the tendency of an organism to regulate its OWN

body conditions to maintain good health
o (H is for health! Homeostasis =good health)

Endothermic: organisms like humans and cats are warm-blooded

and use heat produced by their own bodies to stay warm

Ectothermic: organisms like snakes and lizards use the heat from
their environment

Notes:
Endothermic vs Ectothermic

enDOthermic: warm-blooded organisms that DO the heating

or cooling to maintain homeostasis
ecTOthermic: go TO their environment to find regulate their
body temperature

How Mammals Maintain Homeostasis

When it is cold outside, we shiver, which produces heat to

warm our bodies.
When it is hot outside, we sweat to maintain homeostasis

How Reptiles and Amphibians Maintain Homeostasis

Basking: to stay warm the amphibians will lay on sunny rocks
that the amphibian will then receive heat from both the rock
and the sun
When it is hot, they will find wet, shady and cool rocks to
bring their temperature down and keep cool

Lets Practice
Use the vocabulary to help find the correct match!

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Homeostasis
Organisms like humans and
dogs are warm-blooded and
use heat produced by their
own bodies to stay warm

Endothermic

Organisms like snakes and

lizards use the heat from their
environment to maintain
homeostasis

Ectothermic
Endothermic organisms do
this to stay warm when it is
cold outside.

Shivering

Sweating

Basting

Vocabulary:

Ectothermic amphibians and

reptiles lay on rocks to warm
their bodies when it is cold
outside.

The tendency of an organism

to regulate its OWN body
condition to maintain good
health.

Endothermic organisms do
this to cool their bodies down
when it is hot outside.

Lesson 3 Responses

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Stimulus: a change in the environment that causes an
organism to change its behavior
Response: the way an organism changes behavior or
reacts to a change in the environment
Lets Practice!

Stimulus

Response

A swarm of bees flying

toward you
You begin to sweat
A bear runs toward you
You begin to shiver
You begin to feel thirsty

Lesson 4- Ecosystems
Vocabulary
Ecosystem: a community or group of organisms living and interacting
with each other and their environment

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Biotic factors: all of the living things in the ecosystem
Abiotic factors: all of the non-living things in the ecosystem
Habitiat: the place an organism lives

Notes
Lets put biotic and abiotic into perspective into our environment!
Our Home
Abiotic Factors: windows, doors, rooms (non-living
factors of your environment)
Biotic Factors: you, your family, your pets (living
parts of your environment)
Lets Practice
Write A for Abiotic or B for Biotic for an elephants environment.

1.Sunlight: A
2.Water: A
3.Animals: B
4.Rain: A
5.Plants: B

Lesson 5- Populations
Vocabulary

Population: a group of individuals of the same species that exist

together at a given place and time
Population density: the number of individuals of a population in a
defined area
Population size: the number of individuals in a population

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Carrying capacity: the maximum size of a population that a

particular environment can support
Community: all of the populations living and interacting within a
specific environment
Exponential growth: a growth pattern in which a population
doubles at regular intervals
Ecologist: a scientist who studies how living things relate to each
other and their environments

Notes:

How do you calculate population density?

Population Density= the number of individual (n)/area
Example:
If an ecologist finds 50 frogs in a 25 square meter pond, what is the density
of the frog population in the pond?
Show work: D=n/area
D=50 frogs/25m2
D=2 frogs/m2
There are about 2 frog per square meter in the pond.

Lets Practice
Circle the carrying capacity of a population on this graph.

Lesson 6- Cycles in Nature

Vocabulary
Cycle: something that happens over and over in the same way
Water cycle: water is cycled through the environment falling as
liquid and then evaporating as a gas.
Carbon Cycle: carbon moves back and forth between the nonliving
environment and the organic molecules found in organisms.

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Nitrogen cycle: the movement of nitrogen from the atmosphere to
living organisms and back to the atmosphere

Carbon Cycle

Water Cycle
Cycle

Nitrogen

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Lesson 7 Energy
Vocabulary

Carnivore: an animal that eats other animals

Consumer: an organism that eats other organisms
Food chain: one pathway of producing and consuming food in an
ecosystem
Herbivore: an animal that eats only plants
Producer: plants and other photosynthetic organisms that produce
glucose
Scavenger: an animal that eats dead plants and animals
Trophic level: a producing or feeding level in a food chain

Notes
The energy from all ecosystems comes from the sun.
Trophic means feeding
Trophic Levels

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

1st level: Producer (greatest amount of energy)

2nd Level: Herbivore
3rd Level: 1st level of Carnivores
4th Level: 2nd level of Carnivores
5th Level: Scavengers
6th Level: decomposers

Lets

Practice!

Label the
organisms
below in
the food
chain as a consumer or producer (C or P). Also label as a
herbivore, carnivore or scavenger (H, C or S)

True or False.

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

1. A herbivore eats other animals. False
2. A scavenger eats dead plants and animals. True
3. Trophic means trophy. False
4. A carnivore is an animal that eats other animals. True

Lesson 9 and 10: Cell Division and Mitosis

Vocabulary
Food chain: single pathway of energy
Food web: all of the interconnected food chains within an
ecosystem
o Think of a spider web that has all different directions
and lines through it all leading back to the starting
point
Notes
The arrows that are shown in a food web diagram point in
the direction the energy is flowing (Prey to the predator)
If the population of one species within a food web is
changed, it affects ALL other parts of the food web.
Lets Practice!
Using the diagram below answer the questions that follow.

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

1. Three things that eat the oak tree are:

a. Caterpillar
b. Deer
c. Squirrel
2. The red tailed hawk eats squirrels.

3. If the songbird population in the above food web died:

a. The fox population would (increase or decrease) due to
lack of food.

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

b. The caterpillar population would (increase or decrease)
since the songbirds are not eating them.

Lesson 12: Competitive Relationships

Vocabulary
Predator: an animal that eats another animal
Prey: an animal that is eaten by another animal
Notes
Competition
Organisms compete for resources.
Competition will begin a rivalry between individuals who
want/need a particular resource such as:
1. Food
2. Water
3. Light
4. Mates

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Competition can take place within a population if there
are more individuals than an area can support. (Two lions
competing for the same mate)
Competition can take place between members of
different populations. (Trees competing for sunlight)
Two advantages of competition:
o Limits population growth so that environmental
resources are not used up.
o Gets ride of sick/weaker members of a population,
keeping that population healthy and strong.

Lets Practice!
Which animal is the prey? Which animal is the predator?

Owl= Predator
Mouse=Prey

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Bear= Predator
Fish=Prey

Tigers= Predator
Deer=Prey
Lesson 13 Cooperative Relationships
Vocabulary
Commensalism: a symbiotic relationship in which one
participant benefits from the relationship and the other is
neither harmed nor hurt
Mututalism: a symbotic relationship in which both
participants benefit from the relationship
Parasitism: a symbotic relationship in which on
participant benefits from the relationship and the other is
harmed
Symbosis: a relationship between organisms of two
different species living in direct contact with one another

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

Notes
A symbiotic relationship is a close relationship between
two species.
There are three types of symbiotic relationships
Commensalism: one person benefits but neither
are hurt or harms
Mutualism: both species benefit from the
relationship
Parasitism: one species benefits and the other is
harmed or hurt

Lets Practice!
Write M, P or C next to each picture for commensalism,
mutualism or parasitism.

Life Science Unit 5: Interdependence of Life

These small birds (cattle

egrets) eat insects that the
horses kick up in the grass.
The egrets benefits while the
buffalo is not affected by this
relationship. Only one benefits
from this relationship.

The butterfly is receiving a

benefit from the flower in the
form of food and the flower is
receiving a benefit from the
butterfly because it transports
pollen from flower to flower.
Both species are benefiting
from this relationship.

Mistletoe lives on trees and

gets its nutrients from them.
Mistletoe hurts the tree by
taking the nutrients from the
tree that it needs to grow. The
Mistletoe benefits and the tree
is harmed.