Week 5: Ecosystems

 1. What did you learn this week? 

   This week I learned about ecosystems, and how the living and nonliving things within those communities interact and survive. More specifically, we dug into NGSS Standard 3.LS2-1 and used google slides to develop a model to represent a food chain in a chosen biome. Not only did this activity teach me more about life cycles, but it also gave an example of how I can use a model in my future classroom. 

2. What parts did you find clear and which were confusing?

    I found the parts about the function of the food chain, and how the producer is the first step and each subsequent consumer get's energy from the one before it. I am still confused on the transfer of energy, and why each consumer releases heat energy during their metabolic process. 

3. What are new or remaining questions? 

    How does the release of heat energy impact the ecosystem or food chain? What are other ways that we can model ecosystems and their functions in the classroom?