Ecosystems 

Our life and our well-being is greatly determined by the environment that we live in. Any undesirable change in the environment will have some effect on our lives—either directly or indirectly. This module on ecosystems aims at making students explore and answer the following key questions by themselves: “How do we interacting with the biotic and the abiotic factors that we see every day?”; “Are the surroundings really healthy?”; “How do we find out?”; “What is the solution towards a clean environment?”

Learning Objectives:

• To explain the biotic and the abiotic interactions in the ecosystem.
• To discuss about food chains and food webs.
• To design an ecosystem that is healthy and sustainable.

Activity 1

Am I alive?

This activity enables the students to differentiate between biotic and abiotic factors. Such an awareness is essential to understand the structure and the functions of an ecosystem. Worksheet 1—‘Biotic or Not?’—contains a list of components of an ecosystem. This worksheet can be used to check whether the student understands the characteristics of a living thing.

Highlight: The worksheet contains interesting elements, such as soil, curd, log, milk, vegetables, table, virus, feather, etc., which tests the students about their existing notions on living and non-living elements, thereby providing scope for a deeper discussion.

Activity 2

Can we live alone?

This activity focuses on the interdependence between different organisms in the environment. This worksheet contains a picture of a tree interacting with a number of abiotic and biotic factors. The students are required to find these out.

Through this worksheet, the students are provided an opportunity to observe (and imagine), form opinions through interpretations, and justify them. Such activities kindles the spirit of inquiry among children.

Highlight: The worksheet keeps the tree as its centre, and all the interactions listed will be centred around the tree. This can be extended to other micro (e.g. a leaf) or macro (e.g. a farmland) ecosystem scenario as well.

Activity 3

Our friends and foes

This activity is an attempt to make students aware that human beings are a part of the ecosystem, and they are linked to every organism through one way or the other. It aims to make students appreciate the services that the biodiversity renders for our livelihood. This activity encourages the students to connect the dots and arrive at the answer. It also teaches them to observe, relate, and justify their opinions with examples.

Highlight: One set of interactions is indirect, such as that of spider and snake, whereas the other set contains direct interactions, such as that of food, bacteria, etc.

Activity 4

Find our interactions

This activity requires the students to find out about biotic and abiotic elements from a tribal painting and interpret the relationship between the two. This provides the students a platform to understand the purpose of each organism in an ecosystem and the importance of its population in sustaining an ecosystem.

Highlights: The painting has its own way of telling the story of a healthy forest. Hence, the students have to interpret the artist’s way of expressing the message and find a scientific and ecological explanation for each of the interactions that the students find.

Activity 5

How do the wolves change rivers? (PowerPoint of the Video)

This video   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q) talks about how the introduction of wolves changed the landscape of Yellowstone National Park and the vegetation around it. The introduction of the wolves not only changed the living factors, but it also affected some abiotic factors like soil and river as well.

Highlights: The PowerPoint presentation begins with the students brainstorming and discussing about various questions, which are presented in an engaging and visually-appealing form in the video. The narrative is supported with pictorial evidences.