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6th grade · Science · Unit 7 of 9

Ecosystems

Living and non-living parts

What your child practices

Biotic and abiotic parts of an ecosystem, how they interact, and the limiting factors and carrying capacity that decide how many organisms an ecosystem can support.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 6.L2U1.13 · the interdependence of organisms and their environment

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Biotic parts are living (plants, animals). Abiotic parts are non-living (water, wind, rocks, temperature).
  2. A limiting factor keeps a population from growing, like food, water or nesting sites.
  3. When a population outgrows its food, some starve and numbers drop.
  4. A change in one part, like an invasive plant, can affect many others.

Example: Is sunlight biotic or abiotic? Sunlight is not alive. Answer: abiotic

Ecosystems in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 7 of 9 in 6th grade Science, after Solar System Tour and before Food Chains & Energy.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Arizona Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A beaver builds a dam and floods a meadow. What does this show?

    • Producers have eaten the consumers
    • Energy is created by animals
    • A living thing can change the non-living parts of its ecosystem
    • Only abiotic factors can change an ecosystem

  2. Question 2

    Why can a small pond support fewer fish than a large lake?

    • Fish need less food in ponds
    • Pond fish are always larger
    • It has less space, food and dissolved oxygen
    • Ponds have no producers

  3. Question 3

    What is a habitat?

    • The energy from the Sun
    • A group of the same species
    • The place where an organism lives and finds what it needs
    • The food an organism eats

  4. Question 4

    Which is a biotic limiting factor for a population of rabbits?

    • the hours of daylight
    • the amount of rainfall
    • predators such as foxes
    • the air temperature

  5. Question 5

    A deer population grows larger than its food supply. What is most likely to happen next?

    • The deer stop needing food
    • The population keeps rising forever
    • The food supply grows to match the deer
    • Some deer starve and the population drops

  6. Question 6

    An invasive plant crowds out native plants. Why does this change the ecosystem?

    • The abiotic parts of the ecosystem disappear
    • Invasive plants never compete with others
    • Native plants gain more sunlight
    • Native plants lose light, space and nutrients, and the animals that eat them may be affected

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