Forest Ecosystem Gizmo

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Name: ______________________________________ Date: ________________________

Student Exploration: Forest Ecosystem

Vocabulary: consumer, decomposer, inorganic, organic, organism, population, producer

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

1. When a rancher puts cattle in a pasture, what happens to the amount of grass in it?

The grass will get shorter or disappear since


_________________________________________________________________________

the cows eat the grass


2. If someone adds thousands of small fish to a lake, how would the number of big fish

The population of the big fish will


change? __________________________________________________________________
increase because the big fish eat the little fish
Gizmo Warm-up
The Forest Ecosystem Gizmo shows you the effects of
adding organisms to, or taking them from, a forest. An
organism is any living thing. To start, do the following:
 Click Advance year a couple times to see two
years of growth.
 Remove all Deer from the forest by clicking the
minus (-) button until none remain.
 Click Advance year a couple more times.

1. Select the DATA tab. Select Pictograph and click the Tree to show the size of the tree
population for the past several years.

Tree population will inineas


A. How did removing deer affect the tree population? ___________________________

because no deer are


B. Why do you think this happened? ________________________________________

eating the trees


___________________________________________________________________

2. Under Choose organism, select the Mushroom.

the mushrooms increased


A. How did losing deer affect the mushrooms? ________________________________

Because no deer
B. Explain why this may have happened. ____________________________________

are eating the mushrooms


___________________________________________________________________

2019
Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity A:
 Click Reset.
Trees
 Select the FOREST tab.

Question: What role do trees play in the forest?

1. Form hypothesis: Where do you think trees get the nutrients they need to grow? _________

From soil water


oxygen and sunlight
_________________________________________________________________________

2. Predict: Based on your hypothesis, how will the tree population change if ALL other
organisms (deer, bears, and mushrooms) are removed from the forest?
I thik the trees might decline because
_________________________________________________________________________
whenthoes things die they decomposein the
soiland thats where thetrees get
there nutrients
3. Analyze: Remove ALL organisms except trees. Click Advance year a few times and select
the DATA tab. Was your prediction correct? Explain what you found.

No The tree population did increase


_________________________________________________________________________

and is steady
_________________________________________________________________________

4. Draw conclusions: Substances that contain carbon and are produced by living things are
called organic. Examples of organic materials are sugar, blood, protein, and fat. Other
materials, like water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and ammonia, are called inorganic.

Some living things, called producers, can produce the organic materials they need (like
food) from inorganic matter. All other organisms are consumers; they consume organic
matter since they cannot make it themselves.

Producers
Do your results show you that trees are producers or consumers? Explain. _____________

because they create there own


_________________________________________________________________________

food to survive
_________________________________________________________________________

5. Analyze: Click the FOREST tab. Click the plus (+) button for mushrooms several times.
Click Advance year a few times. Select the DATA tab.

It didn't affect
How did adding mushrooms affect trees? ________________________________________

the trees
6. Extend: The mushrooms thrived without hurting trees. How could this happen? Try for two
possible explanations. Write your ideas in your notebook or on the back of this sheet.

Because trees producers and are

because mushrooms canst eat 2019

trees and
s

Get the Gizmo ready:


Activity B:
 Click Reset.
Bears
 Select the FOREST tab.

Question: How do bears get the nutrients they need to live?

1. Explore: Using the Gizmo, try to figure out what bears depend on for nutrition.

2. Form hypothesis: How do bears get the energy and nutrients they need? _______________

By eating other organisms like


_________________________________________________________________________

the deer
3. Predict: Based on your hypothesis, which population(s) would be hurt if bears were added?

The deer population


_________________________________________________________________________

4. Test: Click Reset. Click Advance year a couple times. Add as many bears to the forest as
possible. Then go forward a couple more years. Select the DATA tab. Which populations
were hurt by adding bears?

The deers population


_________________________________________________________________________

consumers
5. Classify: Are bears producers or consumers? Explain your reasoning. _________________

because they are predators


_________________________________________________________________________

and eat other organisms


_________________________________________________________________________

6. Draw conclusions: An organism that breaks down organic matter into simpler materials (like
carbon dioxide) is called a decomposer. Decomposers absorb nutrients from living things or
the organic matter they leave behind. They do not need to kill to get their food.

NO
Do your results suggest bears are decomposers? Explain your reasoning. ______________

because bears don't nutrients


gain
_________________________________________________________________________

from the soil that have dead plants


_________________________________________________________________________

and animals in it
7. Challenge: Using the Gizmo, figure out what bears prefer to eat most. Write your results and
reasoning in your notebook or on the back of this sheet.

are
Deers because they
carnivores
2019

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