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PlayOwl

Science · Grade 6

Ecological Relationships and Resource Limits

Learners classify organisms as producers, consumers and decomposers and trace energy and matter through food chains and food webs. They classify competition, predation, mutualism and parasitism across different ecosystems, use population graphs to explain limiting factors and carrying capacity, and run a predator–prey simulation to explain why predator numbers rise and fall after their prey's.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 125 minutes
  • Ecological relationships check: 11 questions
  • Ways to answer: fill in the blanks, choose an answer, estimate, plot points, highlight a text and match pairs
See plans Included with Family, Teacher and School plans. Open in PlayOwl

What learners will discover

  • Classify organisms as producers, consumers and decomposers and trace the flow of energy and matter through food chains and food webs.
  • Identify and explain competition, predation, mutualism and parasitism between organisms in different ecosystems.
  • Use data and population graphs to explain how limiting factors and carrying capacity control population size.
  • Interpret predator–prey data from a simulation, tables and graphs, and predict how a change in one population affects others in a food web.

Lessons

  1. Producers, consumers and decomposers 7 steps4 practiceabout 20 min
  2. Food webs 7 steps4 practiceabout 22 min
  3. How organisms interact 8 steps5 practiceabout 24 min
  4. Limiting factors and carrying capacity 8 steps5 practiceabout 24 min
  5. Predators and prey 8 steps4 practiceabout 24 min
  6. Ecological relationships check 11 questions at the end

Keep exploring

Games to practice with

  • Marble MountainLay straights, curves, drops and splitters to roll marbles down the mountain.
  • Bridge LabBuild a bridge from beams, brace it with triangles, and stay on budget.
  • Circuit Workshop 3DWire up batteries, bulbs and switches on a 3D workbench.

More 6th grade science

Guide for grown-ups