Describe how energy flows through ecosystems, including input and output through food webs.

Students will undertake the data collection stage in small groups/individually. Students are to record data that tells the story of their local ecosystems and make links to local Aboriginal histories, language and culture. The data collection phase and the final site report will need to be submitted as individual submissions through the school portal.
Outcomes
LW2 Conserving and maintaining the quality and sustainability of the environment requires scientific understanding of interactions within, the cycling of matter and the flow of energy through ecosystems.
Students:
a. Recall that ecosystems consist of communities of interdependent organisms and abiotic components of the environment .
b. Outline using examples how matter is cycled through ecosystems such as nitrogen.
c. Describe how energy flows through ecosystems, including input and output through food webs.
d. Analyse how changes in some biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem affect populations and/or communities.
e. Assess ways that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural practices and knowledge of the environment contribute to the conservation and management of sustainable ecosystems.
f. Evaluate some examples in ecosystems, of strategies used to balance conserving, protecting and maintaining the quality and sustainability of the environment with human activities and needs.