Matter & Energy in Organisms & Ecosystems
Unit description: Students explore how energy from the sun is captured and used by plants to survive and to provide food for other living things. They learn how energy from food is used to help animals grow and survive. Students investigate food chains and food webs to learn of the interdependent relationships in ecosystems, how matter cycles, and how energy transfer occurs in an ecosystem.
Download the complete Grade 5 Science Unit 3 framework to customize for your own planning.
Essential Questions and Big Ideas
- How do plants use the sun’s energy to grow and survive?
- The energy released [from] food was once energy from the sun that was captured by plants in the chemical process that forms plant matter (from air and water). (5-PS3-1)
- How do plants and animals use food once it is inside their body?
- Food provides animals with the materials they need for body repair and growth and the energy they need to maintain body warmth and for motion. (secondary to 5-PS3-1)
- Plants acquire their material for growth chiefly from air and water. (5-LS1-1)
- How does an ecosystem stay healthy?
- The food of almost any kind of animal can be traced back to plants. Organisms are related in food webs in which some animals eat plants for food and other animals eat the animals that eat plants. Some organisms, such as fungi and bacteria, break down dead organisms (both plants or plants parts and animals) and therefore operate as “decomposers.” Decomposition eventually restores (recycles) some materials back to the soil. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable web of life. Newly introduced species can damage the balance of an ecosystem. (5-LS2-1)
- Matter cycles between the air and soil and among plants, animals, and microbes as these organisms live and die. Organisms obtain gases, and water, from the environment, and release waste matter (gas, liquid, or solid) back into the environment. (5-LS2-1)