Question

directions: follow the instructions to go through the simulation. respond to the questions and prompts in the orange boxes.
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?
2. if someone adds thousands of small fish to a lake, how would the number of big fish change?

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

Explanation:

1. Cattle are consumers that eat grass. When cattle are put in a pasture, they will consume the grass, so the amount of grass will decrease.
2. Small fish are a food - source for big fish. Adding thousands of small fish to a lake provides more food for big fish, which may lead to an increase in the number of big fish due to better nutrition and higher survival and reproduction rates.

Answer:

1. The amount of grass decreases.
2. The number of big fish may increase.