1. Organisms to Ecosystems
Unit 5: Biological Systems Assessed by Teresa Greer
Start date: September 1st 2008 Hand in date: November 7th 2008
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to give students the opportunity to look into the relation-
ships in the world around them and a chance to look at their own relationships with their
world
In this assignment students will look at the following:
✓ The way organisms are classified and why they need to be classified
✓ The relationships between organisms in a specific environment
✓ The impact man has on his environment
Scenario
You are working on an environmental awareness campaign for Haringey. Your job is to
prepare an information and awareness pack that would be suitable for distribution to local
schools and youth groups in and around Tottenham.
In order to achieve this you will need to be able to show the variety of organisms there are
to find locally and how they relate to each other in their natural environment. You will
then examine the way that man impacts on his environment, the affects he has in the short
term and be able to show data that relates to how man affects his environment in the long
term.
The awareness packs should be fun, colourful and informative for younger and older
students alike.
Task one (this provides evidence for P1)
Part one: Identification keys.
Key one: We will be going on a visit to Hackney City Farm where they have a number of
different animals in their care. One of the animals that comes in the widest variety is the
chickens! There are at least five different breed of chicken at Hackney City Farm and in
order to know which is which your task is to produce a simple identification key for the
following breeds:
Bantam Black Rock Brahma
Rhode Island Red Sussex
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2. Organisms to Ecosystems
You will be given a brief description of each of the breeds. You should pick out the key
characteristics and make an illustrated identification key that highlights those characteris-
tics that are unique to each chicken. You can either draw your own illustrations or find the
pictures online. However, your guide should not have any pictures of an entire chicken.
This would be cheating! due
date October 8th
Key Two: The second identification key you will make will be of trees. Bruce Castle Park
houses some historically significant and very old trees. There are at least ten different va-
rieties in the park and we will go on a tree-trail to see how many we can identify. Your task
is to produce an identification key for each of these ten varieties before we go on the hunt,
and then collect as much evidence as possible for these trees being in Bruce Castle Park.
Cork Screw Cedar of Indian Bean Horse Chestnut Oak
Willow Lebanon Tree
Copper Beech Yew Silver Birch London Plane Sycamore
due date October 15th
Part two: An Illustrated Guide to Classification
1. Classification Booklet
Living things is the title given to all the organisms that cover this planet, but how to we de-
termine between them and figure out who is related to whom? This is where classification
becomes important. We have already looked at how an individual species characteristics
make it different from other species, now we are going to look at what groups of organ-
isms have in common and create an Illustrated Guide to Classification.
The five kingdoms.
Historically all living things have been categorised into five kingdoms; Monera, Protista,
Animals, Plants and Fungi. The introduction to your illustrated guide should contain the
following for each kingdom
1.An image of a named example of an organism from each kingdom
2.A Brief description of the general characteristics of all organisms found in that kingdom
Animals
Create a mind map on bubbl.us that shows the classification of the five kingdoms, from
animals to vertebrates and then from vertebrates to the groups Mammals, Reptiles, Am-
phibians, Birds and Fish.
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3. Organisms to Ecosystems
Add this to your illustrated guide to classification and then produce a description for each
of the vertebrate groups. Make sure you add the general properties and a picture of an ex-
ample from each one.
2.Flowering and Non Flowering plants
Around the wildlife pond there are a number of organisms that fall under the kingdom
Plants. This kingdom can be subdivided into flowering and non flowering plants. But how
many of each are there and how can you tell the difference?
As a class you will randomly sample the pond area using quadrats to see how many flow-
ering plants and how many non flowering plants there are. You will collect all of your re-
sults and use this to write a practical report called
Does the pond contain more flowering or non flowering plants?
c. Invertebrates
Invertebrates make up 98% of all organisms so it’s important that we don’t leave them out
of our research into classification! You will give a presentation to your group and to a
group from outside about Invertebrates. You will discuss the characteristics that all inverte-
brates as a whole share, and you will also be assigned a specific invertebrate or group of
invertebrates to discuss and compare to all invertebrates. Your presentation should be sup-
ported by images, be at least five minutes long and you should be prepared to answer
questions.
Due date October 8th
Task two (this provides evidence for M1)
This task is designed to look at why it is important to classification. You will be writing an
article that explains the need to classify organisms. The title of the article is “Why classify
Organisms” and it must include a named example where classification is important and
clearly state your own opinion. The article will be one side of A4.
Due October 20th
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4. Organisms to Ecosystems
Task three (this provides evidence for D1)
For this task you will be expected to participate in a group discussion about the character-
istics that are used to distinguish between the major groups. The title of the discussion is
“What is more important when classifying organisms - the differences or similarities”. You
will be expected to research your ideas before the discussion and this will be recorded for
a podcast.
due October 14th
Task four (this provides evidence for P2)
We are going to undertake a day long study of the Urban Ecosystem that is London with
our main focus being on London. We will be visiting four very different areas
1. Tottenham Marshes (Urban Green Space)
2.Tottenham Cemetery
3. Waste Land on Tottenham High Road
4. Woodland at Lordship Recreation ground.
For each area you need to draw a plan that describes that habitat. It should include pic-
tures (map) and labels of major features.
Due date October 23rd
Task Five (This provides evidence for P3)
BTEC First Diploma Applied Science Organisms to Ecosystems

5. Organisms to Ecosystems
At each area we are going to look for evidence of pollution due to human activity. We
shall do this in three ways
Littering
On your plan of each habitat investigated if there is any obvious littering you should add
this to the map.
Indicator Species
You will be provided with a classification key for lichens. Lichens are an indicator species
that tell us a lot about air quality. At each area you will look for Lichens, take photographs
and drawings of what you find and relate this back to air quality.
Polluting Residue
Pollution can leave black marks on brickwork and tree bark. Sometimes in areas of poor
air quality this can be very dark. You will take a length of sticky tape and place it onto
trees or walls at each area we visit. You will then calculate the density of the polluting
marks and make a judgement of the air quality in each area.
Due date October 23rd
Task Six (this provides evidence for P2 and M2)
At each area we will do random sampling using quadrats. For each area you will be ex-
pected to produce a table of organisms that you have found (animals and plants).
Each area will have different types of organisms and these organisms will be especially
suited to that particular area. Choose one organisms (plant or animal) from each area and
draw it with labels stating why it is particularly suited to that area. In particular mentioning
any adaptations the organism has that helps it to survive
Due date November 3rd
Task Seven (This provides evidence for P2 and D2)
All of the organisms in each of the ecosystems is dependent on each other. In this task you
will need to produce:
1. A food web
2.A pyramid of number or a pyramid of biomass
For a selection of the organisms you found at each area.
Due date November 3rd
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6. Organisms to Ecosystems
Task Eight (This provides evidence for M3)
Based on the information we gathered for task five you must design an investigation that
would monitor the human impact on one of these four areas over a period of five years.
How will you measure human impact? How often will you need to do it? Introduce your
investigation by saying what you think the impact of the environment on your chosen
habitat would be if human activity went unchecked.
Due date November 7th
Task Nine (This provides evidence for D3)
For this task you need to interpret and analyse information relating to mans impact on the
environment.
examine the graphs from the IPCC. For this task you need to be able to produce a news-
paper article saying when the levels of each of the greenhouse gasses started to rise so
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7. Organisms to Ecosystems
sharply and suggest why this has happened. Based on this conclusion what can be done to
minimise further sharp increases in the future.
due date November 7th
To achieve a pass grade the To achieve a merit grade the To achieve a distinction
evidence must show that the evidence must show that the grade the evidence must
learner is able to: learner is able to: show that the learner is able
to:
P1 M1 D1
construct simple identifica- explain the need to classify discuss the characteristics
tion keys and describe the organisms which are used to distinguish
main characteristics within the major groups
the major classification
groups
P2 M2 D2
describe the ecosystem in- describe examples of adapta- Construct quantitative and
vestigated and indicate the tions to the environment qualitative diagrams to dem-
types of interdependence of shown by organisms within onstrate the relationships
living things in it the ecosystem between organisms living
interdependently within an
ecosystem
P3 M3 D3
describe the possible effect describe the effect of these analyse data relating to
of human activities on the environmental changes over changes in the environment
ecosystem investigated time and the means of and explain how the envi-
measuring them ronmental impact might be
minimised in the future
Assessed by: Teresa Greer
Internally verified by:
Hand in date: November 7th 2009
BTEC First Diploma Applied Science Organisms to Ecosystems