Why Do Energy and Matter, Matter?
Living things rely on a constant supply of energy and matter for survival. They count on their ecosystem to provide these needs. Energy flows and matter cycles through an ecosystem. This flow and cycling occurs through interactions among different organisms and between organisms and the physical environment.
Watch this video, in which Stephanie Keep makes her case that understanding energy and matter is fundamental to understanding topics around ecosystems and ecology—and so much more. After watching, review the common students conceptions in the box below and respond to the prompts under Take Notes in the space provided.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
Video: Teaching About Ecology
Have you seen your students demonstrate or express any of these common conceptions in class?
- Food is defined only as those things that animals eat.
- Once eaten, the energy in food disappears.
- Energy adds up through a food chain, giving top predators all of the energy.
- Decomposers recycle energy.
- Living things and nonliving things are not made of the same basic materials.
- Plants obtain the matter used to build their bodies from the soil.
- When matter decomposes, it disappears.
Take Notes
- Reflect on these or other common conceptions that you have seen in your students and how they emerge in your classes. Jot down some notes in the space provided.
