Lesson 5 of 6

Living things and their environment

Goal: Describe how organisms affect, and are affected by, their environment.

Puzzles for this lesson

Living things change their environment, and a change in the environment changes them.

HabitatThe place where a living thing lives

CommunityAll the populations that share a habitat

EcosystemA community and its non-living environment: air, water and soil

Organisms change their surroundings. A beaver’s dam turns a stream into a pond. A tree shades the ground beneath it. Earthworms mix air into the soil.
Conditions decide what can live where. Light, water and temperature all matter. Daisies need plenty of light, so few grow in deep shade.
When conditions change, populations change. A drought, a flood or pollution can make a population fall. If every member of a species dies, the species is extinct.

Your turn

This lesson’s activity starts here in a moment.

I can give one way an organism changes its surroundings.I can describe how a change in conditions affects a population.

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Habitat The place where a living thing lives

Population All the living things of one species in an area

Community All the populations that share a habitat

Ecosystem The living things in an area and their non-living environment

For teachers: AQA 3.9.1 · Pearson Edexcel 8.3 · Cambridge 9Be.01