Class Response #2 = Food Chains, Food Webs, Competition

During the study of Ecology, these are three facts I learned in class:

1.) Competition is when animals fight for food, they fight against each other to keep themselves alive.

2.) A food web is a model that represents many overlapping food chains and shows the energy flow to the group of organisms.

3.) A food chain is a diagram that shows energy being passed form one organism to another. For example: Grass -> Zebra -> Lion.

My opinion based on these three facts is that I didn't know the difference between a food chain and a food web before and didn't know that they each gave different pieces of information. I did know about competition and how animals fought each other in order to stay alive. Sometimes I relate competition to how people may fight or argue about who gets the last cookie in the cookie jar, in the same way as animals they are fighting for food and survival. The websites below are examples of food chains and food webs:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/ecosystems/ecosystemsresourcesrev1.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_aqa/foodchains/foodchains1.shtml

Class Response!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Three facts learned in class:

1.) There needs to be a balance between predators and prey.

2.) Commensalism is when one organism benefits and the other is not harmed.

3.) Mutualism is when both organisms benefit.

4.) Parasitism is when one organism benefits and the other is harmed.

The topic of the unit we are studying is ecology. My opinion on it is that it is fun to learn about how nature works. I may have known about predators and preys but I didn't know about the need for balance between the two. I also didn't know about the forms of symbiosis, and how many of each kind is around me. Information about the four facts can be found at the two websites below:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/20/AR2008072001591.html?sid=ST2
http://homes.jcu.edu.au/~zljes/bz1002/lecture8.htm