KS3 & KS4 science curriculum

This unit builds on pupils’ prior learning from Living organisms and their environments, where they explored how biotic and abiotic factors affect species survival. It deepens their understanding by examining the importance of maintaining biodiversity and the impact of human activities on ecosystems. As the final unit in the big question How do living things live together in their environments?, it reinforces the need for conservation and sustainable practices to preserve ecosystems and the complex relationships that support life.

1. Transfers of biomass between trophic levels
2. Negative human interactions with ecosystems and impacts on biodiversity
3. Examples of human interactions with ecosystems, including use of peat
4. Benefits and challenges of maintaining biodiversity
5. Climate change and biodiversity: changes in the distribution of organisms
6. Factors affecting human food security, and possible solutions

• Food chain diagrams show transfers of biomass.
• Food web diagrams represent several interconnected food chains within a community of organisms.
• Trophic levels are the stages in a food chain.
• Biomass is the amount of living or recently living matter.
• Biodiversity is a measure of the range of living organisms.
• It is important to preserve biodiversity to maintain a healthy environment.
• Pollinating insects are important in producing crops.
• The relationship between genes, chromosomes and DNA.
• The products of combustion.
• Which fuels are fossil fuels.