Changing Environments
Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers and challenges to living things
What a learner can do afterwards
- Give at least two examples of environmental changes (natural and human-caused)
- Describe how a specific change affects the organisms in that environment
- Explain why some organisms may not survive if their environment changes too quickly
The lesson
Environments do not always stay the same. Think about how the weather changes from summer to winter, that is a slow, natural change. Other changes happen fast, like a wildfire, a flood, or people building new roads. Slow or fast, change can be hard on the plants and animals that live there.
A drought dries up a pond. Frogs lose the water they need to lay their eggs, and fish have less room to swim. Some frogs hop away to find a new pond, but the fish cannot travel on land, so many of them do not survive.
Not every change comes from nature. People change environments fast too, by cutting down forests, building on empty land, or letting pollution into rivers. The faster a change happens, the less time living things have to adapt or move somewhere safer.
Environments can change slowly or quickly, and the living things there must adapt, move, or they may not survive.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.