The Environment is comprised of two major categories of components: the living environment and the nonliving environment. The living environment consists of all of the plants and animals that live in a particular habitat, region, area or biome. At the lowest level, these make up a community.
The nonliving environment contains the components that are not alive. These are the physical components which can be summarized as soil/rock, air, water and sun.
Soil/Rock. This category contains all of the rocks in the environment that is being studied as well as the soils that are encountered in the environment. Certain soils are characteristic of certain environmental regions. Forests contain much organic material in the soil so the soil is known as loamy. The soil in the desert is dry and sandy. Rocks play a role in the environment as well. Red rocks generally contain iron. This works its way into the soil above the rocks. Much good farmland contains loamy soil with lime in it. The lime originates in the limestone beneath the soil.
Air. Air is found in the atmosphere. It is also found dissolved in the soil and water to some extent. All higher organisms require the oxygen in the air to breathe. This includes all of the animals, plants, fungi and protozoa. An exception is the anaerobic bacteria which have no need for air or oxygen. The living creatures use the oxygen in the air for cellular respiration. This process occurs in all higher organisms inside their cells in organelles known as mitochondria. The oxygen in the air has resulted from the process of photosynthesis by green plants. The Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old. Photosynthesis by green plants has been producing oxygen for approximately half of that time, approximately 2.5 billion years.
Water. Water is essential for all life. Earth is a planet with over 3/4 of its surface covered with water. Water is the major constituent of living things. Most creatures are approximately 90% water. Living things need water in order to maintain metabolic balance and to keep from drying out. Many organisms such as fish live entirely in the water. Some animals such as frogs have part of their life cycle in the water and part outside the water. Land animals live entirely out of the water. But, all organisms require water. In the environment, water is circulated by means of the Water Cycle.
Sun. The Sun provides energy in the form of light. The energy from the sun is used by green plants to make food by photosynthesis. This provides the base level of the food chain. The green plants are the producer organisms which utilize the Sun's energy to make food. Animals which eat the plants are known as primary consumers. They, in turn, are food for secondary consumers which eat them. This constitutes a basic food chain.
sun ------> green plant ------> animals
This simple food chain is found in the natural environment. The source of energy in the food chain is the Sun. This is true for all parts of the surface of the Earth including the land and the upper parts of the ocean
The four natural resources; soil/rock, air, water, sun; constitute the major components of the physical environment.
Materials
Pictures of various plants and animals in varied habitats collected by students
Science Journals
Procedure
1. Students discuss the components of the environment. They make a list of things found in the environment that are alive. They make another list of things in the environment that are nonliving.
2. Students analyze the pictures that they have collected. They draw lines pointing to various components of the environment and label them with the name of the component and whether it is living or nonliving.
3. Students make lists of their nonliving components and how they are classified according to the list of the four natural resources.