What students learn in AC9S7U02
This unit helps students build a clear, usable understanding of Models, including food webs, to represent matter and energy flow.... The goal is not to memorise one answer pattern. Students should be able to explain the idea, recognise it in a new example and apply it in a short practice or worksheet task.
- Start with the main idea: use models, including food webs, to represent matter and energy flow in ecosystems and predict the impact of changing abiotic and biotic factors on populations.
- Use concrete examples, pictures, oral explanation and short written responses before moving to independent practice.
- analysing food webs to show feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem and the role of microorganisms modelling how energy flows into and out of an ecosystem via the pathways of food webs
- Finish with mixed questions so students must choose the correct strategy rather than copy the last example.
Curriculum coverage and elaborations
The content description and elaborations below show the curriculum ideas taught in this unit. Items marked as teaching context support lesson planning but may not appear in the initial eight-question activity.
- Content description: use models, including food webs, to represent matter and energy flow in ecosystems and predict the impact of changing abiotic and biotic factors on populations
- E1: analysing food webs to show feeding relationships between organisms in an ecosystem and the role of microorganisms
- E2: modelling how energy flows into and out of an ecosystem via the pathways of food webs
- E3: predicting the effects on local ecosystems when living things such pollinators or predators are removed from or die out in an area
- E4: examining how events such as seasonal changes, destruction of habitat or introduction of a species impact abiotic and biotic factors and cause changes to populations
- E5: investigating First Nations Australians’ responses to invasive species and their effect on food webs that many communities are a part of, and depend on, for produce and medicine (teaching context)
- E6: considering how First Nations Australians’ fire management practices over tens of thousands of years have changed the distribution of flora and fauna in most regions of Australia (teaching context)
How to use this unit
Read the topic guide, use the teacher slide for instruction, then complete the Worksheet, Practice and Test. These three activities use the same eight-question unit bank.
Teacher resource
AC9S7U02 teacher slide
Use this one-page PDF to introduce the key idea, vocabulary and teaching sequence before students begin the activities.
Open teacher slide (PDF)Common mistakes to watch for
- Describing what is seen without connecting it to a question, pattern or prediction.
- Using everyday words only and missing simple scientific vocabulary.
- Changing more than one thing in an investigation, which makes the comparison unfair.
International curriculum mapping
This table gives closest-topic mapping for search and planning. The Australian Curriculum code is exact; overseas entries are broad equivalents because each jurisdiction structures outcomes differently.
| Region | Curriculum | Closest mapping |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Australian Curriculum v9.0 | AC9S7U02 — use models, including food webs, to represent matter and energy flow in ecosystems and predict the impact of changing abiotic and biotic factors on populations |
| Victoria | Victorian Curriculum F-10 | Year 7 Science: closest match in Biological sciences. Use this page as a VIC-aligned practice and worksheet reference. |
| NSW | NSW Curriculum | Stage 4 Science: closest content focus for Models, including food webs, to represent matter and energy flow... and related outcomes. |
| United States | Common Core / NGSS | Grade 7 NGSS science closest topic match for Models, including food webs, to represent matter and energy flow.... |
| England / UK | National Curriculum | Key Stage 3 / Year 7: closest programme-of-study match for Models, including food webs, to represent matter and energy flow.... |
| Canada | Provincial and territory curricula | Grade 7 closest topic match. Canada varies by province, so use this as a broad Ontario/BC-style learning outcome reference. |
| New Zealand | New Zealand Curriculum | Level 4 Science: closest achievement-objective topic for Models, including food webs, to represent matter and energy flow.... |
| India | NCERT / CBSE | Class 7 closest NCERT/CBSE topic match for Models, including food webs, to represent matter and energy flow.... |