Understanding Ecosystems, Galaxies, and Time: A Comprehensive Guide

1. TCAP Stuffs Jacob Renfroe Don’t Push the Button

2. Food Chains • Producer: an organism that makes its own food using energy from da sun. ex. Plants • Consumer: an organism that gains energy by consuming other organisms. Ex. cows • Scavenger: an organism that gains energy by consuming dead animals that were dead already. Ex. Vultures • Decomposers: organisms that gain energy by breaking down dead organisms. Ex. fungus

3. Energy Pyramids • Energy can flow through an environment in 3 ways: energy pyramids, food chains, and food webs. • This energy decreases as it flows because the organisms use more than they store. The energy is most at the bottom.

4. Consumers • Primary consumers- consumers that eat producers. Second in line. Ex. insects • Secondary consumers- eat producers and primary consumers, and are third in line. Ex. Humans, birds • Tertiary consumers- at the top of the food chain. Ex hawks, lions, sharks

5. Biotic/Abiotic and Biomes • Biotic- anything that is or was alive. Ex humans • Abiotic- anything that isn’t and never was alive. Ex. Rock • Biomes- Grassland, tundra, desert, rainforest, coniferous forest, deciduous forest. • Aquatic biomes-Marine and freshwater

6. Galaxies • There are four types of galaxies, spiral, barred spiral, elliptical, and irregular • Spiral galaxies are shaped like spirals (duh) • Barred spiral galaxies have a straight bar running through them and then a spiral • Elliptical galaxies are shaped like spheres. • Irregular galaxies are just blobs lol

7. Planets • Inner/Terrestrial Planets- Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. These are small rocky planets closer to the sun • Outer planets/Gas Giants- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. These are gas giants that are further from the sun • Dwarf Planets- Pluto, Ceres, etc. these are bodies in orbit that are too small to be considered planets

8. Nebulae • A nebula is a cloud of dust and gas that exists in space • Two groups: planetary and diffuse • A planetary is a small ball shaped nebula around a star. Made of material ejected from the star as it collapses. • A diffuse is a large nebula with an irregular shape

9. Solar System Stuffs • Comets-smaller than planets, asteroids, and moons, and are made up of dust, frozen water, and frozen gases. Elliptical orbits. • Asteroids- vary in size and made of stone, iron, and nickel • Meteoroids- smaller than asteroids and they’re still in space • Meteors- meteoroids that have entered earths atmosphere • Meteorites- meteors that have hit earths surface • Meteors are classified as stony, stony iron, and iron.

10. Time stuffs • We tell time by the movements of the earth and moon in space • Day- a complete rotation of the earth • Month- a complete revolution of the moon around the earth • Year- a complete revolution of the earth around the sun

11. Moon Phases and Tides • The changes in how much of the moon we can see from earth are called moon phases • It completes these phases every month or so or 29.5 days • Tides- the regular rising and falling of ocean water due to gravitational pull of the sun and the moon