Classify organisms as producers, consumers, or decomposers based on how they obtain matter and energy, and explain their roles in an ecosystem.
Every living thing needs matter to grow and energy to survive, but not every living thing gets these the same way. Producers, like plants and algae, make their own food using sunlight, water, and air; they do not need to eat other organisms. Consumers, like animals, cannot make their own food, so they get matter and energy by eating producers or other consumers.
Decomposers, like fungi, worms, and many bacteria, break down dead plants and animals and waste into simpler matter. Without decomposers, dead material would just pile up forever and the nutrients locked inside it could never be used again. Producers, consumers, and decomposers together keep matter moving through an ecosystem.
Mastery looks like: They can classify unfamiliar organisms as producer, consumer, or decomposer and explain the reasoning based on how each gets matter and energy.
Common stumbles: Thinking decomposers are unimportant or gross; forgetting that consumers include animals that eat other animals, not only plant-eaters.