4.7 Ecology

Unit Summary

This unit is aligned with the AQA GCSE Biology specification and is designed for flexible delivery. It assumes that learners build progressively on knowledge and scientific enquiry skills developed in earlier units and key stages.

The unit integrates both substantive knowledge (core scientific ideas) and disciplinary knowledge (working scientifically), ensuring that students learn key principles through context-based investigations and real-world applications. At the heart of this unit is the understanding that energy from the Sun drives life on Earth, passing through ecosystems and supporting the cycling of essential materials such as carbon and water. Students explore how these materials are continually recycled, being released through respiration by animals, plants, and decomposing microorganisms, and taken up by plants during photosynthesis.

Through this lens, students examine the structure and dynamics of ecosystems, understanding that all species live in complex communities of interdependent animals and plants, adapted to specific abiotic and biotic conditions. Practical and model-based activities, such as sampling populations and measuring abiotic factors, help students connect theoretical concepts with observable processes in natural environments.

Separate (Triple) Biology students extend this core learning further. They explore the decay process in more detail, investigating how the action of microorganisms recycles nutrients and how conditions such as temperature, oxygen and moisture affect the rate of decomposition. They learn how composting and biogas generation exploit these processes, and how the carbon cycle links with global climate change. Triple students also study trophic levels and pyramids of biomass, calculate the efficiency of energy transfers between trophic levels, and interpret biomass transfer diagrams. They examine factors affecting food security, including the impact of changing weather patterns, pests, pathogens, and human population growth, and evaluate strategies such as intensive farming, sustainable fisheries, and the use of biotechnology (for example, the production of mycoprotein and genetically modified crops) to feed a growing population.

Explicit links are made to real-world applications: students consider how ecosystems provide essential services that support human life, and how human activity is threatening biodiversity and the natural systems that underpin these services. The unit emphasises the importance of sustainable management practices to ensure the long-term health, prosperity, and well-being of both people and the environment. Careers in conservation, environmental management, and sustainability provide context for how this knowledge is applied beyond the classroom.

Working scientifically is embedded throughout, with opportunities for pupils to plan and carry out investigations, record and analyse data, and evaluate the impact of human activity on ecosystems. Scaffolds support accessibility for all learners while addressing misconceptions—for example, that ecosystems are static or that human impact is always negative without potential for mitigation.

To promote deep and long-term learning, a variety of Assessment for Learning (AfL) strategies are woven into lessons, including retrieval practice, diagnostic questioning, model evaluation, and structured discussion. These approaches reinforce conceptual understanding, promote metacognition, and encourage students to connect ideas across the curriculum.

In addition to meeting National Curriculum requirements, this unit extends learning by highlighting the societal and environmental relevance of ecology. By exploring the connections between energy flow, nutrient cycling, species interactions, food security and sustainability, students gain insight into both the explanatory power of biology and the importance of informed, responsible stewardship of the natural world.