Micro-Organisms
10SCIE - Ecology
Finn Le Sueur
2024
Te Whāinga Ako
Describe the structure of bacteria and Fungi,
labelling the important structures
Write the date and te whāinga ako in your book
Micro-Organisms
Source
Micro-organisms/microbes are too small to see with
the naked eye
They are either unicellular (made of one cell), or
a small group of cells
Two main categories: bacteria and fungi
Bacteria
Source
Single celled organism (unicellular)
Typically a few micrometers in size (\(0.000001m\) )
Come in many different shapes (e.g. spirals, rods,
spheres)
Structure of Bacteria
Source
Stick in your unlabelled bacteria diagram
Label these structures!
Vacuole
Nucleus
Cell membrane
Cytoplasm
Mitochondria
Lipid globules
Fungi (Decomposers)
Source
Made of clusters of cells
Fungi are sometimes too small to see, but once the
group of cells gets too large it becomes visible to the naked eye
Get their food by absorbing dissolved organic
molecules
Function of Fungi
Fungi exist in ecosystems to break down dead
organic matter into small molecules that are able to be be used by other
living things
This is so that energy and nutrients can be
reused!
Structure of Fungi
Source
Mycelium
Spore
Reproductive Structure
Hyphae
Tūhura: Fungi
In desk pairs, collect a bag, slice of bread and
permanent marker
Write your names on the bag
Write the date (12/02/2021)
Choose a place/thing to wipe the bread on - put
this label on your bread
Everyone should do somewhere
different
Expose the bread to your surface, seal the bag and
pin it to the board!
Source
Akoranga 8 Mahi Tuatahi
Collect a whiteboard from the front of the
room
In pairs, try your best to draw and label a diagram
of a fungi from memory
Extra : Explain the function/role
of fungi in ecosystems
Ngā Whāinga Ako
Describe how fungi feed by extra-cellular
digestion
Describe the role and importance of decomposers in
an ecosystem
Write the date and ngā whāinga ako in your book
Why are Decomposers
Important?
They allow energy and nutrients to be recycled through an
ecosystem.
Source
Source
Cell membrane : a semi-permeable
membrane
What does semi-permeable mean?
Only some things (semi) can go through it
(permeable)!
Extra (outside ), cellular (cell ),
digestion (break down )
Source
Most food is made of large carbohydrate
molecules
It is hard to absorb such large molecules through
the membrane, so extracellular digestion is needed to break the
carbohydrates into smaller sugars
Source
Humans, bacteria, fungi and other organisms all
use/creat enzymes to break down molecules in
extracellular digestion.
Enzymes are molecular machines that can perform
specific functions in biology e.g break some molecules down (or join
them together)!
Bread Tūhura/Investigation
In humans we do extracellular digestion in our
mouths, with the enzymes in our saliva!
Take a piece of bread here, mush it up in your
mouth but don’t swallow it! Over time your should notice the flavour
start to change. What do you observe?
Ngohe/Activity
Open the TedED link on Google Classroom, watch the video and then
answer the questions associated with it.