QUESTIONS FOR STUDENT EVALUATION
Unit III

The questions presented below range from easy to difficult. Select questions most appropriate for your students and, if necessary, modify the questions so they will be more useful in your situation. Answers are in italics.

1. The following statements are descriptions of microhabitats:

A hot, dry, open patch of sand.
A shady area under a bush, full of leaves.

Can you describe another microhabitat?

2. Mushrooms are not plants or animals but are called fungi. Put a "T" beside the following statements about mushrooms that are true.
3. 
   
   

   ___Some mushrooms are decomposers. (T)
   ___Some mushrooms can be helpful to trees. (T)
   ___The part of the mushroom we see holds the spores. (T)
   ___Mushrooms get their food energy from sunlight. (F)
   ___A mushroom can be a microhabitat. (T)
   

   
   

4. A decomposer is an organism that cannot make its own food and eats things that are dead. Put a "D" beside any of the following organisms that are decomposers:
5. 
   
   

   ___bacteria (D)
   ___mold (D)
   ___worms (D)
   ___millipedes (D)

   
   

6. Construct a food chain that includes at least one producer, one consumer, and one decomposer.
7. 
   
   examples:
   Grass-grasshopper-bacteria
   Grass-grasshopper-bird-hawk
   Old log-mushroom-fly larva-bird
   
   
8. Fill in the blanks of the following statements:
9. 
   
   

   __________ is a consumer that would eat a decomposer: ________________.
   (example: flying squirrel-mushroom)
   
   __________ is a consumer that would eat another consumer: _____________.
   (example: woodpecker-beetle larva)
   
   __________ is a producer that would be eaten by a consumer: __________________.
   (example: dead leaves-millipede)
   
   __________ is a producer that would be eaten by a decomposer: ________________.
   (example: log-mushroom)
   
   __________ is a decomposer that would be eaten by another decomposer: __________.
   (example: mushroom-insect larva)
   
   

10. Put "T" beside the statements below that are true and an "F" beside those that are false:

____The variety and abundance of all kinds of organisms is referred to as biodiversity. (T)
____Species richness means how much food is available to all the organisms. (F)
____Biodiversity can be an important indicator of how healthy a habitat is. (T)


11. 
    
12. What kinds of animals do you expect to catch in a pitfall trap?
13. 
    Animals that walk or run across the ground.
    
    
14. What kind of animals do you expect to catch in a Berlese funnel?
15. 
    Small animals that can be found in leaf litter and like cool, dark places.
    
    
16. List three things that might help leaves decompose once they fall to the ground:
17. 
    Insects and other invertebrates
    Water
    Mold and bacteria
    Air
    
    
18. Describe the life cycle of a mushroom. Be sure to include spores, mycelium and hyphae, and the fruiting body.
19. 
    
    Spores are dispersed in the air. If they land on a good spot to grow, the spores send out fast-growing hyphae. The hyphae form a network called the mycelium. As the hyphae cross and fuse, a mushroom fruiting body forms and pushes up out of the ground. New spores are held in the cap of the new mushroom.