Biotic & Abiotic Interactions Activity: 8 Hands-On Stations for Teaching How Living and Nonliving Things Interact in Ecosystems (TEKS 5.12A)

Chris Kesler · 8 min read

Show a 5th grader a forest picture and ask, "What's in here?" They'll say bears, birds, trees, deer, maybe a fox. Then ask, "What else?" They'll squint. Sun? Water? Rocks? Slowly the picture fills in, but only after a nudge. 5th graders see the moving parts first. The standing parts (the rocks, the dirt, the sunlight, the air) take longer to register. And the connection between the two is fuzzier still. Does the rock matter to the deer? Does the sun matter to the bird? Yes and yes, but kids need help seeing how.

That's TEKS 5.12A. It asks 5th graders to observe and describe how the living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components of an ecosystem interact and depend on each other. This is the foundation for the rest of 5.12. You can't talk about predicting changes in ecosystems (5.12B) or human impact on ecosystems (5.12C) until kids can name what's IN an ecosystem first.

The Biotic & Abiotic Interactions Station Lab for TEKS 5.12A turns that into a sorting-and-connecting exercise. Kids categorize six classic forest images as biotic or abiotic, look at a 5-organism ecosystem illustration and list three biotic-abiotic interactions, study temperature graphs and deer population data, and sort 10 things into the biotic or abiotic column. By the end, the words stop being vocabulary and start being categories kids can use on anything they see.

⏱ 1–2 class periods 📓 5th Grade Science 🧪 TEKS 5.12A 🎯 Built-in differentiation 💻 Print or Digital

8 hands-on stations for teaching biotic and abiotic interactions

A station lab is a student-led activity where small groups rotate through 8 stations (plus a 9th challenge station for early finishers) at their own pace during one to two class periods. You become a facilitator instead of a lecturer. You walk around, spot-check, and break misconceptions while kids work through the rotation.

The Biotic & Abiotic Interactions Station Lab has four input stations (where students take in new information on the living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem) and four output stations (where they show what they learned). Here's what's at each one.

📷 Image slot 1 — add screenshot

📷 Image slot 2 — add screenshot

4 input stations: how students learn biotic and abiotic interactions

🎬 Watch It! —

A short YouTube video introduces ecosystems and the two component types. Three questions on the answer sheet check whether students caught the big ideas: what is an ecosystem made up of, name three examples of biotic factors, and name three examples of abiotic factors. The video sets up the vocabulary cold so the Read It! passage can build on it.

📖 Read It! —

A one-page passage called "Biotic and Abiotic Factors" opens with the seed-to-tree and caterpillar-to-butterfly question. Then it pulls apart the big four vocabulary words: environment (everything that surrounds us), biotic factors (living things like worms helping plants grow and birds eating insects), abiotic factors (nonliving things like sunlight, water, and rocks), and ecosystem (a community where biotic and abiotic factors interact). The forest puzzle analogy comes in next: trees, animals, insects are pieces that need each other, but so are the sun, water, and soil. Photosynthesis gets defined as the process by which plants make food. Three multiple-choice questions follow, plus the five vocabulary words: environment, biotic factor, abiotic factor, ecosystem, photosynthesis. Comes in two reading levels (Dependent and Modified) plus a Spanish version.

🔬 Explore It! —

An illustrated forest ecosystem scene anchors the station: a brown bear by a pond, a deer at the edge, a fox curled up, a rabbit, a stork by some flowers, fish in the water, an eagle in the air, a tree, a mountain in the background, and the sun overhead. Six small images (water, rocks, a sparrow, a tree, an apple, the sun) sit beside the scene for sorting. Kids predict biotic or abiotic for each of the six, then look at the bigger forest scene and list three biotic-abiotic interactions they can see (the bear drinking from the pond, the tree growing in soil and sunlight, the deer eating grass). Question three is the keeper: why is it important to maintain a balance between biotic and abiotic factors? That question pushes kids past sorting into thinking about consequences.

💻 Research It! —

Ten reference cards. Four are data and images: a Phoenix, Arizona temperature graph showing the year ranging from 13°C in January to 34°C in July, a white-tailed deer population graph for the Post Oak Savannah from 2005 to 2019 showing growth from 200,000 to 800,000, a rainforest photo, and a marine-pollution photo. Then text on healthy ecosystems (balanced communities where animals and abiotic factors interact), how matter cycles (plants use sunlight, animals eat plants, worms break down dead things), and unhealthy ecosystems (the polluted-river-and-bears-go-hungry chain). Three questions ask which month would have the most plant growth (with the temperature graph as evidence), why the deer population jumped in 2015, and how the sun affects plant growth. The graph questions push 5th graders to use data, not just opinion, to defend their answers.

📷 Featured station deep-dive — add screenshot of the Explore It! task card

4 output stations: how students show what they learned

📋 Organize It! —

A two-column sort: Biotic Factor vs. Abiotic Factor. Ten image cards get matched. Biotic: fish, strawberries, mushroom, logs (once-living counts as biotic), bee. Abiotic: seashells, river, sun, soil, rock pile. The mushroom and the logs are the ones that trip kids up. Mushrooms are alive but don't look like the typical "animal or plant" image kids have in their heads. Logs are dead wood, which means they were once living, which means they're biotic, even though they don't move. This sort is where the once-living-still-counts rule gets cemented.

🎨 Illustrate It! —

Students draw a labeled sketch of a healthy ecosystem with both biotic and abiotic factors. The added requirement is three arrows showing interactions between biotic and abiotic factors (a deer drinking water, a tree growing in soil, a bird eating an insect that lives in the grass) and a circle around one organism that is most affected by sunlight. The arrows are the part to walk by and check. They force kids to put a verb on the relationship instead of just placing two things on the same page.

✏ Write It! —

Three open-ended questions in complete sentences. First, how would an insect like a bee depend on an abiotic factor? Second, how does water affect plants in a desert? Third, compare and contrast biotic and abiotic factors in your classroom. The classroom question is the surprise-favorite because kids realize their own classroom is an ecosystem: people, plants on the windowsill, fish in a tank, even germs (biotic), versus desks, air, water from the fountain, light from the overhead lamps (abiotic). The Compare/contrast forces them to find at least one similarity (both are needed for the ecosystem to work) and one difference (one is alive and one isn't).

📝 Assess It! —

Three multiple-choice questions plus a fill-in-the-paragraph that uses all five Read It! vocabulary words (environment, biotic factor, abiotic factor, ecosystem, photosynthesis). The multiple choice tests whether students can identify a forest interaction (organisms competing for resources, not zero impact and not abiotic-only), spot an abiotic-affecting-biotic example (a drought causing plants to die, NOT a deer eating grass), and explain how sunlight matters (it powers photosynthesis). The paragraph stitches all five words back into one sentence about energy flow.

Bonus Challenge It! station for early finishers

🏆 Challenge It! —

Four optional extensions: write an acrostic poem using the word "ecosystem," create a job posting for an abiotic factor in an ecosystem (with role responsibilities and how it contributes to the company called "Ecosystem"), illustrate a butterfly thriving in a healthy ecosystem with both biotic and abiotic factors labeled, or create a "Wanted" poster for pollution outlining its crimes against an ecosystem. Requires teacher approval before they start.

How this fits into a complete Biotic & Abiotic Interactions unit

This Station Lab is the Explore day of our full Biotic & Abiotic Interactions Complete 5E Lesson for TEKS 5.12A. The complete two-week unit follows the 5E method of instruction and includes an Engage hook, the Biotic & Abiotic Interactions Station Lab for Explore, PowerPoint slides and interactive notebook pages for Explain, student choice projects to Elaborate, and an Evaluate assessment.

Most 5th-grade teachers grab the full 5E because the Station Lab lands hardest with the days around it. But if you just need a strong hands-on day on the living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem, the Station Lab on its own does the job.

Two options

Biotic & Abiotic Interactions 5E Lesson cover

Full 5E Lesson $13.20 Get the 5E Lesson

Biotic & Abiotic Interactions Station Lab cover

Just the Station Lab $7.20 Get the Station Lab

Materials needed to teach biotic and abiotic interactions

Materials beyond what's in the download:

Colored pencils or markers for the Illustrate It! station (so students can color-code biotic vs. abiotic in their ecosystem drawing).
Pencils and the printed answer sheets (included)
A device with internet for the Watch It! station
Optional: One or two live classroom organisms (a small potted plant, a class fish, a worm in a jar) to make the Write It! "compare biotic and abiotic in your classroom" question hit harder. Not required but nice.

Standard covered: Texas TEKS 5.12A —

Observe and describe how the living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components of an ecosystem interact and depend on each other.

See the full standard breakdown →

Grade level: 5th grade life science

Time: One to two class periods (45–110 minutes total). Plan for two periods the first time you run a station lab.

Common student misconceptions this lab fixes

"Abiotic factors don't really matter. The animals are the important part of an ecosystem."
This is the biggest 5th-grade pitfall on this standard. Kids see the bear, the deer, the fox, and think those ARE the ecosystem. The Research It! temperature graph for Phoenix is built to dismantle that. When January is 13°C and July is 34°C, plant growth is going to look very different across the year, which means food availability for biotic factors changes too. The deer population graph reinforces it: the population grew from 200,000 to 800,000 between 2005 and 2019, and the kids have to guess why (more food, better weather, fewer predators). All those reasons trace back to abiotic conditions. By the end, students can articulate that without water, sun, and the right temperature, the bear, deer, and fox don't survive either.
"Anything that doesn't move is abiotic. Trees stay still, so trees are abiotic."
Movement vs. life is the wrong dividing line, and 5th graders make this swap constantly. The Read It! passage is explicit: biotic factors are LIVING things, which includes plants. Trees grow, take in sunlight, drink water through their roots, and reproduce with seeds, even though they look still. The Explore It! ecosystem scene has both a tree and a mountain. The tree is biotic. The mountain is abiotic. Kids have to defend the difference. The Organize It! sort drives it home with strawberries (biotic), mushroom (biotic, even though it's a fungus), and logs (biotic because they were once living) all in the same column as the bee and the fish. After the rotation, the alive/once-alive rule is the only test kids use.
"Biotic and abiotic things don't really interact. The deer just lives there and the rocks are just there."
5th graders often see biotic and abiotic as two parallel lists, not as connected partners. The Explore It! station fights that head-on. Question 2 asks them to list three interactions between biotic and abiotic factors in the forest scene. They have to put a verb on it. The deer drinks the water. The tree grows in the soil. The bird perches on the rock to scan for food. The Illustrate It! station then requires three arrows showing interactions. The arrow is the breakthrough. Kids who don't see the connection draw two unconnected pictures. Kids who see it draw arrows from sun to plant, plant to deer, deer to soil. By the end, the interaction is the lesson, not the categorization.

What you get with this Biotic & Abiotic Interactions activity

📷 Inside-the-product — add screenshot of Read It passage or sample answer sheet

When you buy the Station Lab, you get a single download with everything you need:

Print version at two reading levels (Dependent for on-grade, Modified for additional support) plus a Spanish Read It! passage
Digital version as PowerPoint files (works in Google Slides too) at both levels — for 1:1 classrooms or Google Classroom
Teacher Directions and Answer Key for both versions, all keys included
Station task cards ready to print, laminate, and drop in baskets at each station
Reference cards for the Research It! station (10 cards including Phoenix temperature graph, Post Oak Savannah deer population graph, rainforest and pollution photos, plus passages on healthy vs. unhealthy ecosystems and three analysis questions)
Sort cards for the Organize It! station (10 images split into biotic and abiotic columns: fish, strawberries, mushroom, logs, bee vs. seashells, river, sun, soil, rock pile)
Forest ecosystem scene for the Explore It! station with six smaller images to sort biotic or abiotic
Student answer sheets for each level

Tips for teaching biotic and abiotic interactions in your 5th grade classroom

Two things make this lab go smoother the first time:

1. Use the once-living-still-counts rule when kids hit logs and mushrooms.

The logs and mushroom cards on the Organize It! sort are the ones groups fight about. Some kids think logs are dead so they're abiotic. Some think a mushroom isn't an animal or plant, so it must be a rock. Before the rotation starts, give them one rule: "If it was ever alive, it's biotic." That covers logs (once a living tree), apple cores (once a living fruit), and mushrooms (a living fungus). Abiotic means it was NEVER alive: rocks, water, soil minerals, sunlight, air. That single sentence saves you ten arguments at the station.

2. Make the Illustrate It! arrows non-negotiable.

The drawing part of the Illustrate It! station is fun, and kids will happily fill a page with plants and animals while missing the actual TEKS skill. The TEKS asks them to describe how biotic and abiotic factors INTERACT and depend on each other. The arrows are how that gets shown. Before kids start drawing, tell them: "You need three arrows in your picture, and each arrow has to go from one thing to another with a sentence telling me what's happening." Sun arrow to plant: "sun gives the plant energy." Plant arrow to deer: "deer eats the plant." Rain cloud arrow to soil: "rain waters the soil." Without the arrows, you just have a nature drawing. With them, you have biotic-and-abiotic-interactions evidence.

Get this Biotic & Abiotic Interactions activity

Biotic & Abiotic Interactions Station Lab for 5th grade life science — TEKS 5.12A

Buy the Station Lab — $7.20

Or if you want the full two-week experience with the Engage hook, Explain day, Elaborate extension, and Evaluate assessment all included:

Buy the full 5E Complete Lesson — $13.20

(Station Lab is included)

Frequently asked questions

What does TEKS 5.12A cover?

Texas TEKS 5.12A asks 5th grade students to observe and describe how the living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components of an ecosystem interact and depend on each other. Students should be able to sort items into biotic or abiotic, identify specific interactions between the two, and explain why the balance between them matters.

What's the difference between biotic and abiotic factors?

Biotic factors are the LIVING things in an ecosystem (or things that were once living). Plants, animals, fungi, microorganisms, even dead logs. Abiotic factors are the NONLIVING things that were never alive. Water, sunlight, air, rocks, soil, temperature. Both are needed for an ecosystem to work, and they interact constantly (the deer drinks water, the plant grows in sunlight, the worm aerates the soil).

How long does this Biotic & Abiotic Interactions activity take?

One to two class periods (45 to 110 minutes total). The Research It! station with the temperature graph and deer population graph is the longest piece, so plan for two periods the first time you run a station lab. Once your class has the rotation routine down, most groups can finish all 8 stations in one period.

Do I need a lot of supplies for this?

Almost nothing. Colored pencils for the Illustrate It! station, a device with internet for the Watch It! station, and the printed materials from the download. Everything else (the forest ecosystem image, the sort cards, the reference cards) is included.

Can I use this in a 1:1 digital classroom?

Yes. The full digital version (PowerPoint or Google Slides) works in 1:1 classrooms and Google Classroom. Students drag the 10 image cards into the biotic or abiotic columns at the Organize It! station and type their answers. The Illustrate It! drawing station works best on paper, but kids can use a drawing tool in Google Slides if your class is all digital.