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Texas Science Teacher Resource Hub

Free scope and sequences, TEKS breakdowns, phenomenon ideas, and engagement activities for the 2024 Texas science standards.

Chris Kesler
I'm Chris Kesler, a former award-winning Texas middle school science teacher. This is the site I wish I'd had in the classroom. One hub with TEKS breakdowns, scope and sequences, phenomenon starters, engagement ideas, and resources, all aligned to the standards you actually teach.
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All standards updated for the 2024 TEKS revision
TEKS Details | Texas Hub Module

6th Grade TEKS Standards

Click any standard to see what it means, how to teach it, where students get stuck, and aligned resources.

Matter & Properties (6.6)
6.6A Matter & Kinetic Energy 6.6B Pure Substances & Mixtures 6.6C Classify Elements 6.6D Comparing Density 6.6E Evidence of Chemical Changes
Force, Motion & Energy (6.7)
6.7A Forces in the Real-World 6.7B Calculating Net Force 6.7C Newton's Third Law of Motion
Energy (6.8)
6.8A Compare & Contrast Energies 6.8B Energy Transformations in Systems 6.8C Energy of Waves
Earth & Space (6.9)
6.9A Model Earth's Tilt & Seasons 6.9B Predicting Tides
Earth's Structure (6.10)
6.10A Differentiate Between Earth's Spheres 6.10B Modeling Layers of Earth 6.10C Processes in the Rock Cycle
Resources (6.11)
6.11A Resource Management 6.11B Managing Energy Resources
Ecosystems (6.12)
6.12A Biotic & Abiotic Competition 6.12B Ecological Relationships 6.12C Hierarchy of Ecosystems
Organisms (6.13)
6.13A Development of Cell Theory 6.13B Comparing Organisms 6.13C Variations & Survival
TEKS S.6.12A • Ecosystems

Biotic & Abiotic Competition

The Standard

"Investigate how organisms and populations in an ecosystem depend on and may compete for biotic factors such as food and abiotic factors such as availability of light and water, range of temperatures, or soil composition."

💡 What This Standard Actually Means

The Key Verb

"Investigate". Students are investigating how organisms and populations in an ecosystem depend on and compete for the resources around them. The standard names specific examples to focus on: biotic factors such as food and abiotic factors such as availability of light and water, range of temperatures, or soil composition. The new wording leans on dependence and competition together (kids need to look at both sides). Instruction can take many forms, such as terrarium observations, ecosystem simulation games, schoolyard biotic-abiotic field studies, and population-versus-resource graphing activities.

Every ecosystem is a mix of living things and nonliving things, and every organism depends on a combination of both to survive. Biotic factors are the living parts, like food sources, plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. Abiotic factors are the nonliving parts, like sunlight, water, temperature, and soil. The 2024 TEKS calls out specific abiotic examples kids need to know: availability of light, availability of water, range of temperatures, and soil composition.

The first half of the standard is dependence. Organisms need biotic factors (a deer needs grass to eat, a hawk needs smaller animals to hunt). Organisms also need abiotic factors (a plant needs light to make food, a fish needs a certain temperature range to live, an oak tree needs the right soil composition for its roots). Mess with the supply of any of those factors and the organism is in trouble. Populations follow the same rule on a bigger scale. A pond's fish population depends on water, dissolved oxygen, the right temperature, and the small organisms they eat.

The second half is competition. When a resource is limited, organisms have to compete for it. Two oak trees growing close together both reach for the same light. Two squirrels in the same yard search for the same acorns. Wildflowers in a meadow push their roots into the same soil. Animals compete for biotic factors like food and shelter. They also compete for abiotic factors like sunny patches, water sources, and soil with the right nutrients. The core understanding students should walk away with is that organisms in a healthy ecosystem rely on biotic and abiotic factors and often have to compete with each other when those factors are limited.

💬 From Chris's Classroom

The trick that worked for me was starting this one outside. Even a patch of grass near the bus lanes has more going on than students realize. I'd give each group a meter stick and a clipboard and say "list every living and nonliving thing you can find in this one-meter square". They'd come back with leaves, ants, dirt, dandelions, a rock, a worm, sunlight, wind, a scrap of plastic. Right there, without me saying the words yet, they've already separated biotic and abiotic. Then we added the next question: "which of these things are other living things competing for?" The sunlight reaching the grass. The water soaking the dirt. Suddenly competition isn't an abstract concept. It's happening in the square foot of ground they just studied.

⚠️ Misconceptions Your Students May Have

These are some of the most common misconceptions. Knowing what to look for can help you get ahead of them.

×

"Biotic means big animals and abiotic means everything small"

✓

Size has nothing to do with it. Biotic means living or once-living. That includes bacteria, fungi, worms, and insects just as much as lions and trees. Abiotic means nonliving: sunlight, water, air, soil, rocks, temperature. A tiny ant is biotic. A giant boulder is abiotic.

×

"Competition only happens between predators and prey"

✓

Competition and predation are different. Predation is one organism eating another. Competition is two organisms trying to get the same resource. Two deer eating from the same patch of clover are competing, even though neither is eating the other. Plants compete for sunlight without any eating involved at all.

×

"Soil is alive because plants grow in it"

✓

Soil itself is a mix of mostly abiotic material: tiny pieces of rock, sand, and minerals, plus water and air in the gaps. It also contains living things, like bacteria, fungi, insects, and worms, which are biotic. So soil is mostly abiotic, but there are biotic components mixed into it. Students often lump all of it under one label.

×

"If two organisms live in the same place, they must be competing"

✓

Sharing an ecosystem doesn't mean sharing a resource. Two organisms only compete when they need the same limited thing at the same time. A deer and a hawk both live in a Texas forest, but they don't compete because they need very different food and shelter. Competition is specifically about overlap on a resource, not just about living nearby.

📓 Teaching Resources for 6.12A

These resources are aligned to this standard.

Complete 5E Lesson
Biotic & Abiotic Competition Complete Science Lesson
The full unit for 6.12A: differentiated station labs, editable presentations, interactive notebooks (English + Spanish), student-choice projects, and assessments. Built on the 5E model.
⏱ Best for: Full unit coverage • Multiple class periods
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Station Lab
Biotic & Abiotic Competition Station Lab
9-station hands-on lab covering biotic and abiotic factors and how organisms compete for resources, with input stations (Explore It!, Watch It!, Read It!, Research It!) and output stations (Organize It!, Illustrate It!, Write It!, Assess It!). Print and digital. English and Spanish.
🔬 Best for: Core instruction • 1-2 class periods
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Student Choice Projects
Biotic & Abiotic Competition Student Choice Projects
Choice board with nine project options plus a "design your own" pathway. Students demonstrate their understanding of ecosystem factors and competition through writing, building, illustrating, presenting, or digital formats.
🎓 Best for: Project-based assessment • 2-3 class periods
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🌎 Phenomenon Ideas for 6.12A

Use these real-world phenomena to anchor your lesson. Show students the phenomenon first, let them wonder, then build toward Biotic & Abiotic Competition as the explanation.

🔎
Phenomenon 1

Why the Forest Floor Is Mostly Bare

Walk through a dense pine forest in East Texas and notice something: most of the ground is covered in needles and very few small plants. Walk into a nearby open meadow and the ground is bursting with wildflowers, grasses, and shrubs. Both areas get rain. Both have soil. What is different?

💬 Discussion Prompt

"Which resource is abundant in the meadow but limited on the forest floor? How are the tall trees affecting what grows below them?"

🔎
Phenomenon 2

Barnacles Stacked on a Tide Pool Rock

At rocky coastlines, barnacles attach to rocks so tightly packed that they touch their neighbors on all sides. There is often a sharp line on the rock where the barnacles stop, because above that line it's too dry and below it there are too many predators or other organisms taking the space. Each barnacle needs a spot to cement itself, and good spots run out fast.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"What resource are these barnacles competing for? What abiotic factors (like water, temperature, or sunlight) are also shaping where they live?"

🔎
Phenomenon 3

A Bird Feeder Traffic Jam

Hang a single bird feeder in a backyard and watch what happens. Different species of birds arrive. They push each other off the perches, circle the feeder waiting, and sometimes squabble. Squirrels join in. Eventually the seed runs out. The same backyard, the same birds, the same squirrels, but one small resource is suddenly in high demand.

💬 Discussion Prompt

"Is the competition happening here between members of the same species, between different species, or both? What makes the bird feeder especially likely to cause competition?"

💡 Free Engagement Ideas for 6.12A

01

Meter-Square Ecosystem Survey

Take students outside with meter sticks or string to mark off one-square-meter plots of grass or soil. In 10 minutes, they list every biotic and abiotic thing they can find in their plot. Back inside, they organize their list into two columns. Discuss which items surprised them and why.

Materials: Meter sticks or string, clipboards, paper, pencils
02

Paper Plate Ecosystem Sort

Give each group a pile of index cards with ecosystem components: oak tree, bacteria, sunlight, soil, fox, rock, river, grass, mushroom, temperature, dead log, air. Groups place cards on two paper plates labeled "biotic" and "abiotic". Include a couple of tricky cases (dead log, soil) to spark discussion.

Materials: Index cards, two paper plates per group, marker
03

Paperclip Competition Game

Scatter paperclips on a table. Each student is a bird, and the paperclips are "seeds". Ring one: all students can grab seeds one at a time. Ring two: half the students have straws taped to their hands (they can only pick up straw-sized objects). Graph how many each student got. Tie the results to why different species can sometimes share a resource and why same-species competition is often the fiercest.

Materials: Paperclips, straws, tape, timer
04

Two-Seed Sunlight Test

Plant two bean seeds in the same small cup of soil, right next to each other. Plant one bean in its own cup with the same amount of soil. Put them on the same windowsill and water them the same. Observe over a week or two. The single bean usually grows taller and fuller because it isn't competing for the soil nutrients, water, or sunlight. Students draw and label what they see.

Materials: Paper or plastic cups, potting soil, bean seeds, water, ruler
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