Universal Concept #3: Systems
A system is a group of parts that are connected and work together to make something bigger than any one part alone. Your body is a system. A school is a system. A sentence is a system. Even a video game is a system!
🧩 Parts
The pieces that make up the system.
🔗 Connections
How the parts affect each other.
⬇️ Inputs and ⬆️ Outputs
What goes in and what comes out.
🎯 Purpose
What the whole system is FOR.
⚙️ The Core GATE Question
What happens to the entire system if you remove its smallest component?
Your mission
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Take It Apart: The Bicycle
A bike is a system. Remove one part at a time and see what happens.
Click a part to remove it
Engineers take things apart to understand how the parts work together. Try removing each part (even the tiny bolt!).
🚲 Status: WORKING
Think about it
The Mojave Desert Food Web
Right here near Las Vegas! Arrows show who gets eaten by whom (the arrow points to the eater).
Tap an animal or plant to remove it from the desert. Watch how the change ripples through the whole system!
Choose something to remove
Every living thing is a part of the ecosystem.
Food web quiz
The Human Body: A System of Systems
Your body is made of smaller systems that all work together.
Match each organ to its body system
Systems working together
Government: Checks and Balances
Three branches, connected so that no one part gets too powerful.
MAKES the laws
CARRIES OUT the laws
EXPLAINS the laws
Nevada works the same way! The Nevada Legislature meets in Carson City to make state laws, the Governor carries them out, and the Nevada Supreme Court decides what they mean.
Each branch can check (limit) the others. That keeps the whole system balanced. It's like a three-legged stool: take away one leg and everything tips over!
Play it: The Longer Recess Bill 🛝
Which branch has this power?
Grammar: The Sentence System
Every word has a job. Remove one and see what breaks!
Each tile is a part of speech. Tap a tile to remove it (tap again to put it back). Try removing every kind of part!
The sentence is complete!
All the parts are working together.
Punctuation power!
Even the tiniest part of the sentence system, a comma, can change everything.
Gear Puzzle
Connect the motor to the fan with a chain of gears!
Tap the empty circles to place gears. Gears only turn their neighbors (touching left, right, up, or down). When the chain reaches the fan, the whole system turns on! Challenge: use the fewest gears possible.
Notice: each gear spins the OPPOSITE way from the gear it touches. And if you remove just one gear from the chain... the whole system stops!
Map a System from Your Life
Systems are everywhere. Pick one you know well!
Ideas: your school, your family's morning routine, a sports team, a video game, a restaurant kitchen, a garden, a band...
Big Questions
Core GATE questions about systems.
There's no single "right" answer. Show your thinking and use examples from this unit. Write at least 2 sentences for each.
Turn it in with Google Docs
This puts everything you wrote in this unit into a Google Doc.