Nature is a backdrop to you
You enjoy it and cannot see the machinery.
Courses
See what you would learn
Understand how living things depend on each other.
A course on ecology through examples. It covers food webs, biodiversity and ecological change, what makes an ecosystem resilient and what tips it over, and how to see these dynamics in places you already know.
Open Cadence on the App Store, type the sentence when it asks what you want to learn, and answer a few setup questions. Free to start. Android testers can request early access.
Type this when Cadence asks what you want to learn
I want to understand how living things depend on each other. Use examples of food webs, biodiversity, and ecological change to explain what makes an ecosystem resilient.
Change any word so it fits your situation. The course is built from what you type and a few setup questions.
- Best for
- Science & nature
- Prerequisites
- None. Bring the situation you have.
- Course length
- 7 to 30 lessons, sized to your goal
- Lesson pace
- About 10 minutes a day
- Format
- Read it, or play the audio
- Access
- Available on the App Store, with early features and Android testing access
Before the course is built
Setup asks about your situation first.
Lesson 1 opens on the moment you describe, and the examples use your role. For this request, expect questions like these.
- What drew you: a place you love, environmental news, gardening, or the science itself?
- Are you more interested in how ecosystems work or how they break?
- Is there a local environment you would like to understand better?
Right for now
If any of this sounds familiar, start here.
Environmental news leaves you confused
Collapse and recovery stories with no framework to place them in.
You garden or walk and have questions
Why this thrives and that fails, and what the insects are doing.
Course arc
Where the course goes, in order.
Cadence writes the lessons for you, so the exact path follows your answers. This is the ground a course built from this sentence covers.
01 / 06Energy and nutrients
Producers, consumers and decomposers, and why nothing is wasted.
Food webs
Connections, keystones and what happens when one link goes.
Biodiversity
Why variety matters for stability, and what is lost with it.
Change and succession
How ecosystems shift over time, naturally and under pressure.
Resilience and tipping points
Feedback loops, thresholds and why recovery is not guaranteed.
Your local ecosystem
Applying the ideas to a park, garden, shore or woodland you know.
What changes
What you will be able to do, and what you will stop believing.
You will be able to
Read a food web
See how energy and nutrients move through a living system.
Understand resilience
Explain why some ecosystems absorb shocks and others collapse.
See it locally
Recognise the dynamics in a place you know.
Ideas this course corrects
Nature is in balance unless humans disturb it
Ecosystems change constantly. Balance is dynamic, and disturbance is part of how they work.
Removing one species has one effect
Effects cascade. Removing a keystone can reshape an entire system.
Course questions
What to know before you start.
Is this a fixed course?
No. Cadence builds the course when you type the sentence and answer a few setup questions, so the lessons follow your situation. This page describes what a course built from this request covers. You see the whole path before Lesson 1.
Who is this course for?
A course on ecology through examples. It covers food webs, biodiversity and ecological change, what makes an ecosystem resilient and what tips it over, and how to see these dynamics in places you already know. It sits under Science & nature in the Ideas & discovery part of the library.
Do I need any prior experience?
No. Setup asks what you already know and where you want to use it, and the course starts from there. Bring a real situation if you have one; the examples are built around it.
How long does it take?
Courses run 7 to 30 lessons of about 10 minutes, sized to what you asked for. One lesson a day is the intended pace, and you can go faster. Lessons can be read or played as audio.
Does this course award a certificate or degree?
No. Cadence is for practical self-learning and does not award accredited degrees or professional certification.
Start today
Type it, answer a few questions, open Lesson 1.
The sentence to type
I want to understand how living things depend on each other. Use examples of food webs, biodiversity, and ecological change to explain what makes an ecosystem resilient.
Open Cadence on the App Store, type the sentence when it asks what you want to learn, and answer a few setup questions. Free to start. Android testers can request early access.