Curated OER
Community and Ecosystems
Students complete a unit of lessons on ecosystems. They participate in online activities, create a diorama, write journal entries, and develop a Hyperstudio multimedia project on a selected ecosystem.
Curated OER
Ecosystem Interactions Web
Learners pick an ecosystem (forest, desert, coral reef, open ocean, grassland, mountain, savanna, etc.) and design an interaction web for their chosen ecosystem. Each group shares their ecosystem's web of life with the class.
Curated OER
How do people use ecosystems and their resources?
Students examine how natural resources are reusable, renewable or nonrenewable. In this ecosystems instructional activity students see the effects humans have on ecosystems and complete an art instructional activity activity.
Curated OER
Energy Flow in Ecosystems
Students, in groups, create a slide show about the ecosystem and answer critical thinking questions based on their research.
Curated OER
The Integration of Science and Math Through Ecosystems
Students use the disciplines of math and science to examine ecosystems. In groups, they calculate the amount of supplies they would need to live in the classroom for one day, a week and a year. Using this information, they apply it to...
Curated OER
Ecosystem Energizers
Fourth graders see how the flow of energy through an ecosystem made up of producers, consumers, and decomposers carries out the processes of life and that some energy dissipates as heat and is not recycled.
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In the Company of Wild Butterflies
Students discover the life cycle of a butterfly and explain the different stages. In this exploratory lesson plan students watch a video and create insect art and they will get an opportunity to view live specimens of butterflies.
Curated OER
Ecosystems Beneath the Surface
Sixth graders create a KWL chart about microorganisms. In this biology lesson, 6th graders create and label a diagram on a microbial mat. They investigate the processes involved in the carbon, oxygen and sulfur cycles.
Science Matters
Island Fox Outreach
Off the coast of California lives a wild animal called the Island Fox. Experts discuss the importance of the Island Fox to the Channel Islands and the balance the fox creates within its ecosystem. The lesson concludes with a reading of...
Wild BC
Bearly Any Ice
After reviewing food chains, your class members participate in an arctic predator-prey game that exemplifies the impact of climate change of food availability. If you are in a hurry, skip this instructional activity, but if you have the...
August House
Go to Sleep, Gecko
Use this multidisciplinary lesson to delve into these subjects: English language arts, math, science, drama, and character education. After reading, discussing, and making interpretations about Go To Sleep, Gecko!: A Balinese Folktale by...
Curated OER
Marshland Ecosystem
Students classify animals based on their physical characteristics and eating habits. In this animal identification lesson plan, students investigate the life forms shown on a Parisian ceramic basin, and discover ecosystem the artist was...
Curated OER
Where in the World is...?
Students work in groups to locate an appropriate planet where inhabitants of a fictional place can be relocated. They create a PowerPoint presentation to introduce their relocation site, as well as ecosystem information about the site....
Curated OER
Discovering the Wetlands!
Students name wetland plant and animal life. In this ecosystem instructional activity students go birdwatching and interpret native plants through art.
Curated OER
Nature in a Flick of the Eye
Learners explore the visual information a diorama artist provides by thinking of all the details for the background of a location described by their teacher. They investigate diorama artists and their importance in creating the illusion...
Curated OER
Start at the Very Beginning
Students explore ocean ecosystems. In this cross curriculum art and oceans lesson, students create a collage featuring three-finger algae using sand paper, tissue paper, and construction paper.
Curated OER
Visiting a Marine Sanctuary
Students gather information on a kelp forest and identify species in that ecosystem. In this underwater ecosystem lesson students gather data, give an oral presentation and create a poster.
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Deep Sea Coral Biodiversity
Students research life forms of both tropical coral reefs and deep-sea coral reefs to discover the biodiversity of the ecosystems. They compare and contrast the diversity and adaptations of the two eco-systems, and draw a picture showing...
Curated OER
Introduction to Restoration Lesson
Middle schoolers explore how pollution and invasive plants disrupt the ecosystem. In this restoration lesson students list materials that pollute wetlands, how people can keep them clean and ways in which invasive plants establish.
Curated OER
Going...going...gone? Tropical Rainforests-How They Work, What They Do for Us, What's Being Done to Them...
Sixth graders explore the Tropical Rainforest and come to understand what it is and how it affects the ecosystem. In this rainforests lesson plan, 6th graders write about the Tropical Rainforest, imagine they are in the Tropical...
Curated OER
LEAF (Learning Exercises and Activities in the Forest
Students observe populations and determine the functions (e.g., decomposers, producers, consumers) they serve in an ecosystem. They investigate the energy flow ecosystems. Students investigate factors (.g., Resources, light, water) that...
Curated OER
Land Use Decision
Students identify social and ecological considerations where human uses of land and trees conflict with each other and ecosystem needs, and describe importance of land-use management and planning through role play.
Curated OER
Rain Forest Reporters
Students research and write articles for an imaginary scientific magazine about rain forests. In this rain forest lesson, students research both ecosystems and magazine writing styles. They act as reporters and editors of their own...
American Forest Foundation
Who Speaks for the Trees?
Help young conservationists appreciate the important role that trees play in ecosystems around the world with this collection of six engaging activities. From a shared reading and class discussion of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, to in an depth...