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Lesson Plan
Science 4 Inquiry

Frenemies, Bros and Killers: A Lesson in Symbiosis

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Animals and plants develop relationships and rely on each other to survive. Pupils learn more about symbiosis through a video, a hands-on matching activity, and a game. They differentiate and describe each type on a written evaluation.
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Activity
2
2
National Park Service

Nutcracker Fantasy

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
The Clark's nutcracker bird hides seeds in 25,000 different sites every year to save for winter. Lesson demonstrates how difficult it would be to find these seeds months later when they need them for food. In the first of five lesson,...
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Interactive3:44
Scholastic

Study Jams: Symbiosis

For Students 5th - 9th Standards
Three types of symbiosis are explained: parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism. This is done with colorful animation and lively dialogue in a straightforward and easy-to-follow manner. Have your ecology class watch this at home and then...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

The Flower and the Fly

For Students 9th - Higher Ed
It's like a biological "Beauty and the Beast!" The fascinating mutualism between a South African meganosed fly and a deep-throated geranium builds a case study in coevolution for your biology buffs to analyze. After reading about this...
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Lesson Plan
Science Friday

Termite Symbiosis

For Students 6th - 8th
What happens to the wood a termite eats? Pupils learn about the three types of symbiosis with pictures of symbiotic pairs. Afterward, they determine whether there is a symbiotic relationship with a termite by dissecting termites and...
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PPT
Biology Junction

Ecology

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Psychologists study human relationships while ecologist study relationships between organisms in the environment. An introduction to ecology and the related vocabulary benefits scholars as they progress through the presentation and...
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Interactive
NOAA

Investigating Coral Bleaching Using Data in the Classroom

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Approximately 93 percent of the individual reefs in the Great Barrier Reef suffer from coral bleaching. Scholars learn how scientists monitor coral bleaching around the world as part of a larger series. They use actual data to answer...
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Lesson Plan
Nuffield Foundation

Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria in Root Nodules of Leguminous Plants

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Fixin' to add a great resource to your plans? Scholars perform an experiment to investigate nitrogen-fixing bacteria from plant roots. Along the way, they learn about the concepts of symbiosis and mutualism.
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Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Symbiosis: Mutualism, Commensalism, and Parasitism

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Hyenas normally hunt alone, however scientists discovered that in Israel, hyenas hunt with wolf packs. When relationships develop between different species, we call it symbiosis. The videos teach about the three types of symbiosis and an...
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Lesson Plan
NOAA

Microfriends

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Is there medicine found in the organisms that live deep below the surface of the ocean? The fifth activity in a six-part series has learners team up to research bacteria and the relationship it has with nearly every living thing on...
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Activity
2
2
National Park Service

Fitting In

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Birds help other birds find food? Scholars are placed into one of five groups of different birds. Each group then "feeds" on letters of paper in a field and gather five pieces per person. As each group plays, more food is exposed,...
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Lesson Plan
Virginia Department of Education

Organisms in Symbiosis

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Searching for an activity that allows emerging biologists to explore symbiosis up close and personal? Pupils collect samples and view lichens through a microscope and conclude with a discussion about the relationship they have with other...
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Activity
Busch Gardens

Create an Invertebrate

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
What better way for young biologists to learn about invertebrates than by creating their very own? Here, students are assigned a set of invertebrate characteristics and are asked to invent an imaginary ocean animal and a separate...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Raven Chapter 54 Guided Notes: Community Ecology

For Students 9th - 12th
Providing a sweeping overview of population and community interactions, this ecology activity gets learners thinking. They differentiate between habitat and niche, describe and give exemplars of various animal and plant defenses, explain...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Interactions of Living Things

For Students 6th - 8th
Is it a producer, carnivore, omnivore, scavenger, or decomposer? Different relationships among organisms are explored here. It is a simple, multiple choice assignment. Use it as a quick warm-up or quiz.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Friend, Foe, or . . .

For Teachers 5th - 6th
As a result of this lesson, upper elementary ocean explorers will be able to describe several interrelationships: symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. They learn that the biological richness is increased near seamounts and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Symbiosis: Help, Hinder or Destroy

For Teachers 6th Standards
Use background information and vocabulary to familiarize your students with the concept of symbiosis and the role agriculture plays in the shared relationship. They then write the vocabulary in their lab books or journals, and read the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Symbiosis

For Teachers 7th - 9th
In this symbiosis worksheet, students complete a graphic organizer about the three types of symbiosis. They define commensalism, mutualism, and parasitism and list the important things to remember about each.
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Organizer
Curated OER

Symbiosis: Helped, Harmed, or Neither?

For Students 5th - 12th
In this symbiosis worksheet, students will brainstorm 2 examples of each different type of symbiotic relationship which includes mutualism, parasitism, and commensalism.
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Worksheet
Curated OER

The Principles of Ecology

For Students 6th - 10th
In this ecology worksheet, students complete a word search by finding 21 terms associated with habitat, ecology, biosphere, and niche.
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Organizer
Curated OER

Trials of Life: Living Together

For Students 7th - 9th
For this trials for life worksheet, students fill in the charts as they watch a video. Students identify the types of symbiosis as mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, or predator-prey relationship.
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Organizer
Curated OER

What Relationship Do Species Have?

For Students 5th - 10th
In this species relationships worksheet, students will brainstorm animals or plants that are examples of mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Endosymbiosis: A Friend Within

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Young scholars research the ecological principle of symbiosis. Using a microscope, students observe the relationship of mutualism between termites and flagellates. Young scholars examine a live termite and protozoans. They discuss the...
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Lesson Plan
University of South Florida

Project Oceanography: Single Celled Organisms [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
For this lesson, students explore three kinds of symbiotic relationships involving unicellular organisms. They will also look more closely at the relationship between zooxanthellae and coral, and the importance of nitrogen-fixing...