Baylor College
Food Webs
Explore various ecosystems from around the world as your class discovers the interdependence of all living things. Using the provided sets of ecosystem cards, young scientists work in small groups building food webs to demonstrate the...
Baylor College
Plant Parts You Eat
Plants provide a variety of delicious foods essential for human survival. In the fourth lesson of this series on food science, young scientists investigate common fruits, vegetables, and grains in order to determine which plant part is...
Baylor College
Serving Sizes
Are serving sizes for different foods always appropriate for what you need? In this hands-on activity, learners work in groups to estimate what one serving size of various foods are, and then evaluate their hypotheses by measuring real...
NOAA
Seafood and Human Health
Whether your young biologists realize it or not, humans play a significant role in marine ecosystems. To help them understand this fact children first create graphical representations that show homo sapiens' place in marine food chains,...
Michigan Sea Grant
Food Web II
A food web consists of complex food chains and the more complex the web, the better likelihood of survival. Learners compare and contrast food webs and food chains and discuss concepts like the predator-prey and consumer-producer...
Curated OER
Everybody Needs a Little Sunshine
Three activities introduce upper elementary ecologists to photosynthesis and food webs. In the first, an experiment is set up to determine how plants respond to different types of light. In the second, they connect organism cards with...
Curated OER
Marine Food Web
Students investigate the effects of the food chain on all animals by creating a food web. In this seafood lesson, students discuss energy flow and research a specific marine organism of their choice. Students create a food web in their...
Curated OER
Recyclers to the Rescue
Producers, consumers, food chains, and plants are the stars of this science lesson. Learners take part in an inquiry which helps them to discover the most effective and efficient way to grow a producer. They have a variety of containers...
Curated OER
Interdependence and Adaptation
Fifth graders construct a food web to illustrate how animals and plants are interdependent. In this interdependence instructional activity, 5th graders identify how consumers, producers, herbivores, carnivores and predators are related...
Curated OER
Step by Step
Students explore agriculture by creating a food production diagram. In this farming lesson, students read assigned text about the entities that assist in food production companies such as farmers, truckers and supermarkets. Students...
National Park Service
Living & Non-Living Interactions
What better way to learn about ecosystems than by getting outside and observing them first hand? Accompanying a field trip to a local park or outdoor space, this series of collaborative activities engages children in learning about the...
Curated OER
Food Web
Students use a software program to create a food web. Using the web, they identify the path of energy using arrows and label organisms as either producers or consumers. They show and explain their food web to the class.
Curated OER
Recyclers to the Rescue
Fifth graders examine the concept of the food chain and define producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore. They draw a food chain for a mouse and discuss the different organisms involved in the chain, and conduct an...
Curated OER
Circle of Life
Students consider why we eat and where our food obtains its energy. They illustrate food chains that might be found on an open field, dissect owl pellets, identify the remains of animals in the pellets, watch videos and participate in...
Curated OER
Circle of Life
Here is a well-designed science lesson plan that shows learners that everything that organisms do in ecosystems, including running, breathing, burrowing, growing, requires energy. After a thorough discussion of their own eating and...
Curated OER
Skulls Tell It All
Skulls tell it all, and with this lesson plan, you will tell it all to your class! Youngsters view animal skulls, analyzing the shape of teeth and the placement of the eye sockets. They associate these adaptations with the types of food...
Curated OER
Food Safety From Food To Fork
Young scholars are introduced to the concept of food safety. In groups, they distinguish between fact and opinion and cause and effect while participating in a board game. They write an essay about what knowledge they gained and review...
Curated OER
Science All Around You
Students visit and explore a Hands On Science Center (HOSC). They participate in a variety of self-guided table exercises and observe as scientists demonstrate various scientific principles.
Curated OER
Get Your Calcium - Rich Foods
Fifth graders explore personal health by identifying positive food choices. In this calcium sources lesson, 5th graders discuss the common ways a human can receive calcium such as consuming dairy products. Students view a virtual tour of...
Curated OER
Food Pesticides and Their Risks to Children
Students examine an industrial disaster in India which affected the food for generations to come. In groups, they research the history of pesticides and place them into groups based on the type of pests they control. They partcipate in...
Curated OER
The Web Of Life - Overlapping Food Chains
Students perform an activity in which they discover what happens when food chains overlap in an ecosystem and discover the three components of a food web.
Alliance Theater
The Jungle Book Post-Show STEAM Lesson
An ecosystem is really just the flow of energy through many different living organisms. A study of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book leads to an environmental science activity in which learners study how various factors can affect...
Curated OER
Producers and Energy Transfer
Fifth graders discuss the relationship between producers, consumers, and decomposers as they look at the energy pyramid. While working in small groups, they create an ecosystem that includes all or some of the given categories, and they...
Curated OER
What is an Ecological Footprint?
Introduce youngsters to the term ecological footprint. Learners identify ways in which humans affect the environment. They look at the problems associated with the use of natural resources, and focus on ways to preserve natural...