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Lesson Plan
NOAA

Build Your Own Ocean Ecosystem

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
Hold the sea in the palm of your hand! Amateur oceanographers work together to create models of an ocean ecosystem in the sixth and final installment in a series. Raise awareness of global ocean health issues through guided research,...
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Lesson Plan
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Baylor College

Bio Build-up

For Teachers K - 5th Standards
Trace pollutants through the environment in the seventh lesson of this series on the science of food. Looking at a picture of the plants and animals in an aquatic ecosystem, learners use dot stickers to represent harmful chemicals as...
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Lesson Plan
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Baylor College

Food Webs

For Teachers 2nd - 5th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Ecosystems, Human Activity, And Interactions, Oh My!: Human/Environment Interaction

For Teachers 5th Standards
Word clouds about ecosystems hook learners into a lesson that explores Yellowstone wildlife. Young scientists create cause-and-effect relationships after examining data and recommend solutions to their observed problems. More data...
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Lesson Plan
MENSA Education & Research Foundation

Ecosystems

For Teachers 5th Standards
Explore the Earth's different ecosystems through four lessons, an assessment, and extension activities. Lessons include informative text and step-by-step instructions to apply knowledge in interactive, and thought provoking ways; such as...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Marvels of Mud

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Young scientists roll up their sleeves and get a little dirty in this three-day earth science investigation. Following the scientific method, children monitor the growth of algae in pond water samples in order to determine the role that...
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Lesson Plan
Michigan State University

Bug Lyphe!

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Introduce ecology classes to biodiversity and interdependence in ecosystems with a PowerPoint presentation. Then, they get up-close and personal with the invertebrate world by collecting insects, classifying them, and graphing their...
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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

Nature Walk and Ecosystem Introduction

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
A food web has no organism higher than a tertiary consumer because there wouldn't be enough energy left to sustain them. The fourth installment in a seven-part series begins with a nature walk to get pupils thinking about their...
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Lesson Plan
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University of Washington

The Carbon Cycle

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
When it comes to the carbon cycle, the sky really is the limit. The lesson begins with observing a closed ecosystem in a bottle. Then, scholars discuss and answer questions on the carbon dioxide and oxygen cycles. 
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Lesson Plan
National Park Service

Living & Non-Living Interactions

For Teachers 2nd - 6th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Purdue University

Eco-llapse

For Teachers K - 5th Standards
A balanced ecosystem doesn't mean balanced populations. Budding scientists complete a series of activities to learn about the relationship between producers and consumers in an ecosystem. They complete the wildlife conservation...
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Lesson Plan
Illinois Department of Natural Resources

Section Two: Why is Biodiversity Important?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Explore soil, genetic traits, natural resources, and pollution in a series of lessons that focus on biodiversity. Kids complete experiments to learn more about the importance of varied genes and organisms in an ecosystem.
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Lesson Plan
Illinois Department of Natural Resources

Section One: What is Biodiversity?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Four intriguing and scientific activities invite learners to explore the natural resources of their town. The activities cover concepts such as genetic traits, organizing species in a taxonomy, the differences between different species...
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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

Ecological Mismatches

For Students 5th - 6th Standards
Modeling is a powerful teaching tool. The final installment in a six-part series has pupils complete an activity to model a food web and discover the interconnected relationships in an ecosystem. They then read about changes in migratory...
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Lesson Plan
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Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement (COSEE)

Plankton to Penguins: Antarctic Food Web

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A well-written lesson plan, second in a series of four, gets high schoolers exploring how the Antarctic food web is impacted by climate change and the associated melting of polar ice sheets. It begins with a PowerPoint presentation about...
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Lesson Plan
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American Forest Foundation

Who Speaks for the Trees?

For Teachers Pre-K - 8th Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Polar Trec

Rings of Life

For Teachers 3rd - 12th Standards
Individuals analyze tree rings to determine the health of an ecosystem. They then look at otoliths of fish, hard calcium carbonate structures located behind the brain, in the same manner. 
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Lesson Plan
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Lesson 4: Gorongosa's Food Webs

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Who eats who in the savannas of Africa? Explore trophic levels with part four of an eight-part series of lessons focused around Gorongosa National Park. After young explorers identify animals using trailcam images, they construct a food...
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Lesson Plan
University of Kentucky

Beneficial Bug Scavenger Hunt

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Many people think of bugs as annoying pests to be squashed, but most insects and spiders are beneficial, eating the actual pests or pollinating plants. After reviewing some of the common bugs in your area (they may differ from those...
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Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

Habitat Web

For Teachers K - 6th Standards
It's all connected. Classes create a web to connect living things in a local ecosystem. They create cards with both living and nonliving things found in their areas while considering the characteristics of each. After they have a good...
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Lesson Plan
ARKive

Adaptations to Arid Habitats

For Teachers 6th - 8th
How do plants and animals survive in habitats with very little water? Explore arid ecosystems and the way their inhabitants have adapted with a lesson and science experiment. After kids listen to a presentation about adaptation, they...
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Lesson Plan
NOAA

Deep-Sea Ecosystems – Chemosynthesis for the Classroom

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Photosynthesis was discovered in the 1770s, but chemosynthesis wasn't discovered until 1977. While many have performed an experiment to show how photosynthesis works, the activity allows pupils to observe chemosynthesis. Scholars set up...
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Lesson Plan
National Park Service

Reduce Our Carbon Footprint, Let’s Compost!

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Roll up your sleeves and get a little dirty with this elementary and middle school compost lesson. All you need is a large plastic container, a couple old newspapers, some organic waste, and a few hundred worms and you're ready to start...
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Lesson Plan
University of California

Plankton

For Teachers 4th - 12th Standards
Plankton: so much more than just a SpongeBob character. Three different activities have kids looking at both phytoplankton and zooplankton in pictures, as well as collecting their own samples (depending on your access to a saltwater...

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