Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement (COSEE)
Plankton to Penguins: Antarctic Food Web
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...
Curated OER
The Flower and the Fly
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...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Make a Difference!
We are very dependent upon other life forms around us to survive. Here, scholars explore relationships in the ecosystem with the help of Auntie Litter and the pollution patrol. They imagine a world without grass, making connections to...
Curated OER
Cooperation, Trust and Interdependence
Learners experience what it is like to depend on a group for their safety and to accomplish a goal. They increase their need for interdependence and cooperation in building relationships. Students need to explore the effective...
Curated OER
Bartering, an Early Form of Interdependence
Students explore the the benefits and problems associated with a barter system in the Colonies and trace its relationship to the development of interdependence that this system creates. An experience of bartering is created in this lesson.
World Wildlife Fund
Arctic Food Chain
Explore the food chains that support Arctic ecosystems. A class discussion on interdependence and the different roles plants and animals play in ecosystems provides students with the knowledge to complete a worksheet asking them to...
Michigan State University
Bug Lyphe!
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...
Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement (COSEE)
One Ocean: It Matters!
Here is the first of four poignant lessons on how humans and oceans interact, even if people live far from the coast. This particular lesson also examines studies that are taking place in Antarctica of how climate change is affecting the...
Terminix
The Pollinator
What do bees and children have in common? They both love their sweets. Decorate a flower pot or bucket to look like a brightly colored flower and fill it with wrapped candy and cheese puffs. Have learners reach into grab the candy,...
Curated OER
Dirt Babies
Dirt babies are an excellent way to show young botanists the plant life cycle. They explore the functions and industry behind grasses before growing some of their own. Use the informational text here and consider implementing some...
Curated OER
Interactions of Living Things
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.
Curated OER
Web of Interdependence
Students investigate the colonial era and the crafts practiced in each of the trades as an expression of the interdependence the colonists had on each other. The impact of emigration from an American colonial town is experienced as...
NorthEast Ohio Geoscience Education Outreach
Ecosystems and Change
Pairs of ecologists select an animal and investigate an ecosystem from its point of view. This simple lesson involves Internet research and putting together a presentation of collected information.
Curated OER
Links in the Chain of Life
Using the prairie dog community as an example, middle school ecologists examine the food web. Pairs of learners take one species in the community and research its role in the ecosystem. They share their findings with the rest of the...
Curated OER
Dependence and Interdependence
Third graders explore the dependence and interdependence that plants and animals in every environment have on one another. They examine how plants and animals depend on each other for survival. Students complete a variety of experiments...
Curated OER
Wildlife
The centerpiece of this lesson plan is a predator-prey simulation in which colored paperclips represent different species of animals camouflaged against a colored background. Relevant follow-up questions are provided. The activity is...
Curated OER
Bats, Bees, Birds, and Blossoms
Youngsters use a paper bee to pollinate two paper flowers. They use hole-punch dots as pollen. Older learners dissect flowers and name the structures involved in pollination. The handouts mentioned in the lesson plan are not included, so...
Curated OER
Interdependence and Adaptation
Find out how camels and polar bears are each perfectly suited to their environments because of their physical adaptations. Several key features of each animal are discussed along with how those features work in their specific...
Curated OER
Ecology
For use early in the year with your ecology class, this collection of slides introduces viewers to cycles in nature and relationships between organisms. There is a food web diagram, but the presentation is incomplete without any diagrams...
Curated OER
Saturday Sancocho
Second graders identify the economic principles and processes that are helpful to producers and consumers when making good decisions. Students will read, comprehend, interpret, analyze, and evaluate literary text as well as explain how...
Curated OER
Introduction to Fair Trade
Learners investigate fair trade practices. In this economics lesson, students conduct collaborative research on fair trade practices, the controversies of trade, and the effects of fair trade practices. Learners present their findings to...
Curated OER
Food Contributions
Fourth graders make an alphabet book. In this food contributions instructional activity students identify foods first harvested by indigenous people. Students use the different foods that are still eaten today that were first harvested...
Curated OER
Early Explorers
Fifth graders examine how the environment and climate affected Pre-Colombian settlements. In this civilization lesson, 5th graders view pictures of different Native American tribes in different places and discuss how different groups...
Curated OER
A Walk in the Forest
Students explore interrelationships among plants and animals. Students listen to Where to, Little Wombat? by Charles Fuge, and contribute words and phrases for a classroom animal and plant survival chart. Students take a walk in a...