Curated OER
What's for Dinner?
View a video presentation comparing chemosynthesis to photosynthesis. Review the findings of the 2004 Ring of Fire Expedition that studied biological communities around the hydrothermal vents of the Mariana Arc. In collaborative groups,...
Serendip
Changing Biological Communities – Disturbance and Succession
After cutting down a forest to make a farm, how long would it take the environment to turn an abandoned farm back into a forest? Scholars study this exact scenario while they interpret many charts and graphs of the changing ecosystems as...
NOAA
Community Ecology and Sampling
Seamounts in the Coral and Tasman Seas are home to more than 850 different species. Groups explore hydrothermal vents, researching the organisms found there and their energy source. They also learn about seamounts, exploring their unique...
Curated OER
Biology Career Exploration
Students select a biology-related career for research. They use school and community resources to gather information for this career. Students complete a college application. They share their findings with classmates.
Curated OER
Hot Food
Students compare and contrast photosynthesis and chemosynthesis as processes that provide energy to biological communities. They investigate the energy content of hydrocarbons used in coral communities.
Curated OER
Let's go to the Video Tape!
Using actual data from a deep-sea video survey, high school marine biologists consider the biodiversity, compare species richness between two communities, and learn to calculate the diversity index. The lesson plan is all-inclusive,...
Curated OER
Communities and Biomes
In this communities worksheet, students will look at the interactions between biotic and abiotic factors and the effect these factors have on organism populations. Students will also order the succession steps that occur over time in an...
Curated OER
Keep Away
Study biological diversity by analyzing given data, and make inferences about the possible effects of oil drilling operations on specific benthic communities. This lesson allows students to use their statistical analysis skills asweel as...
Curated OER
Big Fleas Have Little Fleas
A benthic habitat hosts a vast collection of organisms and its structure influences the biodiversity. Middle-school marine biology explorers will discuss how corals impact structure, and therefore diversity, on the ocean floor. They draw...
Curated OER
Analyzing Intertidal and Deep Sea Vent Communities
Students study how scientists measure diversity. In this diversity lesson students look at marine communities and look at data to calculate diversity in 3 different ways.
Curated OER
Examining Pond Life
Students collect and examine microscopic life from a local pond. In this biology lesson, students examine local pond water, searching for protozoa, with the use of a microscope. Students identify the various life forms in their slides...
Biology Junction
What Is Ecology?
Do you know the name for the biological study of interactions? A short presentation with accompanying worksheet introduces individuals to ecology. The materials offer a broad overview of the subject and the levels of organization to...
Curated OER
AP: Chapter 54: Ecosystems
A lot of learning is packed into these 23 questions about ecosystems. Advanced biology classes apply their knowledge of communities, productivity, biogeochemical cycles, and human impact on the environment by writing short answers for...
Curated OER
Community Ecology
Chart ecological community interactions and answer questions about niche, defenses, trophic structure, and succession. This community ecology worksheet provides a general overview of the interactions that occur among organisms that share...
Curated OER
A Survey of Plankton Communities
In this biology worksheet, students identify and define the vocabulary terms listed and make a prediction about the outcomes of the experiment. Then they complete the chart of the observations of the plankton diversity in drops of pond...
Curated OER
A Piece of Cake: Ocean Communities
Students explain habitats. In this model based lesson students create a model to help describe a habitat that is typical of deep-water. Students will describe how organisms such as coral and sponges add to their habitat.
Curated OER
Chemosynthesis for the Classroom
Explorers set up Windogradsky columns with local mud so that they can culture microorganisms. After three and six weeks they make observations of the mud and the organisms growing in it. In this way they observe succession and relate...
Curated OER
Marine Communities
Students view a video and then complete lab exercises to help them explain marine communities and animals in them.
Curated OER
Let's Hit the Slopes!
Students study benthic communities in the Gulf of Mexico and explain their roles. For this investigative lesson students participate in a group activity and study how to calculate and index of biological communities.
Curated OER
Life is Weird
Separate your science class into small groups and assign each a specific deep-sea organism to research. The class will learn about all of the organisms as each group presents their assigned animal. Following their presentations, you can...
Curated OER
How Diverse is That?
After reviewing biodiversity, learners work in small groups to analyze actual species distribution data. They learn to calculate the Shannon-Weaver diversity index for different communities. Though not particularly engaging, the content...
Curated OER
Animals and Engineering
Students study animal classification and their interactions. In this animals and engineering lesson students study animal communities and how engineers use this knowledge to create new technologies.
Curated OER
Friend, Foe, or . . .
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...
Curated OER
One Tough Worm
Students explain the process of chemosynthesis. They are able to explain the relevance of chemosynthesis to biological communities in the vicinity of cold seeps.