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Exploring the Water Cycle
Students investigate the water cycle. In this water cycle instructional activity, students create an ecosystem within a 2-liter bottle. Students record scientific observations as they observe the water cycle within their ecosystem.
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The Living Environment
Students explore the cycles of an ecosystem. In this environmental science lesson, students work in groups to research the nitrogen cycle, the water cycle, or the oxygen-carbon dioxide cycle. Students prepare a PowerPoint or other...
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Pond Ecology
A lab activity is a great way to incite thoughtful questioning and scientific processes. Pupils will collect organisms with a Petri dish, make observations, sketch the organism, ask questions, then attempt to identify the specimen...
Virginia Department of Education
The Cycles of Nature
Encourage peer collaboration and assist with the creation of visual aids to identify carbon, water, and nitrogen cycles as your class learns more about nature. They discuss relative information, create a visual aid depicting the chosen...
Forest Foundation
Fire - How Does it Relate to You?
Forest fires can be a necessary step in keeping a forest healthy, but what happens when they get out of control? Learners investigate the causes and effects of forest fires in two specific areas, culminating in a report about the ways...
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The Gaia Hypothesis: An Approach to Problem Solving in the Environment
Learners are introduced to the Gaia hypothesis by examining a conceptual sketch. In groups, they analyze the way they can use Dewey's method for problem solving to solve problems within the environment. They are given a problem facing...
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Aquatic Ecosystems
Students study ponds and wetland ecosystems and examine the food chains and webs in them. For this aquatic ecosystems lesson students answer questions about the diversity of the flora and fauna in a pond.
Polar Trec
Arctic Smorgasbord!
Two blooms of phytoplankton, instead of just one, now occur in the Arctic due to declining sea ice, which will have widespread effects on the marine life and climate. In small groups, participants build an Arctic food web with given...
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The Portable Niche
Third graders, in groups, research animals, plants, and conditions found in ecosystems.
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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...
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Habitat survival
Sixth graders study different environments and how the food chain affects the survival of different animals. In this environments lesson plan, 6th graders share the visuals which describe the characteristics of the environment that they...
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Understanding Interactions Among Local Species and the Local Environment
Students examine the differences between biotic and abiotic factors, explain the difference between habitat and niche and compare how organisms get their nutritional needs. In this local environment instructional activity students trace...
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Oh Panther
Students play a game that replicates the balance of prey and predators in an ecosystem. In this physical education lesson, students follow the instructions to play "Oh Panther!" Students collect data regarding the game and discuss the...
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Food Chain
Students explore the cycle of how each living thing gets food. In this food chain unit, students participate in four lesson plans that highlight animal vocabulary, habitats, and the role of humans in our ecosystem. Students demonstrate...
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A Walk in the Woods
Eighth graders observe and identify the different levels of the forest. In this forest zones lesson students observe, identify and name a variety of forest components and describe how humans impact the forest ecosystem.
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Ecology and the St. Lawrence River
Ninth graders complete a unit of lessons on ecosystems, organism interactions, and energy flow. They create a key for known species of fish, diagram the movement of energy through an ecosystem, and create and present food chains and food...
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Coral Reefs Endangered
Students identify different types of nutritional relationships in a coral reef system and trace the energy flow. In this marine biology instructional activity students create a simulation of acidification of the coral reef.
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The Many, Varied, and Unusual Places and Things on Earth
Students discover how energy flows through communities because of the relationship between producers, consumers and decomposers. Examining various ecosystems, they identify the materials that cycle continuously through them. They label...
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Food Webs
Students research rainforest animals and use that information to make a flow chart to show the order in which energy is transferred through several organisms. They label the producers, consumers, and decomposers in their chart.
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Earth Systems Science
High schoolers perform experiments designed to grow plants and bacteria in a controlled environment. In this ecosystems lesson students investigate varying conditions for growing plants and bacteria.
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Columbus Travel Agency
Eighth graders research about their chosen ecosystem. In this life science instructional activity, 8th graders play the role of travel agents and create a travel brochure. They share this in class.
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Food Chains & Food Webs
Students examine the concepts of food chains and food webs. They trace back common food chains found in nature, demonstrate the interdependence of organisms through a food webbing activity, and analyze the flow of the food chain of a...
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Mini-Ponds
In this mini pond worksheet, students create a mini-pond ecosystem with soil, water, and plant life. Students let their ecosystem sit for a day and they observe a sample the next day. Students identify all the pond water microorganisms...
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Dirty Decomposers
Learners explore the ecosystem by conducting a ziploc bag experiment. In this recycling lesson, students identify decomposer organisms in our environment and how they speed up the recycling process. Learners utilize a ziploc plastic bag,...