Lesson Plan
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Striking a Balance

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students demonstrate understanding of food chain by assuming roles of animals, playing tag, and simulating feeding relationships.
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Pollination Power

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders study and examine the structure of a flower.  In this pollination lesson plan, 2nd graders observe pollinators in the garden and dissect a flower. Students then plant strawberry plants in the garden and observe the...
Lesson Plan
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How Can Clear of Tress Destroy a Community?

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders brainstorm the relationship between trees and humans to determine how humans benefit from trees and how they benefit from us. They discuss oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange, soil stablization, animal habitat, shade, medicine...
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How Many Bears in the Forest?

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders model the tag and recapture of bears and use proportions to estimate the population of the bears in their forest. This is a statistical sampling method used by scientists and naturalists to determine population numbers.
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ABC Safari

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Students study the animals and their alphabet letter. In this animal alphabet lesson, students associate the animals with their letter and learn facts about the animals. Students may use the cards to classify animals by groups or play a...
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Go Fish!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students are introduced to the culture of the Kumeyaay. Using their text, they discover how they used their native flora and fauna in San Diego. They participate in a matching game and examine the types of organisms who make their home...
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Carnivorous Plants

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Pupils examine how carnivorous plants get their nutrients from animals.  In this food web lesson students examine how the plants attract their prey and are given many onilne sources to research.
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Exploring Limu Diversity

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students explore limu diversity. In this ocean ecosystem lesson, students classify limu according to its physical properties. Students work in small groups to generate scientific observations and sort limu by characteristics.
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Wildlife Habitat

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine habitats and describe their elements.  In this wildlife habitat lesson students study the factors that affect habitat and write a short report.
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Dynamic Wetlands

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students construct and observe a model of two different types of wetlands. In this wetlands lesson, students create a model of a wetland with constant drainage and a wetland that maintains a well-saturated soil. Students observe and...
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Speedy Succession

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders investigate how a pond ecosystem can change into a prairie or grassland ecosystem. They observe a small pond ecosystem in a two liter soda bottle, and examine and record changes over a two-week period of time on a worksheet.
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Exploring Forest Objects

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Young scholars explore the forest. In this ecosystems lesson, students rotate through sensory activity centers, brainstorm, and read about temperate forests.
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Deep Jungle: New Frontiers

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Learners watch a series of videos and observe the different plants and animals found in the rainforests. In this ecology lesson, students discuss how technology helped scientists study the jungle. They create 3D maps of Borneo rainforests.
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Going...going...gone? Tropical Rainforests-How They Work, What They Do for Us, What's Being Done to Them...

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders explore the Tropical Rainforest and come to understand what it is and how it affects the ecosystem. In this rainforests lesson, 6th graders write about the Tropical Rainforest, imagine they are in the Tropical Rainforest,...
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Paper Makers

For Teachers K - 5th
Students make recycled paper out of scrap paper, water, and leaves. In this natural resources lesson plan, students learn about conservation of the forest and how we can use recycled paper to fuel our paper supply.
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Pollination Power

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students go out into the garden and observe pollinating animals through hand lenses. In this pollination lesson plan, students also discuss how animals carry seeds to create new plants elsewhere.
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Succession and Microclimate

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students compare the population of insects in different microclimates. For this biology lesson, students collect data using probes to tabulate temperature and soil data. They predict how certain parameters change as an area goes...
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Protoplast Production (Plant Cells Without Walls)

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explore the spherical protoplasts of plants. Students observe that plant cells have a plasma membrane in addition to the cell wall. Students plasma membranes, solutes and organelles.
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The Birds and the Bees, and the Flowers and the Trees

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers examine the roles in which animals play in the pollination of plants. They recognize that flowers have male and female sexes. Students describe cross pollination and propose reasons for cross pollination through narration...
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Unique Ecosystems

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders explain how in any particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. They research the ecosystem of which each animal or plant is natively a part.
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Chicago: The City in Art, 1995-2000

For Teachers K - 3rd
Students examine a mural of animals and talk about animal classification. They act as scientists and keep a record, called a Jungle Journal, of plants and animals they observe while studying the rainforest.
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Global Resources: What Will You Do with Your Power?

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Students examine the human impact on natural resources. They read and discuss an article, evaluate nations regarding their environmental problem-solving, develop a presidential speech on the environment, and conduct a natural resources...
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The Great Kapok Tree..

For Teachers K - 4th
Students predict what each animal in the story read says and then compare them. They pretend that a tree was cut down and write a new ending for the story. Students explain why the story is not true and create a Venn Diagram comparing...
Lesson Plan
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Striking a Balance

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students participate in an activity that demonstrates the principles and dynamics of food chains. They discover that the sun's energy is captured by individual plants and transferred to animals.