Concord Consortium
Concord Consortium: Stem Resources: The Virtual Ecosystem
What does competition for food do to a population? Experience what happens to a rabbit population with limited resources in this virtual ecosystem. At the end of the exercise, there are questions relating to concepts reviewed.
Science Struck
Science Struck: Limiting Factors in the Desert Ecosystem
Describes conditions in a desert that limit how large populations of species can grow.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Life Science: 12.3 Population
Discover what a population is in regards to an ecosystem.
Oswego City School District
Regents Prep: Ecosystems/communities
Abiotic factors vary in the environment and determining the types and numbers of organisms that exist in that environment. Factors which determine the types and numbers of organisms of a species in an ecosystem are called limiting...
Science Struck
Science Struck: The 6 Chief Levels of Organization in Ecology
Describes six levels of organization in the biological world - individual species, population, community, ecosystem, biome, and biosphere.
PBS
Nova: Earth in Peril
A series of nine maps with accompanying explanations. They show how population growth has affected the environment around the world in terms of water availability, climate change, land and forest use, and more. There are both interactive...
CPALMS
Florida State University Cpalms: Florida Students: Limits to Population Growth
Explore biotic and abiotic factors that can influence the growth of populations of organisms in this interactive tutorial.
Concord Consortium
Concord Consortium: Evolution: Natural Selection
The concept of interdependence in an ecosystem and its effect on the evolution of populations is further explored through a model of a dam. Students build a dam in the middle of the field, dividing the ecosystem in half to illustrate the...
Other
Western North Carolina Vitality Index: Ecosystem Threats
The forests of Western North Carolina are threatened by a wide variety of environmental stressors and disturbances, such as insects, disease, invasive species, drought, fire, hurricanes, tornadoes, and ice storms. A stressor is any kind...
University of California
University of California Berkeley: Ecosystem Equilibrium
A simulator reviewing over the concepts of ecosystem equilibrium.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Environmental Interactions: Connectedness of a Natural System
A field experience where students undergo an exploration in a natural environment. They are introduced to the concepts of species, population, community, ecosystem, niche, and biosphere.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Life Science: 12.7 Competition
Understand how competition affects the populations in an ecosystem.
Utah STEM Foundation
Utah Stem Action Center: Great Salt Lake Ecosystem
This lesson plan provides an eight-day flow of educational activities in which students use the Great Salt Lake ecosystem to explore food webs and how changes in living and nonliving factors affect different populations.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Life Science: 12.4 Population Growth Patterns
Explore growth patterns in wildlife populations.
American Geosciences Institute
American Geosciences Institute: Earth Science Week: Monitoring Life in the Rocky Intertidal Ecosystem
This activity will allow learners to learn the sampling techniques used in the field by citizen scientists who participate in LiMPETS, five national marine sanctuaries along the West Coast.
Read Works
Read Works: Changes in Biodiversity
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about changes in biodiversity and the chain reaction of problems they can cause. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Other
Pde Sas: Relationships Among Organisms
In this instructional activity, students compare various types of relationships among organisms (i.e., biotic interactions). Students will: explain the roles of producers and consumers, and predators and prey in an ecosystem. Explain the...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: A Subsistence Culture Impacted by Climate Change
This short video explains how warmer temperatures in the Arctic are transforming the ecosystem and affecting the Athabaskan people, threatening their way of life. [2:59]
Other
Hub Pages: Biotic Factors of Ecosystem: Producers, Consumers and Decomposers
An ecosystem is composed of biotic factors of a community of living organisms interacting with one another which we can see in food chains/webs. These diverse organisms stay together because of the need of food. Population is referred to...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Population: Lesson 2
This lesson will describe the properties of populations. It is 2 of 8 in the series titled "Population."
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Population: Lesson 3
This lesson will describe the properties of populations. It is 3 of 8 in the series titled "Population."
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Population: Lesson 4
This lesson will describe the properties of populations. It is 4 of 8 in the series titled "Population."
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Changing the Ecosystem: Q & a [Pdf]
"Changing the Ecosystem: Q & A" is a one page, nonfiction, reading passage about how the loss of the prairie to farming and population growth impacts the ecosystem. It is followed by questions which require students to provide...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Eagles in the Ecosystem Classroom Jigsaw Activity
In this in-depth jigsaw activity, students investigate the role bald eagles play in the ecosystem, why they were listed as endangered, the effects of DDT on eagles, and the effects of lead on eagles. Furthermore, students will then graph...