Curated OER
Oklahoma Grown: Discovering Oklahoma's Agriculture
Fourth graders investigate where Oklahoma's variety of crops are harvested, and grown their own plants. A printable map and crop information guide are provided.
Curated OER
I See a Coyote
Students role-play coyotes looking for natural resources. For this natural resources lesson, students examine the relationship between animal life and the environment. Students play a game that demonstrates how natural resources affect...
Curated OER
A Growing Success
Students create a multimedia presentation as a culmination of a plant unit. In this hyperstudio lesson, students research from assigned sites and create a Hyperstudio stack. Students write a cinquain.
Curated OER
What a Garden Can Teach Us
Third graders read "Seedfolks" and "What a Garden Can Teach Us" and discuss how a garden is like a community. They create a class quilt illustrating how their classroom community the lines of the poem.
Curated OER
Ecological Communities:The Prairie
Students study the meaning of ecological community and recognize its complexity. In this ecology lesson plan students diagram a food web.
Curated OER
Habitats of the World
Students complete a unit of eighteen lessons that cover climate, geography, location, plants, and animals of each of the five habitats. They are also introduced to habitat destruction and discuss ways to protect the environment. They do...
Curated OER
Planting a Monarch Butterfly Garden
Young scholars raise money to purchase milkweed plants for their butterfly garden. In this gardening lesson plan, students listen to the story Miss Rumphius to determine why it is important to plant milkweed for butterflies. Young...
Curated OER
Quadrat Sampling 101
Students explore the population of grass plants in a given area. They plan and conduct a sampling activity to estimate the population of dandelions or the number of grass blades on the school grounds.
Curated OER
The Bulbs: Camas and Daffodil
Fourth graders become aware of the importance of the camas bulb to the Nez Perce people, they learn the parts of plants, and gain understanding of the interdependence of Nature. They study about the possible causes and outcomes of global...
Curated OER
Social Studies and Children's Literature
Students write a journal in response to literature. The story that is read is about prairies. The subject of prairies becomes an object for research. The culminating activity is the making of a map where prairies exist in the United States.
Curated OER
Explore the Food Web
Students identify plants and animals in the journals of Lewis and Clark's expedition. They describe the various animal habits. Students interpret the behaviors of the animals discovered on the expedition. They design a food web using...
Curated OER
Land Use
Students examine ecosystems that covered Illinois 200 years ago, investigate some living and non-living components of ecosystems, identify components of prairie system, create food webs, and observe human effects on environment. Lessons...
Curated OER
Striking a Balance
Young scholars demonstrate understanding of food chain by assuming roles of animals, playing tag, and simulating feeding relationships.
Curated OER
The Formation and Value of Temperate Grasslands
Learners study the Temperate Grasslands biome of North America. They explain that it is an endangered ecosystem because the rich soils have been converted to farming in most areas. They view videos imbedded in this plan, then complete...
Curated OER
Where the Buffalo Roam
Second graders explore what life in the Chicago area was like hundreds of years ago. They discuss how settlers impacted the environment, and why there are no longer herds of buffalo in the Chicago area today. They read an article and...
DePaul University
Breaking the Food Chain
Throughout history, the growth of big cities has resulted in the destruction of ecosystems. In the case of Chicago, IL, a grassland that was once home to bison, deer, wolves, and foxes quickly became a booming city of over three million...
Curated OER
Building on the Land
Ninth graders study how cities affect the environment and design an ecologically-sound city. They focus their study on the benefits and constraints of life on the Northern Great Plains.
Curated OER
The Web of Life
Students explore the interconnectedness of living things in an ecosystem. They use pictures and arrows to develop a food web, and participate in constructing a class food web with students representing various parts of the web.
Curated OER
Agriculture: Oklahoma's Legacy
Sixth graders explore agriculture as it relates to crops over the course of a series of historical events. They read and create a timeline of the 50-year increments that depict important cause and effect events. Students then use...
Curated OER
Praire Biome Models
Fifth graders, in groups, list the physical characteristics of a biome and think of ways in which animals might have to adapt to live there and make a biome mobile ball that show the different types of habitats that shape the praire biome.
Curated OER
Speedy Succession
Fifth graders identify how a pond can change into a grassland. An ecosystems lesson where learners identify pioneer and climax species, and recognize that ecological succession can take up to 100 years or more. Some excellent activities...
Curated OER
Boom and Bust in the Ozark Forests
Here is a hard-hitting, cross-curricular lesson on the effects that the deforestation of the Ozark forests in the 19th century had on the people, animals, and ecosystems of the area. The Dr. Seuss book The Lorax is used as a way of...
Curated OER
The Oil Field Industry
A brief look at natural resources are described, prior to explaining the importance of oil in this 12-slide PowerPoint. Clear and colorful graphics are on each slide to keep viewers interested and more informed. Tip: Ask students how...
Indian Land Tenure Foundation
Relationships to Places
Young historians take a look at how the Indian tribes of California promoted a mindful relationship between people and the land. They begin to understand how the Indians were champions of conservation, and at preserving the natural...