Curated OER
The Chips Are Down: A Natural Selection Simulation
Students, in teams, use different colored paper chips to represent prey and a piece of fabric as the environment.
American Museum of Natural History
Wonderful World of Wasps
Shockingly, wasps sometimes challenge lions as the king of predators! Learners explore the life of a wasp in an interactive online lesson. They read about the characteristics of wasps and then complete activities to learn about their lives.
Michigan Sea Grant
Food Web II
A food web consists of complex food chains and the more complex the web, the better likelihood of survival. Learners compare and contrast food webs and food chains and discuss concepts like the predator-prey and consumer-producer...
Curated OER
Scavenger Hunt: Simulating Natural Selection
Learners simulate natural selection using pinto beans. In this biology lesson, students identify the factors affecting organism evolution. They record data from the experiment and formulate a conclusion.
Curated OER
Mariposas
Students examine how animals use camouflage for survival. In this investigative lesson students define vocabulary words and see how it is the environment that controls which adaptations will help in survival.
Curated OER
Effects Of Environmental Change
Young scholars think about what might happen to plants and animals if their environment changed. They play a predator/prey game to simulate what might happen to the praying mantis if the rain forest were cut down.
Captain Planet Foundation
Energy Flow in the Garden
How can you tell what an owl has eaten? Study the food chain and flow of energy in an ecosystem by dissecting an owl pellet and noting the bones found inside. Additionally, the lesson plan includes a game about consumers and producers...
Curated OER
Silent Stalking
Learners simulate predators and prey. In this predators and prey instructional activity, students analyze adaptive behaviors of both predators and prey. Learners role-play animals in a game scenario.
Curated OER
Sound Off!
Young scholars investigate the sounds animals make as they communicate. In this animal communication lesson, students play a game in which they simulate animal sounds. They attempt to find their animal partner before being captured by a...
Science 4 Inquiry
At the Top: A Bald Eagle's Diet
Bald eagles are opportunistic predators and eat fish as well as raccoons and other mammals. Pupils learn about bald eagle diets through a simple simulation and videos. They collect and analyze data to understand the adaptability of this...
Virginia Department of Education
Changes in Ecosystems
How does water pollution affect the environment? Provide your class with the resources to answer this question as they learn about eutrophication and ecosystem changes. Over two weeks, they simulate the effects of pollution on the...
Curated OER
Plover Survival: A Simulation Game
Seventh graders engage in a simulation that explains the feeding behavior of the piping plover and the things that disturb the feeding and nesting of this species.
Curated OER
Camouflage and Protective Coloration: A Model of Natural Selection
Students collect data and compare whether protective coloration or camouflage provides better biological fitness in a given environment. They simulate predator prey interactions of two different species and use gene frequencies to...
Curated OER
Sea Level and the Terrapin
Students study the habitat of the terrapin. In this terrapin lesson, students create a diorama of the habitat of the terrapin. Students also simulate how it would look if people moved into the area and how predators can threaten terrapin...
Curated OER
Species Interactions
Students study the scientific concepts of biodiversity and conservation through the use of basic equations of population growth and hands-on experiments/simulations. The lesson plan includes a take-home assignment which can be used for...
Curated OER
Snug in the Snow
Students explore how snow helps animals survive in the wild. In this animal science lesson, students review key vocabulary words and discuss types of animal adaptations. Students construct shoebox to simulate the snowy environment where...
Curated OER
Animal Camouflage
Pupils investigate how animals adapt to their environment. In this animal science lesson, students participate in an experiment using patterned paper and plain paper to simulate how animals blend into their surroundings. Pupils construct...
Curated OER
Primate Characteristics and Exaptation
Learners compare the features of gorilla to humans. In this biology lesson, students simulate adaptation using materials found in the classroom. They explain what exaptation means.
Curated OER
Management of Wildlife Resources
Students investigate how wildlife management policies affect the size of large animal populations. They develop a spreadsheet that incorporates a mathematical model to predict big game herd sizes, and using worksheet data manage a bison...
Curated OER
Natural Selection
Kids act as scientists and preditors in this short natural selection activity; they collect and analyze data, then apply their new knowledge to real-world examples of natural selection. The layout of the worksheet is easy enough to use...
NOAA
An Ocean of Energy
Young biologists trace the path of the sun's energy through marine ecosystems in the second part of this four-lesson series. Building on prior knowledge about producers, consumers, and decomposers students are introduced to the concept...
Curated OER
Night Hike
Students explore Upham Woods at night and investigate about the special adaptations of nocturnal animals. They identify three nocturnal animals and how they are adapted to the night. Students explain what night vision is and how it works.
Curated OER
Survival Of The Fittest
Seventh graders examine the concept of an ecosystem and how there is a variety of representations of life that exist there. They look at the equilibrium that is reached in stable communities and how the variable of change in...
Curated OER
Animals Abound Pre/Post Assessment
Students prepare for or evaluate their experiences in learning about animal persistence. This is part of a multi-segmented unit on animal living, adaptation, and survival.