Science 4 Inquiry
Frenemies, Bros and Killers: A Lesson in Symbiosis
Animals and plants develop relationships and rely on each other to survive. Pupils learn more about symbiosis through a video, a hands-on matching activity, and a game. They differentiate and describe each type on a written evaluation.
National Park Service
Nutcracker Fantasy
The Clark's nutcracker bird hides seeds in 25,000 different sites every year to save for winter. Lesson demonstrates how difficult it would be to find these seeds months later when they need them for food. In the first of five lesson,...
Virginia Department of Education
A Designed Organism
How can you encourage pupils to demonstrate creativity while still meeting the objective of applying technical knowledge? This activity is your answer! Scientists will create an imaginary creature and prepare a graphic organizer with...
Scholastic
Study Jams: Symbiosis
Three types of symbiosis are explained: parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism. This is done with colorful animation and lively dialogue in a straightforward and easy-to-follow manner. Have your ecology class watch this at home and then...
Curated OER
The Flower and the Fly
It's like a biological "Beauty and the Beast!" The fascinating mutualism between a South African meganosed fly and a deep-throated geranium builds a case study in coevolution for your biology buffs to analyze. After reading about this...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Make a Difference!
We are very dependent upon other life forms around us to survive. Here, scholars explore relationships in the ecosystem with the help of Auntie Litter and the pollution patrol. They imagine a world without grass, making connections to...
Science Friday
Termite Symbiosis
What happens to the wood a termite eats? Pupils learn about the three types of symbiosis with pictures of symbiotic pairs. Afterward, they determine whether there is a symbiotic relationship with a termite by dissecting termites and...
Pace University
Grades 6-8 Ecology
Why are our national parks important? Scholars research the national parks and explore the basic ecology of these areas in a differentiated instruction unit on ecology. They learn about ecosystems, food chains, symbiosis, and biomes. The...
Biology Junction
Ecology
Psychologists study human relationships while ecologist study relationships between organisms in the environment. An introduction to ecology and the related vocabulary benefits scholars as they progress through the presentation and...
NOAA
Investigating Coral Bleaching Using Data in the Classroom
Approximately 93 percent of the individual reefs in the Great Barrier Reef suffer from coral bleaching. Scholars learn how scientists monitor coral bleaching around the world as part of a larger series. They use actual data to answer...
Nuffield Foundation
Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria in Root Nodules of Leguminous Plants
Fixin' to add a great resource to your plans? Scholars perform an experiment to investigate nitrogen-fixing bacteria from plant roots. Along the way, they learn about the concepts of symbiosis and mutualism.
CK-12 Foundation
Symbiosis: Mutualism, Commensalism, and Parasitism
Hyenas normally hunt alone, however scientists discovered that in Israel, hyenas hunt with wolf packs. When relationships develop between different species, we call it symbiosis. The videos teach about the three types of symbiosis and an...
NOAA
Microfriends
Is there medicine found in the organisms that live deep below the surface of the ocean? The fifth lesson in a six-part series has learners team up to research bacteria and the relationship it has with nearly every living thing on Earth....
Virginia Department of Education
Organisms in Symbiosis
Searching for an activity that allows emerging biologists to explore symbiosis up close and personal? Pupils collect samples and view lichens through a microscope and conclude with a discussion about the relationship they have with other...
Kentucky School for the Deaf
Levels of Organization within an Ecosystem
From tiny organisms to entire biomes, young scientists examine the interdependent relationships tying all living and non-living things together with this collection of ecology resources.
Teacher Web
Archaebacteria and Eubacteria
Take young biologists back to the beginning of life on Earth with this presentation on bacteria. Examining the different classifications of bacteria, this presentation introduces young scientists to the concepts of autotrophs and...
Busch Gardens
Create an Invertebrate
What better way for young biologists to learn about invertebrates than by creating their very own? Here, students are assigned a set of invertebrate characteristics and are asked to invent an imaginary ocean animal and a separate...
Curated OER
Raven Chapter 54 Guided Notes: Community Ecology
Providing a sweeping overview of population and community interactions, this ecology activity gets learners thinking. They differentiate between habitat and niche, describe and give exemplars of various animal and plant defenses, explain...
Curated OER
Dollars and Sense
Fourth graders read "Starting a Business" and answer the question: "How could you design an ad to let the community know about the business described in the story?" Then, they illustrate a written ad that could be posted in the...
Curated OER
Biological Relationships
Create a written document to show knowledge of producers, consumers, decomposers, and symbiotic relationships. To investigate food consumption, your classes will differentiate between types of symbiosis and explain examples of each.
PBS
Symbiotic Strategies: The Secret Lives of Sharks and Rays
Learners investigate the interaction in an oceanic ecosystem. For this symbiotic relationship lesson, high schoolers investigate how ecological relationships evolve over long periods of time in order to maintain balance and stability of...
Curated OER
Cycling of Matter and Energy
These twenty various types of questions related to the cycling of matter and energy require students to match each definition in column 1 with the correct vocabulary term from column 2. Then, students explain what is being demonstrated...
Curated OER
Kingdom: Fungi
The general characteristics that affect classification of fungi and other organisms in the domain Eukarya are detailed for the students on 12 attractive slides. Teachers can access individual slides to cover life cycles or diversity, or...
Curated OER
Animal Nutrition, Variations, Adaptations & Regulation
Information about digestion of various food components is given in this PowerPoint. The diets of herbivores and carnivores are compared, and there are many diagrams giving details of their digestive system specializations. The labelled...