NOAA
Build Your Own Ocean Ecosystem
Hold the sea in the palm of your hand! Amateur oceanographers work together to create models of an ocean ecosystem in the sixth and final installment in a series. Raise awareness of global ocean health issues through guided research,...
Baylor College
Food Webs
Explore various ecosystems from around the world as your class discovers the interdependence of all living things. Using the provided sets of ecosystem cards, young scientists work in small groups building food webs to demonstrate the...
National Wildlife Federation
Habitat Web
Young scientists weave together an understanding of ecosystems with this fun collaborative activity. Taking on the roles of different living and non-living elements of specific habitats, learners use a ball of yarn to create...
Curated OER
The Marvels of Mud
Young scientists roll up their sleeves and get a little dirty in this three-day earth science investigation. Following the scientific method, children monitor the growth of algae in pond water samples in order to determine...
Wild BC
Connecting Ecosystems & Climate
Collaborators sort a set of cards into biotic and abiotic categories. Then, as a class, they discuss their work and relate each of the abiotic components to climate change. Finally, they form a web of components by connecting those that...
Eastern Michigan University
Energy Flow in a Wetland Ecosystem
How is energy transferred within an ecosystem? What would happen to a food web if one of the organisms was removed? Elementary or middle school ecologists examine these questions and more in a comprehensive 5E learning cycle lesson....
Montana Natural History Center
Studying Grassland Ecosystems
At first glance, grassland ecosystems might seem dull and uninteresting, but once you start to explore it's amazing the things you'll find! Through this series of engaging lessons, activities, and experiments, elementary students examine...
National Park Service
Living & Non-Living Interactions
What better way to learn about ecosystems than by getting outside and observing them first hand? Accompanying a field trip to a local park or outdoor space, this series of collaborative activities engages children in...
Virginia Department of Education
Biomes of the World
Incorporate knowledge about biomes and ecosystems in multiple ways while encouraging creativity. Emerging ecologists collaborate and perform research to complete a graphic organizer about various biomes of the world. They conclude the...
Exploring Nature Educational Resources
Building A Classroom Food Web
From bears and owls to chipmunks and trees, all life depends on the sun for the energy to survive. Young biologists develop an understanding of this big idea as they arrange this series of plant and animal picture cards into food...
Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement (COSEE)
Climate Change Impacts on Blue King Crabs
Carbon dioxide is not only causing global temperatures to increase, it causes the oceans to become more acidic. Lesson focuses on the blue king crab and the fragility of the habitat due to climate change. Scholars create a concept map...
Virginia Department of Education
Go with the Flow
How does nature's hierarchy relate to our local human environment? Answer this question, along with others, as the class visually depicts the natural hierarchy provided by nature. Pupils discuss each piece of the pyramid and its energy...
Virginia Department of Education
Freshwater Food Chains
What's in the water? Encourage your class to further explore this question and learn about pond ecosystems, food chains, and food webs as they complete this hands-on activity. They view the environment from a new perspective...
NOAA
Stressed Out!
Are our oceans really suffering due to the choices humans make? The sixth and final installment in the volume of activities challenges research groups to tackle one of six major topics that impact ocean health. After getting to the...
Forest Foundation
Forest Families
Class groups play a Forest Families card game to reinforce concepts presented in the first six sessions of a nine-instructional activity study of tress and forest ecosystems.
Virginia Department of Education
Building a DNA Model
It has been decades since the discovery of DNA. Still, activities such building this DNA model allow blossoming scientists to better understand the components that form this overall structure. During this activity, they will also...
Forest Foundation
Fire - How Does it Relate to You?
Forest fires can be a necessary step in keeping a forest healthy, but what happens when they get out of control? Learners investigate the causes and effects of forest fires in two specific areas, culminating in a report about the ways...
Science Matters
Plot Study
Small groups investigate plots of land to discover how abiotic and biotic factors interact. After recording their findings, scholars share observations with peers and self-reflect on the learning process.
Science Matters
Oh Heron
Two teams—the environmentalists and herons—play four rounds of the game, Oh Heron. Using hand symbols to represent food, shelter, and water, players locate their match to produce more herons while those unmatched decompose.
Science Matters
Energy Flow
Budding scientists work collaboratively to reenact energy flow in a food chain. Scholars take on roles such as producer and consumer and perform tasks that symbolize energy flow in order to provide evidence of how much energy passes...
Science Matters
Basic Needs
Scholars take part in a grand conversation about the basic needs of living things. Working collaboratively, pupils brainstorm and identify similarities to come to the conclusion that the environment meets the needs of all living...
EnLiST
Trap Your Own Insects: What’s in Your Backyard?
Young entomologists construct three types of insect traps—pitfall, pollinator, and panel—before setting their traps out and observing what they caught. They then observe what types of insects the different traps attract.
Global Oneness Project
Then and Now
The devastating changes happening to the Native American inhabitants of an island off the coast of Louisiana are the topic of an informational lesson. After scholars break into groups to explore particular topics, they come back together...
Curated OER
Sensational Soil
Fourth and fifth graders explore soil by taking a simulated field trip under the earth. They go to an Internet site that runs a simulation which charges them with finding a source of pollution that could destroy all of Earth's soil, and...