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Aquatic Ecosystems
Students study ponds and wetland ecosystems and examine the food chains and webs in them. In this aquatic ecosystems lesson students answer questions about the diversity of the flora and fauna in a pond.
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Who's for Dinner?
Fifth graders examine life systems within different biomes. They choose paper plates with the names of animals on them. They research the animals, write reports and draw pictures of them. They create a food chain model by arranging the...
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Illinois Wild
Sixth graders identify different animals native to Illinois. They research a specific animal to study more about its characteristics, examine what makes a habitat, and recognize the difference between a food web and food chain.
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Lesson Plan for Cricket's Supper
Interested in a special folktale to read with your class? Then this lesson might be for you. Readers will build an understanding of the food chain while creating a storyboard that includes the characters, setting, and plot of the story....
Desert Museum
Daisy Ecology
Here's a fine lesson that combines poetry with life sciences. Learners carefully listen to a poem that's all about a food chain. As the poem is read, learners name the producer, the herbivore, the carnivore, and the omnivore. Lots of...
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it's Lonely At The Top
Students explore the differnences between food producers in food webs and food consumers in food chains. Behavioral choices of primary and secondary consumers such as herbivores, vegetarians, carnivors, and omnivors are analyzed.
Channel Islands Film
Natural Resources, and Human Uses of Plants and Animals
As part of their study of the restoration projects on Santa Cruz Island, class members demonstrate their understanding of the connections among plant life, animals, and the actions of humans by crafting a model that reveals these...
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Secrets of the Ocean Realm - Survival in the Sea
Students determine the sequential links in a marine food chain and identify the roles that various organisms play in this chain. Students develop charts as visual aids for illustrating marine food chains.
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Vocabulary: Kansas Prairies
Students explore the ecosystem by reviewing scientific vocabulary terms. For this environmental awareness lesson, students identify the differences between abiotic and biotic factors and their relationship to the Earth. Students define...
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Plankton
Students explore the attributes of plankton. In this plankton lesson, students read This is the Sea That Feeds Us and discuss food chains. Students discover the differences between phytoplankton and zooplankton as they examine the...
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Story Totems
Students write and illustrate a story to describe the habitat and life cycle of a selected animal. They write and publish their story, and create a picture of the animal on a wooden board.
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Create a Critter Collage
Young scholars create a collage. In this animal classification lesson plan, students discuss why and how scientists classify animals. Young scholars view pictures of different animals and decide which class each animal belongs to....
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Striking a Balance
Students participate in an activity that demonstrates the principles and dynamics of food chains. They discover that the sun's energy is captured by individual plants and transferred to animals.
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Up the Down Tree House
Students investigate the decomposition process. In this ecology activity, students participate in a play, "Up the Treehouse" where the main idea focuses on a decomposing tree and how food chains are effected by decomposition. After the...
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Living Things Depend upon Each Other
Students research animals. They identify the animals' struggle for survival, and internalize the importance of preserving an ecosystem with animal life.They collect information and write a report on their findings. Additional cross...
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Everything's Connected
Learners explore how trash decomposes. In this ecosystem lesson, students discuss new vocabulary words, such as producers and consumers, and think critically to answer how landfills work.
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Kids for Conservation: Animal Unit
Students discuss animal needs and characteristics. In this animal mini-unit, students complete three activities studying different animals, their needs, how they have evolved, and how to protect them.
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Create a New Animal
Students understand what physical adaptations are and how they help an animal to survive. For this adaptations lesson, students research four animals and then make an original animal that has adaptations to make them survive.
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Giants of the Animal Kingdom
Fourth graders examine the megafauna found in Australia. They create a food web using cut-outs and develop a timeline to show changes in the fauna over time. They draw their own megafauna scene for their classroom.
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Forest Food Webs
Students consider the interdependency of life in a temperate forest by studying selected organisms from an Asian temperate forest and creating a food web.
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Please Help!
Sixth graders examine the prairie food chain while designing a rescue strategy for an endangered species. They compare their strategy to that of a professional conservation expert.
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Food Webs
Fourth graders discover how organisms depend upon each other in an ecosystem. In this ecosystems lesson, 4th graders use food webs to discuss the interdependence between organisms in an ecosystem.
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Explore the Food Web
Young scholars 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...
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Erase It! Endangered Animals
Pupils discover why many animals, insects, and birds are becoming extinct. They understand the importance of the food chain and how disturbing one area of it can cause havoc with wildlife. They discover how they can make a difference in...