Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Climate Change-Boon or Bust for Northern Waters?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers explore about and evaluate the potential impacts of climate change on northern hydrological systems. They work in small groups, research the background to climate change in the north with a particular focus on lakes and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Changing Planet

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students describe climate change and the future impact it could have on our physical environment. They identify the regions of the world that would encounter the most significant effects of a global warming.
Organizer
Curated OER

Ecosystem Concept Map

For Students 6th - 9th
How do ecosystems change? How do organisms keep their ecosystem going? Learners use a word bank to fill in 12 blanks that describe the functionality of ecosystems.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Living vs. Non-living

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students go on a nature walk and observe and discuss the living and non living things they see in the ecosystem. In this living and non living lesson plan, students complete a connecting string activity to simulate an ecosystem.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Tour Down the Hudson River

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars discuss how the Hudson River is an ecosystem made up of both biotic and abiotic factors. They view the PowerPoint the Journal Down the Hudson River. Students become aware of where the Hudson River begins and ends, the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Protect the Primates

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students make posters about saving the primates. In this primates lesson plan, students discuss primates and environmental changes and make posters with pictures about saving primates.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Planting a Xeriscape Garden

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders use a plant database to discover new vocabulary associated with plants and ecosystems. Using a pile of dirt behind their school, they design a garden to make it a more enjoyable place. They print out the types of plants...
PPT
Curated OER

The Biogeochemical Cycles

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
The majority of this presentation is a collection of diagrams and graphs that back your lecture on biogeochemical cycles. The last few slides define ecosystems and the Gaia hypothesis. You may find these slides valuable, but will...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Forest In A Jar

For Teachers K - 6th
Students conduct an experiment using soil, water, seeds, a plant, and a jar; and then draw a poster to represent their observations and findings. They make a poster showing what happened to their aquatic environment.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Interesting! Have your high schoolers watch this 13-minute clip from the documentay, "Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?" It examines the fear we have as a culture about death and whether or not the media increases those fears. The focus...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What If There's No Light?

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
students discuss the importance of light and the consequences of living without it. Using a plant as a demonstration, students predict and observe what happens to a plant when it does not receive enough light. In groups, they experiment...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Water Quality with Samples

For Teachers 6th - 11th
Students recognize whether one wants to drink water, swim in it, or for the health of the organisms living in it. They prepare different water samples to observe and collect samples regarding the water quality.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Stopping Deforestation in the Amazon: A Publicity Campaign

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students investigate the environment by designing a group project.  In this ecology lesson, students identify the man made threats to the Amazon while reading environmentally conscience vocabulary terms.  Students collaborate...
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Modeling Trophic Cascades

For Teachers 6th - 12th
In the ecological game of who eats who, one small change can have a big impact! Individuals create food chains in an array of ecosystems, then determine what happens to organisms in the chain when one organism changes its feeding...
Assessment
1
1
Chicago Botanic Garden

Unit 3 Pre-Test, Grades 7–9

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Earth's systems respond to changes in environments in all types of ways including migration, extinction, adaptation, immigration, and emigration to name a few. Part one in a series of seven is a pre-test consisting of 14 questions. Some...
Lesson Plan
LABScI

Population Dynamics: The Predator-Prey Lab

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Wolves eat better when the bunny population increases, but how long does that last? A series of 12 biology lessons uses the sixth installment to explore the predator-prey relationship between bunny and wolf populations. Young scientists...
PPT
ARKive

Biodiversity and Evolution

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Why is diversity in biology so important for an ecosystem? Explore biodiversity, evolution, and natural selection with a presentation for your biology class. It features clear information, activities for further understanding, and...
Lesson Plan
2
2
Chicago Botanic Garden

Personal Choices and the Planet

For Students 7th - 9th Standards
The last activity in the series of four has individuals determine steps they can take to reduce their carbon footprints and then analyze their schools' recycling programs. Through a sustainability audit, they identify how and where their...
Activity
PBS

All Tangled Up

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
It is a tangled web the ecosystem weaves. Learners begin an activity on ecosystem interactions by building a food chain and then a food web with yarn as a group. To finish, they research local environmental changes that may impact the...
Lesson Plan
3
3
Chicago Botanic Garden

Personal Choices and the Planet

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
How big is your footprint? Activity three culminates the series by having groups complete carbon footprint audits with people in their schools and/or around the districts. Groups then gather their data, create a presentation including...
Lesson Plan
California Academy of Science

Using Empirical Data in the Classroom: Raptor Migrations!

For Teachers 6th - 10th Standards
Raptor flight patterns align with seasonal changes in net primary productivity. Here is a thought-provoking lesson that uses empirical data from a video to help scholars understand raptor migrations, producers/consumers, and ecosystems....
Lesson Plan
Rainforest Alliance

Investments in Forest Carbon

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
One hundred metric tons of CO2 can accumulate in one acre of forest over time—that's a lot of carbon! In the activity, groups of middle school learners determine what makes forests important. They then solidify the concept by using a...
Lesson Plan
Maine Math & Science Alliance

Earth as a System

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Ecosystem, human body system, weather system. We hear the word system a lot, but what does it really mean? In the activity, pairs or groups of learners discuss how a bicycle is a system and then analyze objects in their classroom and...
Lesson Plan
1
1
Chicago Botanic Garden

Greenhouse Gas Emissions — Natural and Human Causes

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
What impact do humans have on greenhouse gas emissions? What are the natural causes of these gasses? Thanks to the carbon cycle, carbon dioxide eats away at the earth's atmosphere with the intensified help of humans. Young scientists...