Biology Junction
Protists and Fungi
It's alive, but what is it? Protists share similarities with plants, animals, and fungi without being classified as any of those three. Learn more about protists and the kingdom fungi with a short presentation. It describes the parts of...
Curated OER
Backyard Bugs
Explore the concept of scientific classification and the similarities and differences between plant and animal species. Your class will participate in hands-on activities by investigating dichotomous keys and classifying their shoes. To...
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Vacancy: Habitats Available!
Sixth graders pick a native animal and write a classified housing ad to match the animal's habitat requirements, paste it on posterboard and then try to match each habitat with the animal it represents.
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What's the Difference?
Students analyze the similarities in different species. This lesson is part of a multi-segmented unit on the diversity of life. In this segment, students classify shoes to mimic the scientific categories of the classification system.
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Prairie Predator and Prey
Fifth graders brainstorm a list of animals that live on the prairie, and classify them as predators and prey. They conduct interviews where they ask the animals what they need to look out for to sustain life on the prairie.
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Costa Rican Food Chain
Discuss the animals and plants in the rainforest food chain using this lesson. Learners talk about and do research on the top predators from the Costa Rican region and create a model of one of them in class. They also make a visual model...
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Digital Animal Presentations
First graders explore animals and digital presentations. They chose an animal and identify the physical traits of the animal. Students classify the animal using the physical traits. They create a presentation about their chosen animal.
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Over in the Meadow
Students discover how to locate books on meadow and pond animals and research them. Students discover how to locate fiction/story books about the animals mentioned in the counting book read. Students discover how to locate by author,...
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Living On Earth
Students discover the many different animals within various habitats and discover how each individual species interacts with its particular environment. Through charting different animals and their distinct habitat and matching animals...
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What on Earth is in the Earth?
Students explore the physical properties of sand, soil, and rocks and sort, classify, compare, and contrast the materials found in the soil. The differences between the living and non-living parts of the soil is discussed.
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Biodiversity in Sixth Grade
Sixth graders explore the nature of habitats on an ABC hike. In groups, they collect items that make up habitats including plants, feathers, and leaves among other materials. Students then classify and organize the collected materials...
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Illinois Wildlife Scavenger Hunt
Middle schoolers complete a scavenger hunt on a CD-ROM. Using the program, they discover which animals in Illinois are endangered and the types of animals living in their county. They classify the animals into class, families and phylum...
Wild BC
Carbon - The Short and the Long
For this complex game about the carbon cycle, the playing field is divided into air, living, and earth zones. Children are assigned to be either plants or animals, and collect carbon tokens as they proceed from zone to zone. While the...
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Animal-mania
Learners explore the concept of scientific classification systems using a guided Internet research activity. They answer specific questions on the classification of animals by exploring a different Internet link for each question.
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The World of Living Things
The World of Living Things is the focus of this biology presentation. Students view a presentation which introduces them to cells, parts of cells, microorganisms, and simple vs. complex animals. They see that they are classified as a...
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Classification Scheme
Fourth graders discuss different classification schemes for living organisms. They group common household items to discover many ways to classify organisms. Students compare/contrast characteristics of each classification.
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Seed Sensations!
First graders examine seeds. In this Science lesson, 1st graders classify and dissect seeds. Students sprout their own seeds in the classroom.
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Introduction to Plant Science
Although the formatting is less than perfect and some of the pictures are blurry, the information in this presentation on plants is pertinent. Viewers will be able to compare and contrast plants with animals. They will learn about...
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Soil Stories
Tenth graders collect and analyze soil samples and extrapolate the characteristics needed to support different types of plant life. They research different types of prairie soil and how it supports plant and animal life.
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If Peter Pan Can Fly, Why Can't I?
Students redesign a human, using data in research, so that s/he can fly. In this flying lesson, students examine the characteristics and adaptations of groups of animals that can fly. Using this research, students work...
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Animal Alphabet
Second graders identify animals with each letter of the alphabet. In groups, they create a PowerPoint presentation which shows the information they have collected about each one. Using all of this information, they create an animal...
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Who Eats Who?
Learners recognize that some animals eat plants, some eat meat and some both. In this who eats who lesson, students chart animals in a food chain. Learners research information from reading articles. Students chart what...
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Animal Slideshow
Second graders view animal fact sheets, and make a slide about an animal. In this animal classification lesson, 2nd graders list facts that help classify the animal. Students use Microsoft paint and color their animal. Students use...