Foundation for Water & Energy Education
How Can a Dam Affect a River? Activity A
Written for Washington state students in life science, this lesson provides an opportunity to examine the residents of local freshwater habitats. You or the class collects a water sample, and learners try to examine what organisms live...
Curated OER
Prairie Plant Investigation
Pupils carefully observe prairie plants and record their observations in a science journal. They examine the root systems of grasses and flowers and surmise how these plants can grow together on the prairie.
Curated OER
Ecosystems
Pupils work together to identify the characteristics of their local ecosystem and another one nearby. In groups, they use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two. They use this information to create a collage of both ecosystems...
Wild BC
The Greenhouse Effect: The Role of CO2
Though this is meant to be second in a two-part lesson, the two are not dependent on each other. Pupils play the roles of visible light rays, light or dark surfaces, and carbon dioxide molecules. They interact and react according to...
Curated OER
Pharaoh Mountain Hike: Investigating Adirondack Life Zones
Students hike a local mountain and examine its life zones. They measure various components at each zone and collect leaf litter at the sites. At the mountain top, students make descriptive observations and complete a handout about the...
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...
Curated OER
Bering Sea Buffet - A Foodweb Activity
Life in the Bering Sea, food webs, and the ocean ecosystem are introduced with a map activity. The instructional activity starts as kids explore maps and images of the Bering Sea, then it kicks into high gear as they start to discuss the...
NOAA
Marine Ecosystems
Be at the top of the food chain when it comes to understanding marine ecosystems. The 21st installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program investigates marine ecosystems, ocean zones, and food...
Curated OER
The Trouble with Crayfish
Fourth graders compare an ecosystem before and after they introduce crayfish to that ecosystem. In this ecosystem lesson plan, 4th graders see what happens when you introduce a non native animal to a habitat. Students then make...
Curated OER
The Web Of Life - Overlapping Food Chains
Students perform an activity in which they discover what happens when food chains overlap in an ecosystem and discover the three components of a food web.
Curated OER
The Chemistry of Killer Coal
Students research chemical components of coal, as well as environmental health impacts of mining and burning coal. They discuss conservation of mass as it relates to combustion of organic compounds.
Curated OER
Lord of the Rings - A Study of Tree Rings
Students examine trees and discuss how the environment effected the tree. They also predict what the area look like in fifty years.
Michigan Sea Grant
Survival Game
Musical chairs may be a classic game, but Ruffe Musical Chairs is a unique lesson on invasive species! Using the time-honored game, pupils role play the behaviors of the invasive fish called Eurasian ruffe. Learning about this aggressive...
Curated OER
Ecology and the Conservation of Natural Resources
Students examine the components of ecosystems. They compare and contrast an ecosystem to an aquatic ecosystem. They examine a local ecosystem and discuss its components.
Curated OER
New York City Water Quality Assessment Project
Students investigate the chemistry of water and how its molecular structure supports life through its biochemcial, physical, and environmental roles. They investigate the quality of water as it interacts with the environment. Students...
Science Matters
Formative Assessment #1
Discover how much your young scientists know about biotic and abiotic factors with a two-question formative assessment that requires them to observe, list, and describe.
Curated OER
Ecosystem Interactions in Refuges
Seventh graders, using national parks as models, illustrate the energy flow in ecosystems. Working in groups, they use murals, flow charts, or other visual displays to record their findings. Students represent the food chains and webs...
Curated OER
What's in Wetland Soil?
Students examine the organic and inorganic components of soil. In this environmental science lesson, students identify the factors that influence soil formation. They collect soil samples, conduct tests, and analyze the results.
Forest Foundation
Forest Families
Class groups play a Forest Families card game to reinforce concepts presented in the first six sessions of a nine-lesson study of tress and forest ecosystems.
NOAA
What Little Herc Saw
See the underwater world through a different pair of eyes! Middle school marine biologists identify deep-sea organisms by examining images taken by an ROV from the Okeanos Explorer. After determining what creatures lie beneath the...
Curated OER
Learning from the Video Clips
Students view a wilderness video and write to explain the purpose of the video. In this wilderness video lesson, recognize how physical and living parts of the environment interact. Students understand how an ecosystem works.
Curated OER
Goals of the Diversity of Life Unit
Students are introduced to the unit on the importance of diversity of life and the role that interdependence plays in our worlds. this is part of a multi-activity unit on the diversity of life.
Curated OER
Exploring Microclimates
Students compare the land cover and temperatures in different microclimates to begin to explain why organisms live where they do. While exploring microclimates, students record temperature readings and detailed observations.
Curated OER
Climate Change Challenge
Learners participate in a demonstration in which they role-play polar bears and habitat components to demonstrate the impacts of climate change on the Arctic Ocean ecosystem.