National Park Service
The Secret of Life
Dead trees provide nutrients for the soil, food for animals, protection and a home for organisms, a seed-bed for new trees, and a place for nitrogen-fixing bacteria to live. In the activity, pupils collect decaying logs, expose them to a...
Curated OER
Decomposers at Work!
Students design and conduct investigations that illustrate the process of decomposition. After a lecture/demo, students simulate the process of soil composting in the classroom. They closely chart the decomposition of their soil.
Curated OER
Investigating Soil
Fourth graders swap local soil samples with another school and examine the differences. They research soil properties, identify organisms that live in soil, create and maintain a biome of soil decomposition and design a poster to present...
Curated OER
Cows, Worms, and Compost
Students study decomposition. In this decomposition lesson, students discuss the background information about decomposition. Students then complete the 'Chew It Twice' worksheet.
Curated OER
Vermicomposting
Third graders study vermicomposting. In this vermicomposting lesson, 3rd graders prepare to begin a unit on decomposition by constructing a worm bin. Students collect worms to be used later in experiments.
Curated OER
Selecting Soil Organisms in Compost
Students conduct an experiment to demonstrate that many of the enzyme systems needed to break down society's wastes exist in nature among the decomposers in a compost pile. They culture compost bacteria on starch agar to examine the...
Curated OER
Micro-organisms and Human Life
For this biology worksheet, students identify and locate various vocabulary terms that relate to micro-organisms and human life. There are 20 biology terms located in the word search.
NASA
Decomposers Get Energy From Dead Things
When life gives you mold, make penicillin. Scholars design an inquiry experiment to determine what causes rotting and mold growth. It also covers decomposers and the important role they play for other living things.
Curated OER
The good microbes
The question posed for the class to consider; What would decay and what would not? They read the short passage on decomposition and microbes, then mark the items that would decay after a two-week period. A scientific investigation idea...
Curated OER
Climate and Temperature
Students explore what the soil temperature would be on the north and south sides of a building. In this temperature lesson, students hypothesize what the results will be using a thermometer and then after a week see what the...
Curated OER
Sustainable Agriculture
Learners perform an experiment to find out if plants grow best when grown in soil with no fertilizer, with chemical fertilizers, or with compost that they have made themselves. Students discover how agriculture practices can benefit the...
Curated OER
The Akron Global Polymer Academy Lesson Plan Format
Students identify types of garbage that will decompose quickly and the ones that do not. In this decomposing lesson students observe and record the photo degrading of six pack rings.
Science Geek
Build a Food Web Activity
Entangle your life science class in learning with this collaborative food web activity. Using pictures of the plants and animals native to a particular ecosystem, young biologists work in small groups to construct visual...
Virginia Department of Education
The Cycles of Nature
Encourage peer collaboration and assist with the creation of visual aids to identify carbon, water, and nitrogen cycles as your class learns more about nature. They discuss relative information, create a visual aid...
Virginia Department of Education
The Effects of Heat and Acid on the Enzyme Catalase
How quickly do enzymatic reactions occur? Assist the class as they examine heat and pH change to determine the rate of chemical reactions using catalase as an enzyme. Watch them "glow" with excitement!
Curated OER
Microorganisms: Good Guys or Bad Guys?
Students discover the role microorganisms play in our lives. In this decomposition lesson, students examine decaying foods and plants in order to analyze the different bacteria that grows. Students discuss the good and bad of...
Curated OER
Under Our Feet
Students investigate the forest ecosystem to learn of the living and non-living elements of the soil. For this ecosystem lesson, students examine soil for twigs, moss, fungi, leaves, roots and other matter. Students...
Curated OER
Autumn
Take a walk through the forest as the leaves change color and fall from the trees, making way for a new ecosystem cycle to cycle through. An inquiry-based lesson plan examines how the process of decomposition eliminates tons of...
Curated OER
Learning About Composting
Students can create a compost pile to learn about the decomposition process.
Curated OER
Fossil Formation Fun
Students compare the three types of fossils: preserved organisms, mineral replacement fossils, and impression fossils. They create a model of amber,
sponge fossil, and make traces of fossil.
Curated OER
What Are the Layers of the Rain Forest?
Students investigate the different levels of the rain forest by comparing it to an apartment. In this ecology lesson plan, students practice using forest related vocabulary words and complete a vocabulary data sheet. Students...
Curated OER
Microorganisms
Though there are seventy-seven slides in this PowerPoint, only small bits of information are presented on each. It outlines the roles microorganisms play in the environment and spends time listing characteristics of each four different...
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Biomass: Biogas Generator
It's a gas. Middle schoolers build a biogas generator following the directions in this resource. After a few days of observation, they demonstrate that the gas given off by the decomposing manure is flammable. The activity concludes as...
EngageNY
Perimeter and Area of Polygonal Regions in the Cartesian Plane
How many sides does that polygon have? Building directly from lesson number eight in this series, learners now find the area and perimeter of any polygon on the coordinate plane. They decompose the polygons into triangles and use Green's...