Unit Plan
University of Southern California

How do Organisms Interact?

For Students 4th - 8th
Examine how organisms interact through a hands-on experience. Learners study population dynamics and distribution during an informative five-lesson unit. The focus is on the ocean environment and the organisms within it.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Web of Predators and Prey

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students investigate the food chain by researching the Internet.  In this ecosystem lesson plan, students view the video "Competitor and Predator" and read a book from the series "The Magic School Bus."  Students utilize a...
Lesson Plan
National Park Service

Living & Non-Living Interactions

For Teachers 2nd - 6th Standards
What better way to learn about ecosystems than by getting outside and observing them first hand? Accompanying a field trip to a local park or outdoor space, this series of collaborative activities engages children in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bird Interdisciplinary Possibilities

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students explore birds, their territory, breeding, and seasonal movement. They research and collect information on birds through writing letters to ornithologists, reading in books, comparing web sites, and observing pictures. Students...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Web of Predators and Prey

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers investigate the components food chains and food webs in various ecosystems. They describe how living things depend on one another for food energy (food chain) and how more than one food chain exists in an ecosystem
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Get into the Flow with an Interactive Volcano

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students research the structural elements of a volcano. They make a PowerPoint slide that contains five facts which will be added to a whole class slideshow. They add an interactive table of contents using action buttons.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Water Web

For Students 5th - 8th
In this water web worksheet, students explore, analyze and discuss how weather stations interact with maintaining weather conditions and answer two essay questions and ten multiple choice questions.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Food Webs

For Teachers 4th
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.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Tropical Rain Forest

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students use various web sites to access information about the rain forest. They use the Tropical Rainforest Interactive CD to make their own rain forest pictures and stories and learn facts about the rain forest. They use various books...
Interactive
Curated OER

Musical Plates-Earthquakes

For Students 6th - 8th
In this plotting earthquake data worksheet, students use a large world map and given web sites showing the latitude and longitude for the epicenter of recent earthquakes around the world. Students plot 2 weeks of earthquake data...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Matter for Minors

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students use streaming videos, web sites, and hands on activities students to explore matter. They focus on how temperature affects matter and what the particles look like in the states of matter.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

School Site Ecosystem

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders are introduced to the concept of ecosystem; specifically, the interrelationships among plants and animals within an ecosystem, and their relationships to the environment in which they live and interact.
Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

Dive Into Worlds Within the Sea

For Students 6th - 12th
Make connections between ocean organisms. Individuals explore three different ecosystems in the ocean. With an online interactive, they learn how different organisms depend upon each other. Learners first answer questions to connect...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bugs in the Woods

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders identify insects and plants in the forest ecosystem in a structured field trip with stations and activity booklets.  In this bugs lesson, 2nd graders explore the ecosystem of the forest, complete the booklet and play...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bread Cells

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders examine plant and animal cells. In this plant and animal cell instructional activity, 5th graders define what cells are, label their parts, and describe how plant and animal cells are different. They observe cells at a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sensational Soil

For Teachers 4th - 5th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Wright Again: 100 Years of Flight

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Aspiring aeronautical engineers demonstrate different forces as they construct and test paper airplanes. This lesson plan links you to a website that models the most effective paper airplane design, an animation describing the forces...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Help! Someone Has Destroyed My Home!

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders use a mystery bag to discover ways in which humans endanger the life of animals by changing their habitat. In this animal habitat lesson plan, 5th graders work with a partner to design a solution to the problem of habitat...
Lesson Plan
Science Matters

Crawly Composters

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Get your hands dirty with an interactive lesson that showcases the process of decomposing and returning nutrients back into the soil. After building a compost pile, pupils regularly observe the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Red Alert: The Noses Are Back

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students celebrate Red Nose Day. In this current events lesson, students access selected Web sites to discover facts about the history of Red Nose Day and to find activities to celebrate the day.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Insects

For Teachers 1st
First graders view internet web sites, books and printed sources to research insects. They make a poster telling about the bug's habitat, it's diet, what it looks like, and it's enemies.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Double Trouble?

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students investigate cloned meat and animal products. In this food safety lesson, students research the noted Web sites in search of information about cloning and food labelling. Students use their findings to create informative...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Endangered Ecosystems

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Reading comprehension and note-taking skills are practiced as young ecologists embark on this journey. Explorers visit a website where they will read about three ecosystems that are in danger. They use interactive programs to build a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Mass Balance to Understand Atmospheric CFCs

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use an interactive online mass balance model to observe levels of chlorofluorocarbons over the past few years. Students evaluate the influence protocol emissions will have on the future levels of CFCs.