The "Bottled Bacteria" activity instructions are a bit unclear, but the remaining activities investigating limiting factors in ecosystems are well-written. Learners model the exosystem of a bear and a herd of deer. They set up a...

Salmonella poisoning impacts over 200,000 people in the United States each year. Scholars learn about the growth of these bacteria using multiple approaches. Then they apply the same growth calculations to endangered species and think...

Life has its ups and downs ... especially if you're an animal! Biology scholars engage in a population study through an inquiry-based lesson plan. Pupils work together to explore the factors that affect deer populations, then examine the...

Elementary ecologists pretend to be migratory hummingbirds. They fly between wintering and nesting grounds, trying to reach a habitat haven. In a musical-chair fashion, some birds will miss out, and are removed from the game. To further...

Will human population growth always be exponential, or will we find a limiting factor we can't avoid? Young scientists learn about both exponential and logistic growth models in various animal populations. They use case studies to...

How does a population's habitat determine the size of that population? Teach learners about carrying capacity and limiting factors with an engaging roleplay activity. Class members pose as a colony of penguins who must gather food amidst...

How large can a population become? The fifth installment of a nine-part unit teaches young ecologists about limiting factors that determine the carrying capacity of species in the Sonoran Desert. Here is a PowerPoint to help present this...

Students define the following terms: predation, competition, carrying capacity and population. They can explain the patterns of growth and the limitations of growth. Students explain the difference between density-dependent and...

As the reality of population decline across many species becomes real, pupils learn about the variables related to changes in populations. They complete a simulation of population changes and graph the results, then discuss limiting...

Learners explore the effects of different density-dependent and density-independent factors on population growth. They explore how the interactions of organisms can affect population growth. Students explore the pattern of population...

Students play a board game with provided cards which help them realize that limiting factors may restrict an organism in its development and productivity and direct evolutionary pathways.

The living environment, from the interior of a cell to the complex relationships among populations, is queried in this final examination. Learners examine air pollution maps, cell diagrams, population graphs, and drawings of cells. They...

The New York Regents High School Examinations are comprehensive and include various question formats, including multiple choice and graph analysis. This particular version, the 2008 Living Environment exam, surveys a variety of topics....

The 2005 version of the Regents High School Examination in ecology is as comprehensive as previous years' exams. It consists of 40 multiple-choice questions on topics ranging from the structure of DNA to interactions within an ecosystem....

In this populations worksheet, students are given 4 terms to define, they draw a representation of each term and they indicate what they are reminded of by the term. The topics include populations, communities, limiting factors and carry...

The clear cartoon style slides in this presentation contain details that affect population growth. Natural disasters and other external factors are listed as density independent factors, and density dependent factors, such as competition...

This exam covers every topic in a typical first-year biology course. A wide variety of question styles gives high schoolers every opportunity to show what they know. Why start from scratch when a comprehensive final exam is easily...

Students investigate how a population of fish multiplies in an ecosystem and the kinds of things that must be done to maintain a healthy population balance with other organisms that live there. They conduct an experiment to test the...

During this game, kids become migratory shorebirds and fly among wintering, nesting, and stopover habitats. If they do not arrive at a suitable habitat on time, they do not survive. Catastrophic events are periodically introduced that...

Seventh graders study the environmental factors that affect population growth. In this biology activity, 7th graders create a city following certain criteria. They present their posters in class.

Young scholars will understand the relationship between limiting factors and evolution. They will be able to hypothesize possible evolutionary pathways for modern day organisms.

Researchers in Gorongosa National Park placed cameras there many years ago to understand what was happening with the lion communities that lived there. Little did they know, they opened a door to so much more! Inquisitive...

The final lesson in a two-part series prompts scholars to create newspaper articles and succession events. Applying their knowledge of the ecosystem and the past examples of succession, they predict what will happen in the future...

Learners are focused on the big question: What makes a population grow and how could that growth stop? They use these concepts to help answer the big question: carry capacity, density dependent v. density, independent factors, predation...