Virginia Department of Education
Changes in Ecosystems
How does water pollution affect the environment? Provide your class with the resources to answer this question as they learn about eutrophication and ecosystem changes. Over two weeks, they simulate the effects of pollution on the...
Curated OER
Limiting Factors for Populations
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...
Curated OER
Urban Ecosystems 5: In Defense Of Cities
Students explain that while cities have unattractive features, the density of human life enables energy efficiency, mass transit, recycling, and other benefits which are difficult or impossible in rural areas. This is the fifth in an...
Curated OER
Designing a Real Life Ecosystem!
Students research abiotic and biotic factors concerning the concept of an ecosystem. Record and analyze data collected. Write a lab report in proper and scientific format with thinking and analytical skills. Work as a cooperative team.
Curated OER
Should Populations in an Ecosystem be Restricted?
Fourth graders experiment to determine how overpopulation effects ecosystems specifically plants. In this ecosystem lesson, 4th graders conduct an ecosystems experiment after listening to Claire Daniel's, Ecosystems. They watch a video,...
NorthEast Ohio Geoscience Education Outreach
Ecosystems and Change
Pairs of ecologists select an animal and investigate an ecosystem from its point of view. This simple lesson involves Internet research and putting together a presentation of collected information.
Michigan State University
Bug Lyphe!
Introduce ecology classes to biodiversity and interdependence in ecosystems with a PowerPoint presentation. Then, they get up-close and personal with the invertebrate world by collecting insects, classifying them, and graphing their...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Population Dynamics
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...
Virginia Department of Education
A Salt Marsh Ecosystem
What a web we weave. Pupils use yarn as the primary resource to create a web depicting the intricacies of a salt marsh ecosystem. They participate in a question and answer session, which leads to an in-depth facilitated discussion about...
Curated OER
Balance and Flux Reveal How Organisms Are Connected in Ecosystems
Students read about cats in Borneo and discuss role predators play in controlling population size. They map the interdependencies among species. They read about flux in ecosystems and complete a worksheet.
Science 4 Inquiry
Snakes in the Everglades
The Burmese python is on the loose ... and he's hungry! Illustrate the differences between causative and correlative relationships through an inquiry instructional activity. Pupils examine several sources of information to determine if...
Curated OER
Ecosystems
An in-depth look at ecosystems is outlined in this 13-slide PowerPoint. Students will learn about different types of ecosystems on our earth. An activity is provided on slide eight, as well as three scenarios to analyze on slide nine....
Science 4 Inquiry
The Ups and Downs of Populations
Life has its ups and downs ... especially if you're an animal! Biology scholars engage in a population study through an inquiry-based lesson. Pupils work together to explore the factors that affect deer populations, then examine the...
NOAA
Importance of Deep-Sea Ecosystems – How Diverse is That?
When judging diversity of an ecosystem, both species evenness and species richness must contribute. After a discussion of diversity and a guided example using the Shannon-Weaver function, scholars use the same function on two other...
Global Oneness Project
On the Verge of Displacement
By having scholars tackle this interdisciplinary lesson, they'll see how social studies and environmental science are related as they explore the impact that the construction of a dam will have on the population and ecosystem of the Omo...
Curated OER
Ecosystems and Remote Sensing
Students obtain remote sensing data to compare and contrast global biomass data with global temperature data.
Curated OER
Populations and Ecosystems
Sixth graders examine the factors that influence the stability of ecosystems. They construct a miniature ecosystem in a jar that includes plants, small fish, and snails, record the population changes over a period of four weeks, and...
Virginia Department of Education
Ecosystem Dynamics
Searching for an eccentric way to enhance lessons on ecosystems while ensuring pupils remain creative and motivated? Upon viewing The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, designated groups design and construct a pop-up book that depicts the specific ways...
Curated OER
Urban Ecosystems 4: Metabolism of Urban Ecosystems
Students discover that material and energy uses by a city come from outside the city boundaries. They realize that the pathway of these material is linear instead of cyclical as they are in natural ecosystems.
National Wildlife Federation
Quantifying Land Changes Over Time in Areas of Deforestation and Urbanization
Is qualitative or quantitative research more convincing when it comes to climate change? In the eighth lesson during this 21-part series, scholars begin by performing a quantitative analysis of deforestation and urbanization. Then, they...
Curated OER
Discovering Plants With Lewis and Clark
Students research plants and examine populations in ecosystems.
LABScI
Population Dynamics: The Predator-Prey Lab
Wolves eat better when the bunny population increases, but how long does that last? A series of 12 biology lessons uses the sixth installment to explore the predator-prey relationship between bunny and wolf populations. Young scientists...
Curated OER
Evaluate Ecosystems
Ninth graders conduct an environmental inventory on one ecosystem. They collect data, and write an environmental impact statement on that area. Students explain the interactions between different systems found within an ecosystem....
Science 4 Inquiry
The Ups and Downs of Populations
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...