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The Role of Fire in Healthy Prairie, Brush and Forest Lands
Students create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast wildfires and prescribed fires. In this earth science instructional activity, students conduct a series of experiment to explore fire characteristics. They describe favorable...
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Prairie Food Chains & Webs
Learners complete a food chain. In this ecosystem lesson, students learn about producers, consumers and decomposers. Learners identify herbivores, carnivores and omnivores and complete two worksheets.
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Prairie Dog Town
Fourth graders use their knowledge of prairie dog communities to design their own model prairie dog towns. Teachers are provided with background information on prairie dogs and are encouraged to show examples to stimulate creativity. ...
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The Role of Fire in Healthy Prairie, Brush and Forest Lands
Sixth graders read and discuss background information and brainstorm reasons for wildfires. They use a Venn Diagram to list the similarities and differences between wildfires and prescribed fires and then track the weather forecast for...
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The Web of Life
Students construct a food web to learn how living things in an ecosystem are interconnected. In this food web simulation lesson, students will be assigned an animal and the teacher will represent the sun. Students and teacher discuss...
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The Web of Life
Students explore the interconnectedness of living things in an ecosystem. They use pictures and arrows to develop a food web, and participate in constructing a class food web with students representing various parts of the web.
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Where the Buffalo Roam
Second graders explore what life in the Chicago area was like hundreds of years ago. They discuss how settlers impacted the environment, and why there are no longer herds of buffalo in the Chicago area today. They read an article and...
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Habitats - Explore the World Around You.
Explore the habitats found around the world. The Desert, Rain Forest, Tundra, Prairie, Grassland, Forest, Marine and Zoo habitats are all covered in this easy to follow presentation. Each slide has a themed background picture, several...
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Please Help!
Sixth graders examine the prairie food chain while designing a rescue strategy for an endangered species. They compare their strategy to that of a professional conservation expert.
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Where's the Grass
Students participate in a grassland game. In this grassland lesson plan, students simulate the impact of grazing animals and invasive weeds on grasslands.
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Web of Life
Students collect information about various organisms in a forest ecosystem and create a mural that depicts organism interdependence. They then simulate a food web using a ball of string.
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Sociology: What is life like for Gulf Coast rice farmers
Students read 1 page about Gulf Coast rice farmers and then describe what rice farming in the U.S. is like in the United States. In this rice farming lesson plan, students tell why they would or would not want to be a rice farmer.
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Speedy Succession
Fifth graders investigate how a pond ecosystem can change into a prairie or grassland ecosystem. They observe a small pond ecosystem in a two liter soda bottle, and examine and record changes over a two-week period of time on a worksheet.
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Naming New Species
Students explore science of taxonomy and the Five Kingdoms of life,
categorize organisms into Kingdoms, and create multi-media presentations illustrating knowledge of a Kingdom. They collect data and related pictures on the Internet,...
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Ecological Communities:The Prairie
Pupils study the meaning of ecological community and recognize its complexity. In this ecology lesson plan students diagram a food web.
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Land Associations
Middle schoolers identify and explore life forms of various biomes, define transitional regions, examine effects of abiotic and biotic interactions, research a biome, and produce newspaper that features environmental information. Lessons...
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Diverse Environments
Pupils explore life forms in different environments. After exploring different biomes within their state, students research different plant and animal species within each biome. They prepare a group report on one feature of the region...
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Bison (American Buffalo)
In this science worksheet, students read the facts sheet for the buffalo. They could use this for a class activity for classifying animals.
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Amazing Bird Adaptions--Why Am I A Bird?
Fourth graders identify and classify birds found in Illinois. Using the internet, they discover how birds have adapted over time and how the adaptations have increased their life span. They compare and contrast the various adaptations...
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Push or Pull?
Utilizing the Nebraska State Quarter, pupils learn about the pioneers who had wagons that were pulled across Nebraska by oxen during the westward movement. Excellent worksheets are embedded in the plan that guide them through this fine...
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Boom and Bust in the Ozark Forests
Here is a hard-hitting, cross-curricular lesson on the effects that the deforestation of the Ozark forests in the 19th century had on the people, animals, and ecosystems of the area. The Dr. Seuss book The Lorax is used as a way of...
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Speedy Succession
Fifth graders identify how a pond can change into a grassland. An ecosystems activity where learners identify pioneer and climax species, and recognize that ecological succession can take up to 100 years or more. Some excellent...
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Native Beauty
Students plant wild flowers and maintain their garden. In this wild flowers lesson plan, students pick and prepare a gardening site, plant wild flowers, and maintain it everyday.
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The 1927 Flood
Upper elementary and middle schoolers examine the Great Flood of 1927 in the state of Arkansas. They each prepare an oral report about this flood and the huge impact it had on the economics of that time. Additionally, learners research...