Curated OER
Regions and Habitats
Fourth graders identify the different habitats found in the seven regions of the United States. In this ecology instructional activity, 4th graders write an essay about how humans affect the ecosystem and vice versa. They discuss how...
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Arctic Food Web
Students research animals found in the arctic. They discuss what living things need in order to survive and where they get their food. Students discuss the difference between producers and consumers and create a food web for animals in...
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Constructing A Food Web
Students identify and explain the relationships within a food web. They use index cards to glue pictures of producers and consumers. On the back of the card, students name the organism, list the type of biome in which it is found.
Curated OER
Discovering New Species
Learners identify animals observed by Lewis and Clark while evaluating the animal's habitat and describing the animal's behavior. Students construct a food web mobile to illustrate the animal's position in the food web in the 19th...
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Food Webs
Students recognize interdependence in a food web by using yarn and notecards to create a food web and discussing what would happen if one of the organisms from a certain trophic level is removed.
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Food Webs
Students research what food is eaten by the following organisms: penguins leopard seals, krill, elephant seals, petrels, albatross, fur seals, squid, insects and grass. They make a food web using the data they have gathered.
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Aquatic Ecosystems
Students study ponds and wetland ecosystems and examine the food chains and webs in them. In this aquatic ecosystems lesson students answer questions about the diversity of the flora and fauna in a pond.
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Blubber Gloves
The ways that animals adapt to their environments is quite remarkable. In this life science lesson, fifth graders take a look at some of the ways that aquatic animals that live in Arctic or Antarctic waters survive. They perform an...
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Erase It! Endangered Animals
Pupils discover why many animals, insects, and birds are becoming extinct. They understand the importance of the food chain and how disturbing one area of it can cause havoc with wildlife. They discover how they can make a difference in...
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Food Web Mystery
Young scholars describe typical marine food webs, and explain why food is generally scarce in the deep-ocean environment. They discuss reasons that seamounts may support a higher density of biological organisms than would appear to be...
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Protecting Our Planet
Students examine the impact of pollution. In this pollution lesson, students watch Protecting Our Planet, then participate in a simulation of the effect of pollution on a variety of organisms.
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Food webs and Energy Flows
Students become familiar with food chains. In this food chains lesson plan, students understand that as consumers eat other consumers energy is passed. Students understand the vocabulary associated with food chains.
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Who's for Dinner?
Fifth graders examine life systems within different biomes. They choose paper plates with the names of animals on them. They research the animals, write reports and draw pictures of them. They create a food chain model by arranging the...
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Lesson Plan for Cricket's Supper
Interested in a special folktale to read with your class? Then this lesson might be for you. Readers will build an understanding of the food chain while creating a storyboard that includes the characters, setting, and plot of the story....
National Park Service
Reduce Our Carbon Footprint, Let’s Compost!
Roll up your sleeves and get a little dirty with this elementary and middle school compost lesson plan. All you need is a large plastic container, a couple old newspapers, some organic waste, and a few hundred worms and you're ready...
Channel Islands Film
Natural Resources, and Human Uses of Plants and Animals
As part of their study of the restoration projects on Santa Cruz Island, class members demonstrate their understanding of the connections among plant life, animals, and the actions of humans by crafting a model that reveals these...
Aquarium of the Pacific
Ocean Drifters
Take a drift in the ocean. Class members watch a video on plankton, the drifters of the ocean. Scholars find out about the different types of plankton and sea jellies. To add a little variety, they use the aquarium webcams to study sea...
Curated OER
Secrets of the Ocean Realm - Survival in the Sea
Students determine the sequential links in a marine food chain and identify the roles that various organisms play in this chain. Students develop charts as visual aids for illustrating marine food chains.
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Ecosystem Interactions in Refuges
Seventh graders, using national parks as models, illustrate the energy flow in ecosystems. Working in groups, they use murals, flow charts, or other visual displays to record their findings. Students represent the food chains and webs...
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Plankton
Students explore the attributes of plankton. In this plankton lesson, students read This is the Sea That Feeds Us and discuss food chains. Students discover the differences between phytoplankton and zooplankton as they examine the...
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Circle of Life
Here is a well-designed science lesson that shows learners that everything that organisms do in ecosystems, including running, breathing, burrowing, growing, requires energy. After a thorough discussion of their own eating and drinking...
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Who Am I?
Students classify organisms into one of five categories: producer, consumer, decomposer, predator, or prey. Students play a "Who Am I" game. Signs are hung on the backs of fellow students They must ask questions to determine what...
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Visual Vocabulary
Students interpret and name the vocabulary termed acted out by the mime. In this science/language arts/physical education lesson, students are given a set of vocabulary terms to discuss within their group. Next, students place all...
WK Kellogg Biological Station
Sounds of Selection
Do you want a creative and fun way to teach about natural selection? Hop to it by turning your middle school princes and princesses into frogs trying to catch as many bugs as possible in a Hungry Hungry Hippos style game. For high...