Purdue University
Eco-llapse
A balanced ecosystem doesn't mean balanced populations. Budding scientists complete a series of activities to learn about the relationship between producers and consumers in an ecosystem. They complete the wildlife conservation...
Biology Junction
Energy Flow Through an Ecosystem: Food Chains, Food Webs, and Energy Pyramids
When a minnow eats a piece of plastic, that garbage often tracks through multiple animals, causing harm to each as it passes through the food chain. Scholars learn about food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids with a presentation. It...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Modeling Food Webs in Darién, Panama
It's a jungle out there! Young biologists journey to Darien, Panama to examine the intricate relationships between the organisms that inhabit the jungle. Groups begin by demonstrating an understanding of energy flow in ecosystems, then...
Polar Trec
Arctic Smorgasbord!
Two blooms of phytoplankton, instead of just one, now occur in the Arctic due to declining sea ice, which will have widespread effects on the marine life and climate. In small groups, participants build an Arctic food web with given...
Science Geek
Build a Food Web Activity
Entangle your life science class in learning with this collaborative food web activity. Using pictures of the plants and animals native to a particular ecosystem, young biologists work in small groups to construct visual...
Curated OER
Food Chain Activities
Transform young biologists into grasshoppers, lizards, and hawks as you teach them about food chains in an interactive life science simulation. Working collaboratively to act out three different scenarios involving...
Ask a Biologist
It’s a Plankton Eat Plankton World
For as small as they are, plankton sure play an enormous role in maintaining marine ecosystems. Dive into an investigation of these tiny organisms with a hands-on life science activity in which children cut out pictures of sea...
Exploring Nature Educational Resources
Building A Classroom Food Web
From bears and owls to chipmunks and trees, all life depends on the sun for the energy to survive. Young biologists develop an understanding of this big idea as they arrange this series of plant and animal picture cards into food...
National Park Service
Living & Non-Living Interactions
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...
University of Michigan
University of Michigan: The Concept of the Ecosystem
Lesson looks at the definition of an ecosystem, biogeochemical cycles, and factors responsible for the differences between ecosystems.
Science Struck
Science Struck: Rainforest Food Web
Explains the characteristics of tropical and temperate rainforests and what rainforest food webs look like.
Other
S Cool: Engery Flow and Nutrient Cycle
This website describes trophic levels, transfer of energy between trophic levels, pyramids of ecology, and nutrient cycles within the environment.
University of Illinois
University of Illinois Extension: Energy and Ecosystems Use Some Lose Some
Life on Earth is possible because energy flows one way through ecosystems, while matter cycles endlessly. Water and elements, such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and sulfur are examples of matter that cycles through ecosystems.