Virginia Department of Education
Passing Traits to Offspring
What makes each one of us unique? Lead your class in this exciting and educational activity as you uncover traits that show how each individual is different from another. Pupils explore facts about DNA technology and predict the...
Science Matters
Lotusland
It's time for a field trip! Scholars take their new-found knowledge of adaptations and seed dispersal on a field trip to a local botanical garden. They gain an up-close look at how ecological interdependence works in a distinct...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Marine & Aquatic Habitats Activities - Terrestrial Forests vs. Kelp Forests
Students discuss concept and specificity of habitats, both marine and terrestrial, list similarities and differences in the habitats of a kelp forest and a terrestrial forest, compare types of organisms that occupy corresponding types of...
Curated OER
The Food Chain Game - A Lesson in Ecosystems
Students are divided into three groups, herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores which receive a certain number of lives. Once in their ecosystem (outside or the gym), the carnivores chase and eat either the herbivores or omnivores, the...
Curated OER
Establishing a Baseline Ecology of a Creek Ecosystem
Students investigate the physical, chemical and biological parameters necessary to establish an ecological baseline. Establishing an ecological baseline not only shows the ecological characteristics of a creek but makes the possible...
Curated OER
Beautiful Butterflies - Activity Centers
Students describe habitats within ecosystems, describe how organisms modify environment to meet their needs, and identify characteristics for butterfly survival. In this butterfly lesson plan, students explore all aspects of the...
Curated OER
Barn Owls and Owl Pellet Dissection
Students explore birds of prey and food chains. In this ecosystems and birds of prey cross curriculum science and literacy lesson, students brainstorm characteristics of birds after viewing photographs. Students view a video and document...
Curated OER
Water and Land Ecosystems
Pupils investigate the differences between a land and aquatic ecosystem. They use the information in order to present it in an assessment. There are target questions that can be used to guide research, lead a classroom discussion, or...
Forest Foundation
Nature's Treasure Chest
Renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable. As part of their study of the forest ecosystem, class members read "Nature's Treasure Chest" about the many products made from trees and then craft their own recycled paper.
Curated OER
Comparing Ecosystems
Students, in groups, research two biomes. They create a Venn diagram and include the characteristics of each biome, placing similar features in the overlapping area of the circles.
Curated OER
Depending On Each Other. Communities And Ecosystems
Seventh graders investigate how the ecosystems of the world has influence upon the immediate and nonimmediate environments. The interelationships of food webs is discussed. The class researches one type of ecosystem for a class project...
Curated OER
Surveying an Environment / Ecosystem
Young scholars visit a local ecosystem to survey the plants and animals present and identify interactions between organisms. They identify interactions that occur between living organisms and their ecosystem and present their ecosystem...
Curated OER
Ecosystems
Third graders create an ecosystem for red wiggler worms to observe as they work on a complete unit.
Curated OER
Ecosystems and Symbiotic Relationships
Students are told to create a community using words or pictures. They walk outside to an area in front of the school which has a strip of grass, ditch, and corn field. Students discuss the difference between an ecosystem and a...
Curated OER
Creating a Freshwater Ecosystem
Students correctly identify some fishes of Texas and parts of their ecosystem.
Curated OER
Web of Life - Ecosystem
Third graders play the roles of various organisms in an ecosystem (focusing on insects) and pass yarn or string around to other organisms from largest animals to the smallest. The end product is a web which shows how all of these animals...
Curated OER
Ecosystems
Third graders identify and define an Ecosystem and the basic needs of all animals. They collect pond water in a pickle jar. They observe the organisms that are in the jar to keep an ongoing record of the creatures and their population.
Curated OER
Bonneville Salt Flats Ecosystem
Students discuss the annual ecosystem changes of the Bonneville Salt
Flats and the artificial changes made by man.They observe the annual ecosystem changes and the current additional flooding of the Bonneville Salt Flats by man.
Curated OER
For Creative Minds: Mountain Ecosystems
In this mountain ecosystems learning exercise, students read information about mountain ecosystems and study various diagrams about the environment. Students match animals in the ecosystem to their descriptions.
Curated OER
Marine Biology Lesson on Understanding the Dynamics of the Reef Ecosystem
Students compare data from a healty and unhealthy reef ecosystem. In this marine biology lesson, students identify which sample is stressed. They formulate a hypothesis on why the reef is stressed and support their hypothesis with proven...
Curated OER
The Different Fresh Water Ecosystems
Students summarize the characteristics of an ecosystem. In this biology instructional activity, students identify five major fresh water ecosystem. They define terms and write a journal about what they learned.
Curated OER
Ecosystem Organization - Lesson Plan
Student explore ecosystems. In this ecosystem organization lesson, students consider how scientists study living organisms. Students participate in a teacher guided activity that requires them to visualize an organism and imagine its...
Curated OER
Organic Materials in an Aquatic Ecosystem
Young scholars evaluate the relationship between oxygen levels and the amount of organic matter in an aquatic ecosystem. They explain the relationship between oxygen levels, bacteria and the breakdown of organic matter using an indicator...