Curated OER
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. All you need is a large plastic container, a couple old newspapers, some organic waste, and a few hundred worms and you're ready to start...
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...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Utah Open Textbook: Biology
Curriculum resources can be expensive—but not this one. An online textbook offers informational text for a complete high school Biology course. Topics include energy flow, body system, genetics, and evolution.
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.
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
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...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
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...
ARKive
Temperate Rainforest in the Pacific Northwest
Explore the amazing temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. Your class starts by investigating the animals and plants of the Northwest, specifically Washington, and then research an animal population common to the area. In small...
Curated OER
Protecting Holy Cows
Students study the interrelationships of organisms and their environments. They study ecological communities and determine what is necessary for survival. Students discuss and answer questions concerning a group's biome, habitat, food...
Intel
Insects: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
What would the world be like with no insects? Ponder this question using a research-based STEM unit that encourages scholars to investigate insects from both a beneficial and hazardous perspective. They learn about insect behaviors,...
Curated OER
Cycles of Life in an Urban Habitat: Changes in Biodiversity
Second graders compare and contrast animate and inanimate objects. For this environmental science lesson, 2nd graders create simple food webs. They observe their environment and create a collage about it.
Curated OER
Create a Critter Collage
Young scholars create a collage. In this animal classification lesson plan, students discuss why and how scientists classify animals. Young scholars view pictures of different animals and decide which class each animal belongs to....
Curated OER
Animal Migratory patterns
Students use field research and traditional research to identify migrating species of birds as well as their migratory patterns. Students generate a list of questions regarding migration and a plan to research the questions. A field...
Curated OER
Plant and Animal Communities
Second graders discuss the six main classes of animals: insects, birds, fish, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles. They complete a variety of activities about animals. They solve animal riddles, categorize toy animals, create an animal...
Curated OER
Water is Life
Krill is a very small ocean animal that is key to keeping the ocean ecosystem going. The class reviews food webs and chains, learns about the importance of krill, discusses krill anatomy, builds a model of a krill, and then has a...
Curated OER
Living Things Depend upon Each Other
Students research animals. They identify the animals' struggle for survival, and internalize the importance of preserving an ecosystem with animal life.They collect information and write a report on their findings. Additional cross...
Curated OER
Everything's Connected
Learners explore how trash decomposes. In this ecosystem lesson, students discuss new vocabulary words, such as producers and consumers, and think critically to answer how landfills work.
Curated OER
Animal Classification
In this animals worksheet, students match the words in the first column to the statement that best matches. The terms are associated with the different groups of animals. Students must match 17 terms.
Science Matters
Island Fox Outreach
Off the coast of California lives a wild animal called the Island Fox. Experts discuss the importance of the Island Fox to the Channel Islands and the balance the fox creates within its ecosystem. The lesson concludes with a reading of...