Students synthesize their understanding of adaptations by playing a “go fish” style game to collect sets of organisms with physical and behavioral adaptations.

Educators Guide for this unit:
http://education.eol.org/lesson_plans/2-5_Adaptations_LessonOverview.pdf

Lessons in this unit:

Adaptations Activity 1: Adapting to the Environment
Adaptations Activity 2: Physical Adaptations
Adaptations Activity 3: Behavioral Adaptations
Adaptations Activity 4: Go Adapt!
Adaptations Activity 5: Create a Creature

This article describes some common misconceptions that elementary students may have about biomes and ecosystems. It also includes suggestions for formative assessment and teaching for conceptual change.

This lesson is about the flow of energy in ecosystems. The setting is Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA, where students will learn about the first Thanksgiving meal in America, celebrated in 1621 by early American settlers and Wampanoag Indians. By examining this meal and comparing it to a modern day Thanksgiving celebration, students will be able to explore the way in which food energy moves and is transformed in an ecosystem. The learning goals focus on the movement of energy from one feeding level to the next within a food web, the way in which energy changes form, and the inefficiency of energy transfer, which in turn affects the availability of food energy for organisms at the highest feeding level. The lesson is directed at high school level biology students. Students should be familiar already with food webs, food chains, and trophic (feeding) levels. They should also be familiar with the general equations for photosynthesis (CO2 + H2O => C6H12O6) and cell respiration (C6H12O6 => CO2 + H2O), and understand the basic purpose of these processes in nature. This lesson can be completed during one long classroom period, or can be divided over two or more class meetings. The duration of the lesson will depend on prior knowledge of the students and on the amount of time allotted for student discussion. There are no supplies required for this lesson other than the downloadable worksheets (accessed on this BLOSSOMS site), paper and some glue or tape.

Students become “experts” and make creative presentations about the different ecological roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers at local and global scales.

After learning about food chains, students practice building food chains and design their own backyard food chains.

Students synthesize their understanding of energy flow and trophic relationships through “Food Chains Rummy,” a modified version of the classic card game using Species Cards.

This activity is a guided inquiry by students into balancing ecosystems through food chains and webs.

In these life science activities, students will participate in field observations of living things & do research of animals they observe to create a food chain & present it to the class. Students will participate in a food web simulation game.

By using this tiered assignment students at different levels are able to review characteristics of living things by either creating a food web or food chart.

This article highlights hands-on or multimedia lesson plans about the tundra and ecosystem concepts. Science lessons are paired with suggested literacy lesson plans. All lessons are aligned to national standards.

Learn about diurnal birds of prey -- a diverse group of birds across the globe which includes hawks, falcons, osprey, eagles, and kites. While these different families of birds have a variety of physical and behavioral traits, they are all specially adapted for daytime hunting. Today, most of these birds of prey are widely appreciated by the public, but they still face many dangers. Learn more about these amazing raptors and how to help.UNTAMED looks at the wild and often perilous world of wildlife, as seen through the eyes of the patients of the Wildlife Center of Virginia, a non-profit teaching and research hospital for native wildlife.

Students practice building food chains and webs, explore interrelationships in the EOL Food Webs Tool, then model the flow of energy in food webs.

Students model how a complex system operates and how some parts of a complex system have more leverage or influence on the rest of the system. Students relate this to the interconnectedness of food webs.

This article assembles free resources from the Tundra: Life in the Polar Extremes issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and 3-5.

This article features children's literature about the tundra, food chains, and food webs.

Learning about wild predators can help people peacefully coexist with them.The biggest, most carnivorous predators have been demonized throughout history, from the big bad wolf of children’s stories to the great white shark of cinema legend. Wildlife educators spend a lot of time dispelling myths and fighting fears, helping people and predators move from conflict to coexistence.Every corner of nature, from your backyard garden to the open sea, has its own food chain. Even the tiniest sprout has an important role in this circle of life, a sequence in which every organism is predator, prey, or both. For more information and classroom activities, please visit The Wildlife Center of Virginia and VPM UNTAMED websites