Ecology


  • Ecology Worksheet
    Food Web Worksheet
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Worksheet
    Students label the plants and animals of a food web and food chains for producer / consumer and either herbivore / carnivore / omnivore. Students then create their own food web using the animals provided.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-4
    MS-LS2-3 (Cycles & Energy Flow)
    		  
    Published by Shannan Muskopf
  • Ecology Worksheet Recently Updated
    Ecosystem Worksheet
    Published by NGSS Life Science. Free Lesson Plan (PDF)

    Lesson Plan (DOCX) & Answer Key with Membership
     
    Worksheet
    In this ecosystem worksheet, students are introduced to ecosystem stability and the factors that contribute to ecosystem stability. Students are also introduced to the different types of terrestrial ecosystems.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-2
    HS-LS2-6
    MS-LS2-2 (Interactions Across Multiple Ecosystems)
    MS-LS2-4 (Ecosystem Affect on Populations)
    		  
    Published by NGSS Life Science
  • Ecology Worksheet
    Human Population Growth Worksheet
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Worksheet
    In this worksheet, students will create a graph of human population growth, use it to predict future growth, and identify factors that affect population growth.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-1
    HS-LS2-2
    		  
    Published by Shannan Muskopf
  • Ecology Worksheet Recently Updated
    Population Growth Worksheet
    Published by NGSS Life Science. Free Lesson Plan (PDF)

    Lesson Plan (DOCX) & Answer Key with Membership
     
    Worksheet
    In this population growth worksheet, students will build their vocabulary about density-dependent limiting factors and density-independent limiting factors that affect population growth and carrying capacity. The focus of this worksheet is for students to provide definitions for the vocabulary words and compare and contrast density-dependent factors and density-independent limiting factors.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-1
    HS-LS2-2
    HS-LS2-6
    MS-LS2-4 (Ecosystem Affect on Populations)
    		  
    Published by NGSS Life Science
  • Ecology Lab Experiment Recently Updated
    Carbon Cycle Modeling Lab
    Published by NGSS Life Science. Free Lesson Plan (PDF)

    Lesson Plan (DOCX) & Answer Key with Membership
     
    Lab
    There are four stations where students practice and build the concept that carbon cycles between reservoirs. Each station represents a lesson, and student cycle through the stations to learn from each lesson.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-4
    HS-LS2-5
    MS-LS2-3 (Cycles & Energy Flow)
    		  
    Published by NGSS Life Science
  • Multimedia
    California’s Energy Initiative
    Free Video
     
    Multimedia
    California looks into developing clean energy to supply its needs. Economics, environmental science, politics, and electricity generation topics are covered.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-7
    HS-LS4-6
    		  
    Published by WGBH Educational Foundation
  • Ecology Lab Experiment
    Particulates in the Air Lab
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Lab
    Students put Petroleum jelly on microscope slides to collect air particulates at different locations. Students then discuss the likely sources of the particulates.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-7
    HS-LS4-6
    		  
    Published by Stephen Levine
  • Ecology Test / Quiz
    Energy Pyramid Test Question Bank
    Published by NGSS Life Science. Free Lesson Plan (PDF)

    Lesson Plan (DOCX) & Answer Key with Membership
     
    Test
    The energy pyramid quiz question bank includes food webs, food chains, trophic levels, the energy pyramid, and the 10% rule for energy transfer. You can use the question bank to build assessments, and active membership is required to view questions.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-4
    		  
    Published by NGSS Life Science
  • Ecology Test / Quiz Recently Updated
    Biogeochemical Cycles Test Question Bank
    Published by NGSS Life Science. Free Lesson Plan (PDF)

    Lesson Plan (DOCX) & Answer Key with Membership
     
    Test
    The biogeochemical cycles quiz question bank includes carbon, nitrogen, water, and carbon reservoirs and processes. You can use the question bank to build assessments, and an active membership is required to view questions.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-4
    HS-LS2-5
    		  
    Published by NGSS Life Science
  • Ecology Lab Experiment Recently Updated
    Population Growth Rates Lab
    Published by NGSS Life Science. Free Lesson Plan (PDF)

    Lesson Plan (DOCX) & Answer Key with Membership
     
    Lab
    A fun predator prey activity that focuses on removal of a limiting factor and how that affects the resilience of the prey population and its environment. Students participate in an activity that models a population of rabbits. Students learn how density-dependent factors affect a population size.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-1
    HS-LS2-2
    HS-LS2-6
    MS-LS2-4 (Ecosystem Affect on Populations)
    		  
    Published by NGSS Life Science
  • Ecology Lab Experiment
    Food Webs and Pond Water Lab
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Lab
    Students are going to construct a food web, identify aquatic organisms, and determine environmental impacts to aquatic ecosystems.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-4
    MS-LS2-3 (Cycles & Energy Flow)
    		  
    Published by Tracy Trimpe
  • Ecology Worksheet
    Examining the Stages in Ecological Succession
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Worksheet
    Students analyze how a pond changes and answer questions based upon the pictures of the pond.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-2
    HS-LS2-6
    MS-LS2-4 (Ecosystem Affect on Populations)
    		  
    Published by Shannan Muskopf
  • Ecology Project
    How Matter & Energy Moves Through The Ecosystem Project
    Published by NGSS Life Science. Free Lesson Plan (PDF)

    Lesson Plan (DOCX) & Answer Key with Membership
     
    Project
    In this carbon cycle project, students will model how a carbon atom makes a round trip from a person through the atmosphere and ecosystem and end finally back in the same person. This carbon cycle project video covers concepts like photosynthesis, consumption, cellular respiration, carbon reservoirs, and the 10% rule for energy flow.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS1-5
    HS-LS1-7
    HS-LS2-4
    MS-LS2-3 (Cycles & Energy Flow)
    		  
    Published by NGSS Life Science
  • Ecology Lab Experiment
    Populations & Ecosystem Stability Lab
    Published by NGSS Life Science. Free Lesson Plan (PDF)

    Lesson Plan (DOCX) & Answer Key with Membership
     
    Lab
    In this population and ecosystem stability lab, students participate in an activity that models predator-prey and how resilient a population can be when limiting factors are introduced or removed. Students will model biotic and abiotic factors and how those factors affect population size. At the end of the experiment, students will make a population growth graph based on the experiment and calculate the growth rate through many generations.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-1
    HS-LS2-2
    HS-LS2-6
    		  
    Published by NGSS Life Science
  • Ecology Lab Experiment
    The Carbon Dice Game Lab
    Free Student Handout
    Free Multimedia
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Lab
    Students play the roles of individual carbon atoms going through carbon-transforming processes in an ecosystem. Key ideas include (a) carbon-transforming processes in individual organisms (eating, digestion, biosynthesis, photosynthesis, cellular respiration and death/defecation) move carbon atoms from one carbon pool to another, (b) carbon atoms visit some pools much more often than others, and (c) the game is a model of how atoms move through ecosystems—like real ecosystems in some ways and unlike it in others.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-4
    HS-LS2-5
    MS-LS2-3 (Cycles & Energy Flow)
    		  
    Published by CarbonTIME
  • Ecology Lab Experiment
    Build an Food Web Lab
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Lab
    Using biotic and abiotic factors, students will build a food web and energy pyramid using examples of producers, consumers, and decomposers. Craters of the Moon National Monument
    NGSS Standard
    5-LS2-1 (Movement of Matter)
    		  
    Published by National Park Service
  • Ecology Worksheet
    Graphing Deer Populations Worksheet
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Worksheet
    Students use data about deer populations to create a graph and answer conceptual questions based upon the data.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-1
    HS-LS2-2
    MS-LS2-4 (Ecosystem Affect on Populations)
    		  
    Published by Shannan Muskopf
  • Ecology Lab Experiment
    Food for Thought Lab
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Lab
    Students model how populations of different regions of the world compare with regards to numbers and food availabilty. Students will be divided by regions, and given food. The amount of food is based on statistics of each region.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-1
    HS-LS2-2
    		  
    Published by Shannan Muskopf
  • Ecology Worksheet
    Tracing Energy Through an Ecosystem
    Free Student Handout
    Free Multimedia
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Worksheet
    In this activity students are reminded of why organisms need to lose carbon atoms: They need to use the chemical energy in organic molecules. All carbon-transforming processes use chemical energy for some cell functions; then lose heat to the environment (this heat is ultimately radiated into outer space). Thus, matter cycles; energy flows in ecosystems.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-4
    MS-LS2-3 (Cycles & Energy Flow)
    		  
    Published by CarbonTIME
  • Ecology Lab Experiment
    Tracing Carbon Through an Ecosystem Lab
    Free Student Handout
    Free Multimedia
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Lab
    In this activity students shift to following a pulse of 500 carbon atoms through all the carbon pools in an ecosystem, considering the carbon transforming processes (eating, digestion, biosynthesis, photosynthesis, cellular respiration and death/defecation) that move atoms from one pool to another. They see how the pattern they observed in Lesson 2—the organic matter pyramid—emerges from these carbon-transforming processes.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS1-5
    HS-LS1-7
    HS-LS2-4
    MS-LS2-3 (Cycles & Energy Flow)
    		  
    Published by CarbonTIME
  • Ecology Worksheet
    Organic Carbon Pools in Other in Ecosystems Worksheet
    Free Student Handout
    Free Multimedia
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Worksheet
    Students consider different ecosystems that have different amounts of organic carbon to begin to think about carrying capacity.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-4
    MS-LS2-3 (Cycles & Energy Flow)
    		  
    Published by CarbonTIME
  • Ecology Worksheet
    Biomass Patterns in Ecosystems
    Free Student Handout
    Free Multimedia
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Worksheet
    Students use the results of the Meadow Simulation to recognize a consistent pattern in ecosystems: the biomass in the herbivore population is smaller than the producer biomass, and biomass in the carnivore population is always the smallest.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS2-4
    		  
    Published by Carbon TIME
  • Ecology Worksheet
    North American Biomes Worksheet
    Free Lesson Plan
     
    Worksheet
    Students color in the appropriate biome on a map of North America. Students then answer several questions about those biomes.
    NGSS Standard
    MS-LS2-1 (Resource Availability)
    		  
    Published by Shannan Muskopf
  • Ecology Lab Experiment
    Human Population Growth Lab - Spread of an Infectious Disease
    Free Student Handout
    Free Teacher Notes
     
    Lab
    In this human population growth lab, students simulate the exponential growth of an infectious disease in a population. Students then discuss how human diseases spread and their exponential and logistic growth curves. Lastly, students graph the simulated results.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS1-2
    		  
    Published by Ingrid Waldron and Jennifer Doherty
  • Ecology Lab Experiment
    Food Chain Lab - Owl Pellets
    Free Student Handout
     
    Lab
    In this food chain lab, students dissect owl pellets to learn how the owl is part of a food chain. Since the owl regurgitates these compact pellets, owl pellets are undigested parts that the owl eats, which contain fur and bones of small rodents. Dry pellets will not smell and are acceptable for students to handle with gloves.
    NGSS Standard
    HS-LS1-2
    HS-LS2-4
    MS-LS1-7 (Metabolism)
    MS-LS2-1 (Resource Availability)
    		  
    Published by Shannan Muskopf

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