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Activities for learning about ecosystems

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Tamar Devorah Tamar Devorah 399 Points

Hello, my name is Tamar and I am a pre-service teacher at UMBC and for one of our assignments, we need to create a two week lesson plan on a science topic of our choice. I chose my topic to be on ecosystems but I am having trouble with some engaging activites that coorespond with that topic. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you!

Rachel Stagner Rachel Stagner 215 Points

I think the most engaging thing you can do is take students on a walking field trip outside and have them make observations about the things they see.   A good starting activity is dividing up the things they noticed into living/nonliving things. This works no matter where you are at. Have them come up with their own questions about the ecosystem they are in, on sticky notes, and put them on a piece of chart paper that can guide the rest of the unit.  Drawing a concept map of how they think all of the things they saw interact is a nice way to generate interest, too. 

Ideas to expand on this... take a virtual tour of different ecosystems online (try national geographic education or a similar site) and compare/contrast to your ecosystem... more questions can be generated from this. 

These are just a few ideas, hope they are helpful! I think the most important thing is to ground your work in the place you are at.  It helps generate relevance and interest in the students.  Ask more questions if you have them!   

Cris DeWolf Cris DeWolf 11965 Points

Making a self-contained ecosystem in a bottle has been a favorite of my students over the years. Many resources are available on the Bottle Biology website. http://www.bottlebiology.org/

Good luck with your lessons!

Jillian Priess Jillian Priess 1085 Points

Foldables!! they are a great way to have students learn about ecosystems. I taught through observations and open discussion about the observation. The students then created a foldable to help reinforce the topic and it allowed them to be creative and use the information they learned.

Destiny Huggins Huggins 10040 Points

Good morning!

One simple engage that works with any topic is I Notice, I Wonder. For this activity you post a picture(s) and simply ask students what do they notice and what do they wonder. If you have more than one picture you can also have them compare and contrast. I generally have students write their notice and wonderings first and then we share our and discuss. This a great activity to get kids practicing observing using evidence, asking questions, comparing and contrasting, inference and connect prior knowledge. Plus it can take as long or short as you want.

 

Hope this one helps!

Destiny  Huggins

Dakota Grosscup Dakota Grosscup 775 Points

The best idea I can think of is have students take a notebook and take them outside. In the notebook they can write down observations about what they see about the ecosystem surrounding the school. I've been fortunate to have a river or a nature trail by schools I've been at which are great for observations about ecosystems. Anytime students get outside in fresh air I think it really engages them in a lesson.

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