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Melissa, Have you used the "Advanced Search" option found in the Learning Center. It helps me find resources (often labs or activities) that I can use for the topic that I will be teaching next. To use this option: 1) go to the Tab: Learning Resources & Opportunities" at the top of the screen. 2) find the "Search on the left hand side of the screen 3) type in the "Keyword" the topic that you are looking for [example: Moon}, scroll down to Type of Learning Resource" and select "User Created Collection", then hit search. You have now hit the jackpot! There will be dozens of collections that other teachers have already searched for in the topic that you are looking for. You can glance over all of the resources that have been gathered for this topic. [They are usually identified for use at specific grade levels.] There will be a lot of resources related to your topic search that you do not want. That is fine, because there will be lots of resources that you do want. This will save you a lot of time and effort and allow you to select only what you are interested in without having to go through each type of resource on your own to find relevant topics. There are excellent activities, strategies, and investigations found in these collections.

I love using a SMART board on food webs. I let the students pick one ecosystem and select a large variety of plants and animals that would live in that ecosystem. Then I let them take turns taking a producer and let that student connect one line through the web to the largest and last consumer. When we are done we have a pretty good complex food web. Then we discuss what happens when one consumer or one producer disappears or when man messes with nature - ie pollution, construction, agriculture, hunting.

i like the facts that those activities create an engaging environment in the classroom.

I let the students use those during their free time on completion of assignments.