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You might look at Carolina Biological. They are one of the biggest companies providing live specimens.

I know that my local garden/nursery is always excited to help our school out in anyway. They have helped local towns set up small aquatic ecosystems. I am lucky that my school has a small tank on campus already so I take my students out fairly often to observe interactions of living, nonliving organisms, as well as plants and animals. Good luck!

Go with Carolina... http://www.carolina.com/protozoa/minipond-ecosystem-kit-living/131207.pr -Arjan

Local companies...the Home Depot, Lowe etc. can also be great resources and collaborative partners especially if you have a shoestring budget to work with. You might want to think about how large you want your pond ecosystem to be and whether you want the pool to be permanent or temporary. My school created a permanent pond in a huge inner court yard...it is a great learning resource for all classes. The Koi fish have grown humongous and are a constant draw for herons and other birds of prey despite a protective screen mesh over the pond. Good luck....

Wow! I loved your idea of wanting to make a pond ecosystem at your school so you can teach the three categories of an ecosystem (Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers) I asked a specific question to the students in the class I am doing field hours with that was "Name two producers in a pond?" There was definitely a lot of misconceptions with what a producer, consumer, and decomposer really are. I feel that children learn best when given hands on experience where they can actually see the role of each category and see what each organism is responsible for . Children commonly confuse producers with animals that reproduce given the route words "produce". I hope you were able to find a company that was able to make a pond in your school. I look forward to having my own science classroom one day! :) Chelsie

Depending on where you are located, be sure that you have made plans for the winter. We had an especially brutal winter this year, and I fear that I have lost all my fish. They have, up until this winter, stayed in the pond, with a pump running to circulate, but this year was too much, and it froze over, and I am afraid became anoxic. They can be tricky to manage. Don't want to discourage you - they are awesome, and I have had that outdoor ecosystem going for about 20 years. This year, I lost it. I guess that is a lesson worth learning as well, but I hate to see lives lost!

I went to a Captain Planet workshop recently. It was an excellent resources and had great ideas for the environment. Maybe you can contact that organization and they can give you want you are looking for. They may come to your school and help to get you started. Hope this helps.

I went to a Captain Planet workshop recently. It was an excellent resources and had great ideas for the environment. Maybe you can contact that organization and they can give you want you are looking for. They may come to your school and help to get you started. Hope this helps.