Arctic warming produces biological winners (whales) and losers (polar bears). This article explains why they are impacted differently and includes supplemental images. This lesson is part of the Climate Kids website, a NASA education resource featuring articles, videos, images and games focused on the science of climate change.

This series of lessons focuses on two biological ocean communities - hydrothermal vents and seamounts. Students will learn about the organisms within these communities, the ecological relationships among them, and the impact of physical factors on distribution and abundance. In Lesson Plan 22, "Who Promised You a Rose Garden," students will conduct research to discover what types of organisms live near hydrothermal vents. In Lesson Plan 23, "Biological Communities of Alaska Seamounts," students will infer why biological communities on seamounts are likely to contain unique or endemic species and will use species occurrence data to calculate and index of similarity between two biological seamount communities. In Lesson Plan 24, "Would You Like a Sample?" students will test the advantages and limitations of several sampling techniques to study biological communities.

In this lesson, students compete for basic needs in an active game. Afterwards they observe and write about how trees compete with one another for their basic needs.

In this activity, students investigate local biodiversity by placing a transect line outside on the school campus.

In this activity, students will simulate the interactions between a predator population of gray wolves and a prey population of deer in a forest. After collecting the data, the students will plot the data and then extend the graph to predict the populations for several more generations.

Students will compare and give examples of density-independent and density-dependent factors and how they have an effect on the changing conditions on a lake. After establishing the difference between them, students will play a game where they change several factors and assess the effects of their changes to the environment.

In this lesson, students compare two different herds of elk to determine how many have been affected by the disease brucellosis. They will collect and analyze data to explore how the disease can spread and affect population density. This lesson begins on page 38 of the pdf.

Students will construct an ecocolumn and use it to study the interaction between the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.

In this lesson, students explain how biotic and abiotic factors affect organisms in an ecosystem and describe the different types of relationships that occur between organisms in an ecosystem, with emphasis on the predator-prey relationship.

In this activity students will learn about the many factors, both man-made and natural, that affect fish populations in the estuary. By learning how humans have a negative influence on estuarine fish populations, students will learn how to become better stewards of the environment.

In this interactive activity, students explain a phenomenon, make hypotheses and predictions, and then test their predictions with data. Students will measure the biomass of primary producers in a defined area and extrapolate the amount of algal biomass in a river pool. Students will also investigate the relationship between biomass pyramids and pyramids of productivity and the role of the physical environment (mainly the amount of sunlight versus shade) on trophic biomass pyramids. This activity is based on the fieldwork of ecologist Dr. Mary Power.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science created this resource as part of an online workshop series, but you are welcome to use or modify it for your classroom. It includes a video and written directions for creating nature journals and tips for incorporating them into your classroom. For information on taking any the Nature Neighborhood online workshops for CEUs or EE credit, visit: https://naturalsciences.org/learn/educators/online-workshops.

Students will describe at least two ways in which current flow may affect food capture by particle-feeding organisms.

In this lesson, students will research characteristics of native fish species and compare and contrast components of their habitats. Students will place information on cards and then use the cards to play a game.

In this lesson, part of the NC Science Now series, students will identify the factors that affect the Red Drum population and discuss the relationships between predator and prey.

Students explore a bay ecosystem and how the different organisms of the ecosystem compete with one another for resources.

Students conduct an investigation of soil and leaf litter from the forest floor. Students will collect animals they find in a jar. At the end of the activity, students will classify animals by number of legs and place specimens in white bottomed pans for group observation and identification. They will also create a food chain representing the organisms found in the soil and leaf litter ecosystem.

Students will read scientific text about top predators in Arctic marine ecosystems and how they may be affected by global climate change. Students will work individually or collaboratively to write a report based on the scientific text they have read and participate in a large-group discussion session based on their analysis.

This lesson will incorporate how organisms affected at one trophic level in an ecosystem can change the entire structure of the ecosystem. The students will gain an understanding that human impact through deforestation, climate change and even restoration effort can alter an ecosystem's flow of energy through a food web which can have a chain effect spreading through the entire food web. The affect could cause an entire ecosystem to collapse especially if the original organism affected is a keystone species or an umbrella species. Students will learn that the extinction of the polar bears will cause devastation on the Arctic ecosystem that may cause the extinction of world biome.This lesson was developed by Elizabeth Bartlett as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.