Students will be working in a group of four. Students will be given a situation that has occurred within their given world ecosystem. The situation could be a disease that has infected a certain species of animal, resulting in eradication. What happens to your food web and how might this situation be avoided in the future? Students will then create a three-minute video newscast using moviemaker or screencast in order to communicate what has happened to their ecosystem and how scientists are working to make certain that this does not occur in the future. Students can use their notes or internet search to investigate the situation that is occurring within their world ecosystem.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.        

Students will investigate an ecosystem of their choice and then create a food web poster with at least 30 organisms. The students will have different sections that will include food web, food chain, energy pyramid, invasive species, and symbiosis, climate and population factors within an ecosystem. This is the summative lesson of the unit. This will allow the student to apply all the information that has been learned throughout the unit. The students will demonstrate through analyzes how an ecosystem is an interconnected ever changing system that incorporates many factors that affect organisms living in the ecosystem.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.        

The students will collaborate in groups of four to determine who will investigate each limiting factor that affects an ecosystem's population. The students will examine limiting factors of the world ecosystems and how organisms adapt to certain niches to survive. They will break apart and complete the investigation independently. After they have completed their investigation, the students will return to their groups and collaborate on the creation of a poster for all four population factors. The students will complete a gallery walk, thus communicating ideas on how each group can improve their population factors.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.        

In this activity, students will use a simple sampling method to determine if invasive species impact other plants and animals in the forest. This activity focuses on garlic mustard, but the same procedure can also be used with other invasive plants in different habitats. Note: This activity can also be simulated in the classroom with different kinds of leaves to represent different plants.

Students will identfiy necessary resources in a habitat, understand the factors that influence normal population size and carrying capacity, describe limiting fcators, and compare natural population fluctuations and unnatural declines.

This lesson provides students with an opportunity to explore the climate change concept in greater depth. The focus is on plant competition, reproductive output, and how these concepts may vary based on climate change predictions. The emphasis in this lesson is the effect of increasing amounts of water, predicted by global climate change models for some parts of the United States, on the production of fruits and seeds (measures of reproductive output).

This multimedia resource, part of the NC Science Now series, describes researchers at Duke are using an innovative method to track Gray Seals and determine where and how often seals eat. The study will also provide information about how humans interact with these animals and how that affects their sustainability over the long term. Components of this resource include a video, a related blog article, and an interview with a marine conservation biologist. Links to these components are provided on the page under the heading "UNC-TV Media."

This activity is designed to show students how spat or oyster larvae rely on a hard substrate for survival. Students will also learn the importance of oysters to an estuary and how recycling oyster shells helps the oyster population.

In this short video, join Brandon and Emily on a nature hike with Falyn from the NC Wildlife Resources Commission as they discover all kinds of plants and animals and learn a thing or two about the amazing nature of North Carolina!

This brief video lesson discusses how large sea animals collect enough food to sustain them. Discussion/assessment questions and suggested supplemental resources are also included.

Students explore interactives to learn about hydrothermal vent chemistry and the animals that have adapted to living in the harsh environment near vents.

Students will make a food diagram of the hydrothermal vent community and show the flow of energy and materials in this ecosystem.

In this biology field investigation, students investigate the site of a local dsiturbance such as a tree fallen in a forested area. Students will identify plant and animal life within a specific area containing the fallen tree and compare it to an adjoining forested area. Students will map both areas. Students will write a lab report including their data and an interpretation of the current situation at the site.

This multimedia resource, part of the NC Science Now series, outlines how the population of lionfish, an invasive species, has been spreading north since its introduction in the 1980s off Florida, collapsing the reef food webs and reducing the area of the coral reefs. Lionfish have no known predators and a rapid reproduction rate, which is why they are taking over and reducing the overall biodiversity of NC reef ecosystems. Components of this resource include a video, related text articles, and an interview with a NC marine ecologist. Links to these components are provided on the page under the heading "UNC-TV Media."

Students will work collaboratively to gather information about various groups of gelatinous zooplankton. They will be able to compare and contrast at least three different groups of zooplankton organisms and describe how gelatinous zooplankton fit into marine food webs. Groups will prepare a brief written report summarizing the information they have found and orally present to the rest of the class.

This site provides educational videos, quizzes and games about amphibians for students at varied grade levels. Teachers or students can make an online presentation and save it for homework or a school task. This resource supports English language development of English language learners.

This resource supports English language development for English Language Learners. This SIOP unit/lesson set contains instructions, pacing guide, slides, bilingual word cards and student activities. Students will study ecology and access the information in an appropriately modified format.

Students explore major marine ecosystems by locating them on maps. Students use marine examples to learn about energy transfer through food chains and food webs. They discuss how food webs can illustrate the health and resilience of an ecosystem.

Students use marine organism cards and trophic level classifications to identify and describe food chains in several marine ecosystems.

Students investigate marine food webs and trophic levels, research one marine organism, this activity sand fit their organisms together in a class-created food web showing a balanced marine ecosystem.