Each team has a budget of $45 to spend to modify a cup into the ultimate predator.  After predators are constructed, students battle to pop each others’ balloons.  Whichever predator is able to survive is the apex predator.

This resource accompanies our Rethink 5th Grade Science course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

Students use the books of April Pulley Sayre to explore how living organisms depend on one another and on the environment for survival.

5th grade students work together in teams to create an ecosystem to support Pacific Northwest pollinators.

In this lesson, students develop a definition for biodiversity. They analyze pictures of three ecosystems (forest, prairie, wetland) to determine their unique qualities and interconnections and then represent this on a Venn diagram. Finally, they use a jigsaw puzzle as a metaphor to illustrate why biodiversity is important.

Students will read about the effects of humans on a specific food web and then answer questions .

In this short video, join Emily and Emma from the Prairie Ridge Ecostation in Raleigh to take a look at some birds and learn about how we can observe all kinds of wildlife in our everyday lives.

Switch Zoo is a free interactive website that allows students to create their own animals, habitats and biomes. It provides games for students to get involved with their created animal and zoo. There are several different activities that students can interact with.

In this lesson, students will build a model forest ecosystem with various pieces of gym equipment and use the model to discuss how things are related in the forest.

In this two-part inquiry-based activity, students will practice using the scientific method while learning about decomposition, exploring how some types of garbage will decompose while others will not. Students can then go on to design their own experiment to test different variables affecting the rate of decomposition.

In this activity, students will use color-coded cards to represent different types of organisms in an ecosystem and model food chains to show the relationships between organisms. Students will also analyze simple scenarios and discuss consequences of change in the ecosystem.

Students learn how decomposers play an important part in the cycling of matter through an ecosystem by breaking down matter and returning it to the soil. They will set up a classroom composting bin.

This lesson plan focuses on food chains and food webs. There are multiple associated weblinks to supplemental videos and interactive resources.

This lesson is the second of a two-part series on the cycle of life. This series should help enhance student understanding of the flow of matter and energy and the interdependence of life by focusing on food chains and food webs.

In this series of activity, students explore an ecosystem and the interconnectedness of organisms within an ecosystem.

In this lesson, students compare and contrast a coral reef and a kelp forest ecosystem and identify the abiotic and biotic factors within each.

In this lesson, students learn about ecosystem functions and the types of organisms found in ecosystems. Students complete a diagram of photosynthesis and use calculations to follow the flow of energy through producers, consumers, and decomposers. Students read to learn about the cycling of matter and create their own diagrams of the processes.

Students explore the interconnected relationships between plants and animals in an ecosystem. They will decorate wooden blocks with plants and animals and then stack them to simulate an ecosystem (producers on the bottom). They will then take turns removing blocks from the ecosystem, giving a possible reason for that particular organism's removal from the ecosystem until the ecosystem becomes so unstable that it collapses.

In this series of lessons, students will learn about ecosystems. In the first lesson, students will explore the different types of ecosystems and the structures and functions that are inherent in each one. In the second lesson, students will examine challenges to ecosystems, both man-made and natural issues. In the third lesson, students will learn about food webs and trophic levels. In the final lesson, students will apply their knowledge to construct a board game to teach others about ecosystems.