In this project, you'll assume the role of a geospatial scientist working with the Montana Forestry Department to analyze the damage in Glacier National Park. You'll first compare Landsat 8 imagery from before and after the fires. Then, you'll change the band combination of the post-fire imagery in order to emphasize burn scars and make a qualitative judgment. Afterward, you'll quantify your assessment by calculating a Normalized Burn Index (a ratio designed to highlight burned areas) from the imagery. Lastly, you'll create a feature class to represent the burn scar, calculate its acreage, and publish it to ArcGIS Online to share with the department.

Step outside and discover the diversity of insect life in your neighborhood. Insects are the world’s most diverse group of living things, with over 950,000 identified species and counting. You might think that you’d need to travel to the Amazon to study insects, but they can be found practically everywhere—including right where you happen to be.

CK-12’s Life Science delivers a full course of study in the life sciences for the middle school student, relating an understanding of the history, disciplines, tools, and modern techniques of science to the exploration of cell biology, molecular biology, genetics, evolution, prokaryotes, protists,fungi, plants, animals, invertebrates, vertebrates, human biology, and ecology. This digital textbook was reviewed for its alignment with California content standards.

CK-12’s Life Science delivers a full course of study in the life sciences for the middle school student, relating an understanding of the history, disciplines, tools, and modern techniques of science to the exploration of cell biology, genetics, evolution, prokaryotes, protists, fungi, plants, the animal kingdom, the human body, and ecology. This digital textbook was reviewed for its alignment with California content standards.

As GIS technicians, students examine dams along the Mersey River Watershed to determine whether there are any locations suitable for the construction of a fishway. Once they identify the best potential location, they will calculate the dam's upstream watershed to help determine how much additional habitat could be made accessible by constructing the fishway.

This series of activities explores animal behavior and how to research it.  A scientist working in the Sound Ecology lab at Western Michigan University is featured.  The introduction and first two activities are adaptable for all grade bands; the wrap-up section has 4 different options, depending on grade band.

The major goal of this lesson is to provide students with some of the tools they will need to analyze and solve the many complex problems they will face during their lifetimes. In the lesson, students learn to use Flow Charts and Feedback Diagrams to analyze a very complex problem of ecological sustainability. The lesson looks at a specific case study—from my home town in the Philippines—of the Live Reef Fish Trade now threatening survival of the Coral Reef Triangle of Southeast Asia. Live reef fish have long been traded around Southeast Asia as a luxury food item, but in recent decades trade in fish captured on coral reefs has expanded rapidly. Although the trade has provided communities with additional income, these benefits are unsustainable and have come at considerable cost to the environment. This lesson begins by having students analyze a familiar or personal problem, using Flow Charts and Feedback Diagrams, and then moves on to the application of those tools to a complex environmental problem. The lesson could be completed in a 50-minute class session, but using it over two class sessions would be preferable. Everything needed for the lesson is downloadable from the BLOSSOMS website, including blank Flow Charts and Feedback Diagrams, as well as articles on the Philippines case study from the World Wildlife Fund and the United States Agency for International Development.

An active, high-energy game, where students role-play parts of the ecosystem as producers, herbivores, carnivores, and decomposers. This activity can also be used to simulate the bioaccumulation of toxins.

Students take a short field trip into the schoolyard for a scavenger hunt to find examples of nonliving (abiotic) and living (biotic) ecosystem components, including organisms, habitat, population, community, ecosystem, sunlight, water, temperature, nutrients, and wind. This activity can be used as an informal assessment for Lesson 1.

Students read a series of riddles depicting the habitat requirements for specific Michigan wildlife species; they then identify the animal as well as which type of ecosystem (forest, wetland, coastal dune, or river) may offer appropriate habitat for that species.

Students use a ball of twine to create a forest ecosystem “web of life,” illustrating interdependence within a natural community and the importance of diversity within it.
Students are then introduced to the concept of biodiversity and its importance.

Students use a set of Invasive Species Picture Cards to learn about 30 invasive species affecting both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in the Great Lakes region. Students
use the cards to classify the organisms according to their habitat type, method of introduction, origin, and date of arrival. Students then identify strategies for preventing the
introduction of new species or the spread of existing ones.

There are many different ways to precisely measure the quality of water in a river. Environmental scientists and volunteers all over the state of Michigan are continuously collecting measurements of the quality of water in rivers, streams, and lakes. Students will look at two of these measures to see how they change with location around the state and along a river. The first measure of water quality is called "water conductance" - that is, how well a water sample can conduct electricity. A higher water conductance generally means lower water quality. The second measure of water quality is "pH." pH is a measure of how acidic or basic water is. Successful students will be able to interpret and analyze data using these two measures to better understand Michigan water quality.

Using this lesson plan students will be more aware of how plants and animals adapt to wildland fire. They will: Discuss the adaptive strategies of plants and animals to survive fire. Observe plants and animals in your local area. Design a plant or animal that is adapted for fire survival.

Objective
Students will be able to create their own food chains, food webs, and food pyramids for an ecosystem of their choice.

Big Idea
Spin your own food webs and other energy diagrams.

Objective
Students will be able to read and interpret food chains, food webs, and food pyramids.

Big Idea
Small changes can mean big problems for ecosystems.

Objective
SWBAT explain their engineering choices and ask appropriate questions about their classmates' projects.

Big Idea
In this lesson, students present and explain their final products for the Frogger project and ask thoughtful scientific questions as audience members.

In this 7th grade science lesson, students review the structures and processes that allow flowering plants to reproduce, and then pick a flower from the garden to dissect and diagram.

In this 8th grade science lesson, students review the six essential elements of life and discuss how they function in the garden.

Students learn about energy and nutrient flow in various biosphere climates and environments. They learn about herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, food chains and food webs, seeing the interdependence between producers, consumers and decomposers. Students are introduced to the roles of the hydrologic (water), carbon, and nitrogen cycles in sustaining the worlds' ecosystems so living organisms survive. This lesson is part of a series of six lessons in which students use their growing understanding of various environments and the engineering design process, to design and create their own model biodome ecosystems.