Antimatter, the charge reversed equivalent of matter, has captured the imaginations of science fiction fans for years as a perfectly efficient form of energy. While normal matter consists of atoms with negatively charged electrons orbiting positively charged nuclei, antimatter consists of positively charged positrons orbiting negatively charged anti-nuclei. When antimatter and matter meet, both substances are annihilated, creating massive amounts of energy. Instances in which antimatter is portrayed in science fiction stories (such as Star Trek) are examined, including their purposes (fuel source, weapons, alternate universes) and properties. Students compare and contrast matter and antimatter, learn how antimatter can be used as a form of energy, and consider potential engineering applications for antimatter.

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, 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.

This lesson is about the flow of energy in ecosystems. The setting is Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA, where students will learn about the first Thanksgiving meal in America, celebrated in 1621 by early American settlers and Wampanoag Indians. By examining this meal and comparing it to a modern day Thanksgiving celebration, students will be able to explore the way in which food energy moves and is transformed in an ecosystem. The learning goals focus on the movement of energy from one feeding level to the next within a food web, the way in which energy changes form, and the inefficiency of energy transfer, which in turn affects the availability of food energy for organisms at the highest feeding level. The lesson is directed at high school level biology students. Students should be familiar already with food webs, food chains, and trophic (feeding) levels. They should also be familiar with the general equations for photosynthesis (CO2 + H2O => C6H12O6) and cell respiration (C6H12O6 => CO2 + H2O), and understand the basic purpose of these processes in nature. This lesson can be completed during one long classroom period, or can be divided over two or more class meetings. The duration of the lesson will depend on prior knowledge of the students and on the amount of time allotted for student discussion. There are no supplies required for this lesson other than the downloadable worksheets (accessed on this BLOSSOMS site), paper and some glue or tape.

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 become familiar with threatened and endangered plant and animal species of Michigan. Students learn what it means to be listed as threatened or endangered, common causes for being listed, and the role of government and individuals in protecting biodiversity.

Students first consider what supports all life on Earth
and are then introduced to the levels of environmental
organization (biosphere, biome, ecosystem, community,
population, and organism).

Students will observe and describe the communities of plants and animals they discover within mini-ecosystems found in their schoolyards. Students will use tools to survey abiotic components of the mini-ecosystems – temperature, soil, moisture, etc. In order to observe changes over time, students should repeat the same activity (in same location) several times over the course of the year.Students answer these essential questions: What type of ecosystem is our schoolyard a part of and what miniecosystems might be found within it? and How do ecosystems change over time?

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.

In this activity,students participate in a charades-like activity to learn about some of the secret services provided by ecosystems and the species within them. Later, students apply understanding of the terms ecological, economic, and social to categorize ecosystem benefits. Finally, students review the lesson concepts in a bingo game.

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.

As a society, we use land in many different ways. The way we use land has a tremendous impact on how water flows over and through land as it makes it way to streams, rivers, and the Great Lakes. When rainwater falls on land, it gradually makes its way downhill. In developed areas, including both farms and urban areas, there is much less vegetation to slow the water down. As a result, the water moves quickly over the surface of the ground, picking up dirt and other materials and carrying it along with the flow of water. This process is known as "erosion." The suspended material, called "sediment," is carried through the watershed to the streams, rivers, and lakes. Success with this lesson will happen when students are able to explore the land use around sample Michigan sites, and use that information to analyze which sites have the highest average sediment levels and which have the lowest.

Rivers are incredibly important to our society and our environment, but we haven't always treated our rivers as well as we should. By using pictures taken from satellites orbiting the earth, we can examine rivers all over Michigan and try to identify those rivers that appear to have higher water quality and those that appear to have lower quality. Based on the illustrations provided, students will be able to make a number of observations about the quality of Michigan's rivers. Two specific rivers, the Rouge River and Escanaba River, will be observed and conclusions made about water quality and types of land use surrounding it. Lesson success will include having students log into ArcGIS Online to explore the river nearest their home so they can produce a table of observations and a 3-5 sentence paragraph to summarize their findings.

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.

While learning about volcanoes, magma and lava flows, students learn about the properties of liquid movement, coming to understand viscosity and other factors that increase and decrease liquid flow. They also learn about lava composition and its risk to human settlements.

The Ecology Student Edition book is one of ten volumes making up the Human Biology curriculum, an interdisciplinary and inquiry-based approach to the study of life science.

This wiki page documents the Sun Curve Design Challenge, inspired by the "Sun Curve" aquaponic garden sculpture to challenge teachers and students to produce new OER materials and incorporate green design thinking into the classroom.

Objective
SWBAT create a list of characteristics and interesting facts about spiders.

Big Idea
Students critically read scientific texts adapted for classroom use to determine the central ideas and/or obtain scientific information to gather evidence about the natural world.

Objective
SWBAT
1. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
2. Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Big Idea
Students investigate the idea that small changes in one part of a system might cause large changes in another.

Meg set out to climb up and investigate the rain forest tree canopies — and to be the first scientist to do so. But she encountered challenge after challenge. Male teachers would not let her into their classrooms, the high canopy was difficult to get to, and worst of all, people were logging and clearing the forests. Meg never gave up or gave in. She studied, invented, and persevered, not only creating a future for herself as a scientist, but making sure that the rainforests had a future as well. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Your community has many different areas to explore - it might be a park, a grocery store, a forest, or an alley. For some people, it might be difficult to explore these areas because they may have differing abilities. Select one area in your community, and come up with a plan to build a way for it to be more accessible to everyone.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.