Lesson Plan Title: Mini-ecosystems
Grade Level: K-5
Concept / Topic To Teach: Components of an ecosystem
Specific Objectives:
- Students will define an ecosystem
- Students will recognize the components of an ecosystem
- Students will recognize factors that affect an ecosystem
- Students will distinguish between biotic and abiotic factors
Required Materials: String, paper, pencil, clipboards, crayons/colored pencils/markers
Anticipatory Set (Lead-In): Students will need to understand that ecology is the study of relationships between organisms (plants and animals) and their environment. All ecosystems have biotic and abiotic factors. Explain that abiotic means absent of life or living organisms such as water, air, soil, temperature, light and natural disasters. Biotic is having to do with the living organisms in an ecosystem. Students should also understand that ecosystems are made up of producers (organisms that create their own food through photosynthesis or chemosynthesis), consumers (organisms that feed on other organisms and their remains such as herbivores and carnivores), and decomposers (organisms that break down large chemicals from dead organisms into small chemicals and returns important materials to the soil and water).
Step-By-Step Procedures:
- Discuss and review ecosystems. What ecosystems do they inhabit?
- Explain that they will get to investigate mini-ecosystems themselves and identify as many components and productivity pieces as they can.
- Use the string to create small boundaries (about the size of a hula hoop ring) for the mini-ecosystems. Divide students into groups of two or three and assign each group to a separate mini-ecosystem.
- Have students identify as many ecosystem components and productivity pieces as they can and record them on their sheets of paper. Remind students to look for both biotic and abiotic factors. For K-2 students it may be helpful to have students divide their paper in half and label one side living and the other side nonliving. They can then write or draw the living and nonliving parts under the correct heading.
- Have each group discuss their ecosystem with the rest of the class and share the different components they discovered. How is the ecosystem they inhabit similar to the mini one they studied? How is it different?
Closure (Reflect Anticipatory Set):Either on site or back at school/home, have students draw what they remember from their mini-ecosystem and label the various biotic and abiotic factors.
Assessment Based On Objectives:Formally assess group recording sheet, informally assess discussion, or use closure drawing activity as a form of assessment. Have students correctly identified biotic and abiotic factors?
Glossary:
Abiotic: absent of life or living organisms; non-living: includes light, temperature and atmospheric gases
Biotic: having to do with living organisms
Consumer: in ecology, an organism, usually an animal, that feeds on other organisms and their remains; classified as primary consumers (herbivores), secondary consumers (carnivores) and microconsumers (decomposers)
Decomposer: an organism that breaks down large chemicals from dead organisms into small chemicals and returns important materials to the soil and water
Ecology: branch of biology dealing with the interactions between organisms and their environment
Ecosystem: plants and animals interacting with each other and their physical environment
Producer: an organism that creates its own food from inorganic substances through photosynthesis (by green plants) or chemosynthesis (by anaerobic bacteria) and serves as a source of food in the food chain
References
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.(n.d.).Ecology 101. Retrieved from