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Description
Healthy ecosystems are vital to all life on Earth, including ours. This inquiry-based activity takes students outside to investigate the interaction of abiotic and biotic componentsiwithin three habitat types in their community. STEM skills are used to evaluate parameters like temperature or soil type while surveying the plant and animal species found at each site. As students assess the physical and biological features of each area they will construct their own ideas about ecological processes, while developing an awareness of how humans can disrupt the sensitive balance of the natural world.
General Assessment
Recommendation of how and where to use it
This resource supports Grade 6-9 Science curriculum investigating interactions between non-living and living habitat components and the connection between biodiversity and ecosystem stability. Pupils also use science process skills to measure and analyze variables like temperature and soil moisture. Smartphone apps that determine the direction of wind and water flow can be used to integrate technology into the scientific investigation.
An action project might have the class use their research to develop a community map that features locally important habitats and species. The map could support an initiative in which students partner with municipal staff and citizen volunteers to develop and implement conservation strategies such as planting native trees to improve riparian zones.
Relevant Curriculum Units
The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.
- Step 1Select a province
- Alberta
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 6
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Living Systems: Understandings of the living world, Earth, and space are deepened through investigating natural systems and their interactions
- Trees and Forests
- Grade 7
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Interactions and Ecosystems
- Grade 8
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Freshwater and Saltwater Systems
- British Columbia
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 7
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Science 7: Evolution by natural selection provides an explanation for the diversity and survival of living things.
- Grade 9
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Science 9: The biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere are interconnected, as matter cycles and energy flows through them.
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Newfoundland & Labrador
- Northwest Territories
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 7
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Interactions and Ecosystems
- Grade 8
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Freshwater and Saltwater Systems
- Grade 9
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Science 9: The biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere are interconnected, as matter cycles and energy flows through them.
- Nova Scotia
- Nunavut
- Ontario
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 6
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science & Technology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Life Systems: Biodiversity
- STEM Skills and Connections
- Grade 7
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science & Technology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Life Systems: Interactions in the Environment
- STEM Skills and Connections
- Grade 9
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- :Biology: Sustainable Ecosystems
- Prince Edward Island
- Quebec
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 6
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science & Technology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Living Things
- Grade 7
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science & Technology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- The Living World
- Grade 8
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science & Technology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- The Living World
- Saskatchewan
- Yukon Territory
Themes Addressed
Ecosystems (4)
- Appreciating the Natural World
- Biodiversity
- Bioregionalism
- Interdependence
