Engage your students with these 10 ecosystem project ideas for your elementary science class and grab a FREEBIE to get started!
Growing a self-sustaining plant ecosystem in the classroom is a fun and hands-on way to teach students about ecosystems as well as the water cycle. To complete this experiment you will need clear plastic 2 liter bottles, seeds or small plants, soil, water, scissors, and tape.
It's always hard to tell which MAKE project will be the one that lots and lots of folks make and then share, it looks like for volume 10 a lot of makers
Eco-Column: By: Kelsie Fronheiser, Gene Edwards, Jenny Kraus, Justin Lange Introduction: These instructions will help you create your very own eco-column in your home or classroom. An eco-column is a self-sustaining ecosystem on a small scale, made of plastic s…
Engage your students with these 10 ecosystem project ideas for your elementary science class and grab a FREEBIE to get started!
These 30 best classroom pet ideas will provide you with practical ideas and things to consider when choosing a classroom pet.
Biome in a bottle, ecosystem in an envelope, habitat in a handbag…what on earth? No seriously…what on EARTH are you going to create?! Think about where you live – the organisms that surround you and the environment they live in and get started on this interactive in-classroom habitat! WHAT'S INCLUDED in this 2 WEEK LESSON: • 12 page NON-EDITABLE PDF handout with student and teacher directions • Answer key • DIGITAL GOOGLE CLASSROOM links to all items listed above which can be easily converted to Microsoft School with directions provided or altered to fit your school’s personal learning management system STUDENTS WILL: • Research local aquatic and terrestrial biomes and their characteristics. • Choose a local aquatic/terrestrial biome and then research the requirements of the plants and organisms that live in those biomes. • Create a closed or open local aquatic and terrestrial biome to see how living things within your area interact with one another and how materials are cycled within their ecosystem. • Maintain their ecosystem over a number of weeks • Measure changes in the ecosystem conditions over the weeks • Answer extension questions MATERIALS LIST (most items are student supplied): - Newspaper or tablecloths for mess - 1-2 CLEAR (not tinted) and clean two-liter bottles - labels removed - 4 unbleached Coffee filters - Thick absorbent string/yarn with a knot tied on one end - Local plants (include roots), seedlings, and seeds - Local water sample - Local organisms – consumers/decomposers (land and water) - Local soil samples of various kinds – clay, gravel, sand, etc. - Abiotic components – wood, shells, etc THIS LESSON IS ALSO INCLUDED IN OUR: - Ecology Bundled Unit which includes 7-9 weeks worth of materials in our 260+ slide PowerPoint and 100+ pages of handouts! YOU MAY ALSO LIKE OUR: - Ecology Think Tickets: Task Cards for Science Exploration - Ecology Visual Word Wall - Ecology Interactive Notebook Activities Click this link to find out how this lesson fits with your NGSS, TEKS or GSE Science Classroom Getting Nerdy's Terms of Use (TOU): - Purchase of the product is for single classroom use by the purchaser only. It is a violation for individuals, schools, and districts to redistribute, edit, sell, or post this item on the Internet or to other individuals. Disregarding the copyright is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and subject to legal action. -By purchasing this product you acknowledge that you have read and understood the Terms of Use. Biome in a Bottle Ecosystem Model by © 2012-present Getting Nerdy, LLC
This project is an ecosystem in a bottle showing how animals, plants, and non-living things are all connected.
The Animals and Ecosystems Zoo Project is my FAVORITE project of the year! I sit all the kids down and announce that our class has bought a zoo! And we're
Don't let the title, DIY 2-Liter Bottle Ecosystem Project scare you. This activity is fun and intriguing for the home or a science project!
Are you looking to elevate your Ecosystems and Biomes unit? This 4th or 5th grade project based learning unit for ecosystems incorporates science, nonfiction reading, research, writing, and the arts! Read to find out how I organized the research project, what our launch activity was, the driving que
Building a Mini Ecosystem is an excellent way for kids to observe and learn about different small critters found on nature hunts and while in nature.
Science should be engaging and exciting. Here are my ten favorite ways of teaching ecosystems with this ecosystems project.
Add caption It's beginning to feel like Spring in Pennsylvania, and with it comes our state tests and just beyond...my favorite teaching of the ENTIRE year...ecosystems and biomes. I just LOVE nature and last year I jumped our third graders in with both feet and we made a huge mess in my room for two days and assembled fully self-contained terrestrial and aquatic biome bottles. This project has allowed me to connect so many things I love--big projects, my aquarium past, kids, parents, plants and photography. Parents from both classes of our third graders helped greatly and we got lots of donor support from aquarium plants to cherry shrimp and snails. Coca-Cola donated 150 new 2L bottles and an awesome mom and dad team cut three per child exactly so, to assemble into what you see below. To do this project you 'll need: -3 clean 2-L soda bottles, caps removed - clean garden stone (about 2C per bottle) -potting soil (garden soil, no vermiculite...about 1-1.5 C per bottle) -sand (about 1/4 C per bottle) -a handful of composted leaves and a stick or two - a sprinkling of grass seed (we added a few alyssum flower seeds for fun) - an oxygenating aquatic plant (anacharis, cabomba, hygrophilia, hornwort, ludwigia are a few) - THE CRITTERS: for the terrarium: an earthworm, a few sowbugs, and a cricket for the aquarium: a snail and a cherry shrimp NOTE: We lost many of the cherry shrimp, either because sitting on the windowsill in April is too cold, or because the nitrate load in the small amount of water is too great for shrimp. There are no fish that are strict herbivores so I didn't want to use them. I don't like killing animals so this year we're going to try gammarus or scuds. They are amphipods and are much smaller, but they eat algae and I think will stand a better chance of the students understanding the balance of small ecosystem animal/plant relations well enough with this much excitement going on in their worlds. I make a big deal of our learning and connecting. I ask a lot of my third graders. They learn all about ecosystems. Add caption Vocabulary: producers, primary, secondary and tertiary consumers, energy source, decomposers, food web, food chain....biomes, biotic and abiotic members of their biome, ecosystem, habitat. Student pairs create a food chain mobile of local animals and plants as an assessment. Add caption We go on a culminating field trip to a local Environmental Center where students participate in a stream study. They wade into the stream to collect macroinvertebrates then analyze them to see which species they have, using a guide that helps them determine health of the water for animals/plants living in the riparian zone nearest the river...and as a result the health of the watershed area. I'd be glad to share food web, producer/consumer/decomposer worksheets, a math project and anything else with you if you comment below and include your email.
This is not my idea, but I know a good one when I see it, and I had to tuck this away to do this summer with the kids. Some kids at one of our schools did something similar for a science project, and then my friend Michelle, over at Scribbit, detailed the project when she did it with her children up in Alaska. That being said, so that I take no credit whatsoever, this is a really, really cool thing to do with your kids, young and old. Even my sixteen year old daughter was completely engaged for the hours we spent. First, here's what you need for each one: 3 clear 2-liter (empty) soda bottles clear packing tape aquarium gravel water dechlorinator rubber band 4" piece of netting (I used cut up pantyhose) soil fish, snails, or other aquatic life elodea, (which is banned in CA), duck weed (which the store didn't have), anachris, or other aquatic plants crickets, pill bugs, earthworms a few dead leaves and small sticks You can use the link to Scribbit for perfectly detailed directions, but first you get your soda bottles, 3 for each ecosystem, and you begin cutting them up. The bottom one (basement, AKA pond life) gets the top cut off of it. The middle one (AKA coupler) gets both bottom AND top cut off. The top level (AKA earth level) gets bottom cut off, but saved to reattach at the end. Once you have your pieces, you take your basement/pond life level and add an inch or so of gravel. Fill it almost to the top with water and add a few drops of dechlorinator. Then add special friends, like the plants, guppies, and snails. You can use different fish, but guppies are the sturdiest. These snails that the nice fish store man chose for us stay fairly small, and they're beautiful. Each ecosystem got 2 snails, 2 branches of anachris (plant), which they could break into smaller pieces, and 3 or 4 guppies so that hopefully 2 will live. The guppies and snails were happy almost immediately, exploring their new home. Well, except for one of Aiden's that just floated to the bottom. And then swam like a madfish to the top only to float to the bottom again. Aiden named him "Wheeeeeee!" We're not sure how long Wheeeee! will be around for. For the top/earth level, we put the layer of pantyhose over the open mouth of the bottle, secured it with a rubberband and then turned it upside down. Next, we added a layer of gravel, and then some super-soil from our garden. Into this level we planted some grass seed, but rye/alfalfa/mustard would work well too. I just couldn't find my sprouting seeds. Then we added our friends, one cricket (with a small chunk of potato for him to nibble), 3 pill bugs, and an earthworm each. Then a few dead leaves and small sticks went on top. Just for fun, I gave each child a garden tag to use for a nameplate. The bottom of that soda bottle (which is now the top) was taped back on, with the edges tucked just inside the rest of the bottle so water doesn't run out. Then that top level is set inside the coupler level and taped. Both of those two top levels are now set inside the pond life basement level and secured with tape. Now it should be airtight and self-contained, as a proper ecosystem should be. Can you see the little fishies swimming around? Now just set them in front of a sunny window so that photosynthesis can happen, setting in motion the cycle of life. The water will evaporate to the top to rain down on the soil, helping the grass to grow and the dead leaves to decompose, which feed the insects. There will be plenty of oxygen from the plants, and the algae that will grow will feed the fish and snails. Can't wait to watch it all happen! Oh, and by the way, all of the supplies for 3 ecosystems, including the soda bottles came to under $17. Nice.
Ecosystem Scavenger Hunt for the backyard or schoolyard where students take photographs on their devices as they explore!
LEVELS OF ORGANIZATION WITHIN AN ECOSYSTEM Teach students an easy way to remember each of the 4 levels and how they are organized within an ecosystem! Using this pyramid shows students a visual of the most basic level of an organism, to all of the components of an ecosystem, including both abiotic and biotic factors. This printable resource can serve as a study guide or reference sheet. I used this in class as a poster and had students glue this into their interactive science notebook to refer back to. To see how I used it go to my → Instagram ◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈ WHAT'S INCLUDED: • 1 Levels of Organization Pyramid • 4 Levels in an Ecosystem (Organism, Population, Community, Ecosystem) ◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈ LET'S CONNECT! Instagram ◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈ Hope you enjoy! ☺
Our most recent science unit is an exploration of ecosystems. We learned there are 4 parts to an ecosystem: animals, plants, decomposers, and non-living things. These bottles contain all four parts including water, soil, grass, fish, snails, gravel, worms, and a water plant. Our bottles have been self sustaining. For two weeks we haven't had to feed the animals or water the plants, and everything is still alive. Take a look:
Discover the various ecosystems around the world with this cute ecosystem display hanger! It's quick to assemble and a great way to review with your students. In these hangers, students illustrate or glue in the corresponding image to the description card. Then they write facts or other important information in the description card and glue them together to form an accordion-like display. File Type PDF (Acrobat) Document File Be sure that you have an application to open this file type before downloading and/or purchasing.
Engage your students with these 10 ecosystem project ideas for your elementary science class and grab a FREEBIE to get started!
Discover the various ecosystems around the world with this cute ecosystem display hanger! It's quick to assemble and a great way to review with your students. In these hangers, students illustrate or glue in the corresponding image to the description card. Then they write facts or other important information in the description card and glue them together to form an accordion-like display. **Check out the preview for more details!** What's included: An ecosystem topper of the earth Options to use all ecosystems (for example freshwater and marine ecosystems), ecosystems grouped (for example: aquatic ecosystems), or have students focus on ONE ecosystem per display and list facts about that particular ecosystem. Blank description cards are also included. Directions This product in use: Students can list facts about each different ecosystem on one hanger, focus on ONE ecosystem per hanger, or whatever teacher's desire! Perfect for small group work, homework, independent work, partner work, whole group activity, early finishers, centers, and so much more! Other related products you may enjoy: Ecosystems Scavenger Hunt Reading Ecosystem Accordion Craftivity Final Notes: If you see ANYTHING that needs modifying, or if you have any questions, please contact me via the Q&A so I can help you right away. I take my product creation and your satisfaction very seriously! Thanks! It's very important to me that you provide feedback so that I may improve and create products you will use and love! Please consider leaving detailed feedback. Additionally, each time you provide feedback, you earn TpT credits. These can be taken off purchases so you can get items free! keywords: ecosystems, ecosystems activity, ecosystems project, ecosystems and biomes, biomes and ecosystems, levels of organization, world biomes and habitats, ecosystem resources, ecosystems biomes
This Ecosystems Unit of Study is designed to help you plan and implement your own science unit in your classroom.
Engage your students with these 10 ecosystem project ideas for your elementary science class and grab a FREEBIE to get started!
Biome in a bottle, ecosystem in an envelope, habitat in a handbag…what on earth? No seriously…what on EARTH are you going to create?! Think about where you live – the organisms that surround you and the environment they live in and get started on this interactive in-classroom habitat! WHAT'S INCLUDED in this 2 WEEK LESSON: • 12 page NON-EDITABLE PDF handout with student and teacher directions • Answer key • DIGITAL GOOGLE CLASSROOM links to all items listed above which can be easily converted to Microsoft School with directions provided or altered to fit your school’s personal learning management system STUDENTS WILL: • Research local aquatic and terrestrial biomes and their characteristics. • Choose a local aquatic/terrestrial biome and then research the requirements of the plants and organisms that live in those biomes. • Create a closed or open local aquatic and terrestrial biome to see how living things within your area interact with one another and how materials are cycled within their ecosystem. • Maintain their ecosystem over a number of weeks • Measure changes in the ecosystem conditions over the weeks • Answer extension questions MATERIALS LIST (most items are student supplied): - Newspaper or tablecloths for mess - 1-2 CLEAR (not tinted) and clean two-liter bottles - labels removed - 4 unbleached Coffee filters - Thick absorbent string/yarn with a knot tied on one end - Local plants (include roots), seedlings, and seeds - Local water sample - Local organisms – consumers/decomposers (land and water) - Local soil samples of various kinds – clay, gravel, sand, etc. - Abiotic components – wood, shells, etc THIS LESSON IS ALSO INCLUDED IN OUR: - Ecology Bundled Unit which includes 7-9 weeks worth of materials in our 260+ slide PowerPoint and 100+ pages of handouts! YOU MAY ALSO LIKE OUR: - Ecology Think Tickets: Task Cards for Science Exploration - Ecology Visual Word Wall - Ecology Interactive Notebook Activities Click this link to find out how this lesson fits with your NGSS, TEKS or GSE Science Classroom Getting Nerdy's Terms of Use (TOU): - Purchase of the product is for single classroom use by the purchaser only. It is a violation for individuals, schools, and districts to redistribute, edit, sell, or post this item on the Internet or to other individuals. Disregarding the copyright is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and subject to legal action. -By purchasing this product you acknowledge that you have read and understood the Terms of Use. Biome in a Bottle Ecosystem Model by © 2012-present Getting Nerdy, LLC
In this multi-day activity, students explore environments, ecosystems, energy flow and organism interactions by creating a scale model biodome through applying the engineering design process. The Procedure section provides activity instructions for Biodomes unit, lessons 2-6, as students work through Parts 1-6 to develop their model biodome. Subjects include energy flow and food chains, basic needs of plants and animals, and the importance of decomposers. Students consider why a solid understanding of one's environment and the interdependence of an ecosystem can inform the choices we make and the way we engineer our own communities. This activity can be conducted as either a very structured or open-ended design.
There are many ways to celebrate diversity and honor a multicultural classroom. Help create a classroom environment that has students explore and appreciate other cultures and diversity. Allow students to break through cultural barriers, so they learn to appreciate different ways of celebrating or communicating, and bring the classroom community closer together.
Here's some photos from a project any Science teachers (and Art!) out there might find interesting. We have a very creative Science tea...
Get gardening lesson plan ideas from beginner to pro.
Engage your students with these 10 ecosystem project ideas for your elementary science class and grab a FREEBIE to get started!
Use this ecosystems interactions science doodle notes bundle to help build understanding of the key concepts in NGSS MS LS2. This set of science doodle notes reviews the core ideas listed in the LIFE SCIENCE Next Generation Science Standards (MS LS2 Ecosystem Interactions) for grade 6-8. It serves as an interactive glossary where students respond to each term with a short task to improve memory. They are great for scaffolding, reinforcement and remediation of key vocabulary. (Be sure to open the preview to see what is included- including which words are on each page for each standard!) Doodle notes can improve memory through visual triggers, while encouraging cross-lateral brain activity. These easy-to-prep, print and go doodle sheets will help support and reinforce your middle school physical science lessons. This Interactive Glossary Tool covers NGSS: MS-LS2-1 Ecosystem Interactions MS-LS2-2 Interactions in an Ecosystem MS-LS2-3 Energy in an Ecosystem MS-LS2-4 Ecosystem Dynamics MS-LS2-5 Biodiversity and Ecosystem Resources Reviewing science vocabulary can be a lot of fun with DOODLE NOTES! Can be used for... - Self-paced learning or station rotation work - Bell Ringer Work - End of a Unit (or end of the year) Review - Year-long Science Glossary Project - Science Notebooks (print at 85% to fit marble composition notebooks) - Enlarge on 11 x 17 to make classroom posters! Includes 14 Doodle Note Pages (2 versions provided: one with more white space/flexibility) Most words have a short student task to improve memory of the concept. (See preview images for samples) 14 Completed and colored example pages (answer keys) 14 interactive pages- links included with download. Students click interactive icons to gather information to help them complete each page. Where can I get the other NGSS Doodle Notes for the other standards? ALL of my NGSS Doodle Notes Bundle 20% OFF NGSS Physical Science Doodle Vocabulary Bundle 20% OFF NGSS Matter and Interactions Doodle Notes Interactive Glossary NGSS Motion and Stability Forces Doodle Notes Interactive Glossary NGSS Energy Doodle Notes Interactive Glossary All my DOODLE NOTES in ONE PLACE! Please note all doodle notes are NOT editable files due to font and clipart licensing agreements.
Every time I spend seven hours in a professional development workshop it changes my teaching for at least a week. I guess I need frequent reminders that human beings are not meant to sit in a hard chair for seven hours with occasional restroom breaks and a 30-min. lunch break. It's interesting that when we are in the role of students, we call it a good day when there's lots of opportunity for movement, group work, and a little fun in our work, but we don't provide those things for our students as often as we should. I love doing gallery strolls and using task cards to get students up and moving. I'll try just about anything to get kids out of those terrible hard seats for a while. I'm super excited about the potential for learning with movement in the recent phenomenon of Escape Rooms. It's a perfect time to try one yourself! The basic idea is that student teams work together to compete against other teams to be first to finish a series of tasks, each of which gives them clues they need to complete the next task leading to a final opportunity to use every clue for the last task and the escape! When kids have spent all day taking tests they will really appreciate and enjoy a chance to chat, laugh, and move around in a "gamified" activity. And if year-end testing is over, then an Escape Room is a perfect way to combat the "we can stop learning now" attitude we often see in middle school kids in the final few weeks of school. I'm happy to introduce my first Escape Room, and hope that the topic - Biomes - will be a perfect theme for this time of year in your class! An InLinkz Link-up
Enhance your ecosystem unit while providing an engaging learning experience for all of your various types of learners. Enhance your ecosystem unit while providing an engaging learning experience for all of your various types of learners. #PBL Within this download, you receive the following: --Grassland Ecosystem Informational Reading Passage --Food Chain Graphic Organizer --Food Chain Animal Cut Outs in Color and Black-Line --Diorama Template (2 Versions; Rubric or Teacher Notes) --Diorama Pop Up Animal Cut-Outs --Grassland Ecosystem Quiz (2 Versions) --Answer Keys The informational reading page is great for your verbal learners to recite and/or highlight key vocabulary words while they read. Your visual and logical learners will enjoy completing a colored cut and paste food chain graphic organizer The hands-on diorama will excite your kinesthetic and physical learners to build and create while solidifying their grassland ecosystem knowledge. Students that are proficient in drawing animals may choose not to use the provided cut-outs and draw their own animals of that ecosystem. This diorama is so versatile that it can be used as a group project for your social students or as a solitary project for your independent learners. #popup #worksheets #graphicorganizer GRADES: 3-5 23 PAGES Grassland Ecosystem Diorama Project by Innovative Teacher is licensed and cannot be distributed/shared without the purchase of an additional license.
We've been working on ecosystems in my classroom. LOVE the energy that the students have when they are learning about the different places. Every year I have them create a diorama to "showcase" their special choice. This year I decided to make it a formal project, and added clip art to help them with their thinking. They were first allowed to choose an ecosystem from 4 choices (Ocean, Arctic, Forest, and Rainforest). I gave them a piece of construction paper that had been precut and they decorated their background. I put some options on the board as ideas, but being the copy cheapskate that I am, I didn't print them off for them. :) I did print out the specific ecosystem animal and grid sheets so they could focus on details for their dioramas. The sheets are filled with animals on the top, and the grid on the bottom portion. Students filled in the grid and then glued it onto the back of their diorama. They had to identify producers, consumers, prey, predator, living, and nonliving parts of the ecosystem. It was then easy for me to use the included rubric to give a grade - did they really understand the concepts? I loved all the unique ecosystems that they created. I also loved that I didn't get a headache, and that the project didn't take forever to accomplish. :) Little things people! Check it out! Hope you had a great day!
Hey Teacher Friends, Right now I’m in the process of creating a series of STEM projects for students who are studying Earth Science.. The current unit I’m focusing on is all about ecosystems and food webs! This project is SO much fun! A STEM group (4-5 students) must first decide on which type of ecosystem
Looking for some fun and engaging ecosystem activities? This is the place to learn how to teach about food webs, food chains, and ecosystems.
Welcome to Kate's Classroom Cafe Here you will find ideas and activities for upper grades students. So, fill a cup and enjoy! J...
In this DIY science experiment for kids, learn how to create a living aquatic ecosystem and understand how it depends on numerous elements to survive.
Enhance your ecosystem unit while providing an engaging learning experience for all of your various types of learners. Within this download, you receive the following: --Forest Ecosystem Informational Reading Passage --Food Chain Graphic Organizer --Food Chain Animal Cut Outs in Color and Black-Line --Diorama Template (2 Versions; Rubric or Teacher Notes) --Diorama Pop Up Animal Cut-Outs --Forest Ecosystem Quiz (2 Versions) --Answer Keys The informational reading page is great for your verbal learners to recite and/or highlight key vocabulary words while they read. Your visual and logical learners will enjoy completing a colored cut and paste food chain graphic organizer The hands-on diorama will excite your kinesthetic and physical learners to build and create while solidifying their forest ecosystem knowledge. Students that are proficient in drawing animals may choose not to use the provided cut-outs and draw their own animals of that ecosystem. This diorama is so versatile that it can be used as a group project for your social students or as a solitary project for your independent learners. #popup #worksheets #graphicorganizer GRADES 3-5 23 PAGES Forest Ecosystem Diorama Project by Innovative Teacher is licensed and cannot be distributed/shared.
Gain some engaging ideas about how to teach the types of ecosystems while teaching reading skills in your science class with these fun activities!
Project-based learning has been in full swing for my 4th graders for the past month or so. I'm so excited to share the process and the results with you. My principal {requires} at least one project based unit each year. In our first "project" earlier this year, students negotiated and presented a $20,000 budget to the principal {for our government/economics unit}. If you are not familiar with project-based learning, the Buck Institute is a great place to start poking around. We were also strongly encouraged to figure out ways to incorporate the arts into our project because we are working to be recognized as a STEAM school. I decided to focus my PBL unit on Ecosystems/Organisms through an Ecosystems Mobile Museum Project--Project based learning? Check! Art...Oh yeah baby! {If you didn't catch my last post about my Ecosystems Research unit, you may want to go back and read that first.} I dare say this project was more fun and meaningful AND allowed me to incorporate lots of Language Arts and technology goals into a science-based unit. I'm going to share what we did {and if you are a PROJECT BASED whiz, please forgive me for coming late to the game AND I will admit that I do feel this is more INTEGRATED, INTERDISCIPLINARY than PBL, but it's a great start for this year}. One note to keep in mind as you read, I collaborated with the 5th grade teacher for this unit, so anything I did focused on Organisms and Ecosystems of NC, she applied to world biomes to meet the 5th grade standards. To launch our project, we planned a field trip to a local Natural Sciences museum. Before our visit to the museum, students received a "letter" from the museum challenging them to create a mobile museum to help the museum educate more children about ecosystems and organisms of North Carolina. The letter started with "You have been hired by the Museum of Natural Sciences to help create a mobile museum exhibit. A mobile museum exhibit is one that can be moved around from place to place. We believe that mobile museums are important for helping us educate more students beyond the walls of the museum." Driving Question: Project-based learning is supposed to start with a driving question. Our driving question was "How can we create a museum that educates children and adults of all ages about our state ecosystems and wildlife?" In 4th grade, Students chose an organism local to NC’s coastal plain or the mountain region (also included temperate deciduous forest animals). 5th grade students focused on organisms from specific biomes. All students used the research pages provided to learn about their organism in-depth. The journal pages provided a focus for students’ research and the 5th grade teacher and I each chose the sheets that matched our standards. After researching their organism, students wrote research papers AND turned those papers into Google slide shows (or other presentations) to be shown as interactive learning stations during the mobile museum. I also had plans for us to pull sentences and paragraphs from students’ articles to create informational posters for our mobile museum displays, but we didn't get the time to include this in our exhibit. {Can you say "SNOW DAYS"?} After students completed their slideshows, I had them pair up with another student who studied a similar organism and they completed the venn diagram from my Ecosystems research booklet materials. I thought this was a great way for students to experience one another's projects, but then I also realized it was a great way for them to get feedback and a motivator for revision. So, after doing the comparison activity, I copied the niche, behavioral adaptations, and physical adaptations sheets and paired students again. This time, students had to try to fill in the niche and adaptations sheets using only the information their partner provided in the slideshow. (I call this "backwards mapping" as students were kind of trying to work backwards from the slideshow to the research template.) This activity created a lot of motivation to revise their projects and to include missing information. (Constructive feedback for 21 kids given by other classmates? PERFECTO!) Simultaneously with our in-class research, students created a 3-D model of their organism with either clay or by felting in art class. After getting a good grip on our research and slide shows, I divided students into groups based on their specific ecosystem (Mountains/Forest in Mountains, by the Riverside, in a Forest by the coast, etc) and they worked together to design ecosystem murals to serve as backdrops for our Mobile Museum Exhibits. {Mural design and painting happened mostly in my classroom! I was so scared to take on "real" art happening in my classroom, but now I'm so glad I did it!} I cut butcher paper fit to the size of tri-fold boards. Groups figured out how one backdrop would flow into the next so that we had a “mountains to sea” display. When the mobile museum was ready, we opened in the cafeteria and invited parents and all classes to attend. In case you can't tell by the pictures below, it was AH~mazing! As grade levels came to visit, my students grabbed one student and led them around the museum. (I made a little checklist/scavenger hunt of all the organisms in our museum so that they would have a little something to engage them at the museum.) I spent the morning watching my students share their slideshows and what they had learned with students in other grades. It was so cool to see a culmination of all their hard work! I do have some wishes for what I wish we had time to add to these projects: * I wanted a key of the organisms (instead of using the labels you see) where students create a simple illustration of the environment and use numbers and a key to identify each organism. (This is how it's done at our local museum's exhibits) * I wanted foreground environmental stuff (you see those bare tables? I would have loved for students to have had time to add sticks, leaves, grass, moss, etc. to the displays) * the DECOMPOSERS in the ecosystem are missing! (Whoops!!! Something else that needed to be added to the foreground) * Using information from students' slideshows and research to add displays and info boxes to the exhibit (like at a real museum--you have info to read as you move through the exhibits) * And lastly, I truly had the goal of having students create one hands-on learning tool in partners. This would have helped us better meet our "Driving Question" and would have required more critical thinking as students become teachers. The 5th graders were able to pull this off. Here's two examples from their projects: You might ask how much time this took. We began our projects in January and wrapped up at the beginning of March. We also had nearly two weeks of snow days in there. I would estimate that we spent 2 weeks on research, 2 weeks on typing drafts, one week on slideshow creation and mural creation (same week), and that the art teacher used 5 or so art classes to help students get their 3D organisms completed. Keep in mind all of the standards I included with this one project--research and reading informational texts, writing informational texts, creating slideshows/utilizing technology, art, communicating and collaborating (to design a cohesive mural together), all of my ecosystems science goals, and a better understanding of the regions of North Carolina (social studies). I call this a WIN WIN! and my students are excited to do it again in 5th grade for their biomes unit! I'll be reflecting on my {first} project-based learning unit using this Project Design Rubric and a PBL Essential Elements Checklist, but for now, I'm going to bask in the glowing light of joy from having my students complete 3D organism models that look amazing, a collaborative mural backdrop that flows from one environment to the next, a final research booklet, research paper, and a google slide show. I can hardly measure the time put into this project, but I dare say it was less than or equal to what it would have taken to teach research, nonfiction writing, slideshow design, and ecosystems separately. And this project surely created memories of 4th grade!
This project is an ecosystem in a bottle showing how animals, plants, and non-living things are all connected.
