Tag: energy
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Modeling Ecological Pyramids
Looking for a way to include hands-on activities in an ecology unit? I’ve struggled with student engagement in this unit, mainly because so many of the concepts involve models. In this activity, students use beads to model the three types of ecological pyramids: pyramid of numbers, pyramid of biomass, and pyramid of energy. Each group…
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Macromolecules: The Building Blocks of Life
A process oriented lesson on how biomolecules are used by organisms to build tissues and maintain life. Focus is on chemistry and bonds withing molecules.
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Exploring Enzymes by Analyzing Graphics
Students examine several images related to enzymes and answer questions. Worksheet covers how enzymes act on substrates, how they lower the activation energy of a reaction, how they have optimal temperature and pH, and how they can be inhibited.
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Ecology Lesson on Trophic Cascades
This year I decided to change the way I teach the last unit of the year, which is ecology. Our textbook is really old, and not aligned to NGSS. The lessons followed a familiar “old-school” pattern: take notes mainly about definitions, do an activity or lab, then take a quiz. This year, I wanted to…
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Food Web: Identify Consumers
Food webs are basic concepts in biology and ecology, where students learn the concept of energy flow in an ecosystem by viewing models of food webs. This labeling worksheet asks students to identify the primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers in a forest ecosystem. A food web is a representation of the complex interrelationship between…
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Investigation: Owl Pellets
Students open owl pellets to reveal the skeletons and fur of the owl’s last meal, and then reconstruct the skeletons using an bone chart.