Activity
Are You a Bigfoot?
Students use a carbon footprint calculator to analyze their personal contribution to carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere and design a solution for reducing their carbon footprint.
The Carbon Cycle
Students model the movement of carbon atoms in the carbon cycle and explore the relationship between atmospheric carbon and plants.
What Is Climate
Students explore the concept of climate as they examine global climate patterns and the relationship between temperature, precipitation, and the world’s forests.
Invasive Species
Students research invasive species to determine their impact on ecosystems and what characteristics make them so challenging.
Power Plants
Plants are crucial components of most ecosystems because they provide the energy that other organisms need to live. In this inquiry-based activity, students design investigations to explore what these “power plants” need to function and grow.
Web of Life
By conducting research and simulating a food web, students take a close look at a forest ecosystem and discover ways that plants and animals are connected to each other.
A Home for Many
From their leafy branches to their tangled roots, trees provide a habitat for a host of plants and animals. Students inventory the plants and animals that live in, on, and around trees and discover how trees meet their needs for survival.
The Forest of S.T. Shrew
Students take a “shrew’s-eye-view” of life in the woods to gain an understanding of the variety of organisms that live in forests and to learn how living and non-living things interact.
Picture a Tree
Students draw a picture of tree from memory. As they explore trees close up through the other unit activities, they will draw new pictures and compare them with the original pictures they drew.
The Closer You Look
Students observe trees and collect data about them. They then draw a picture of a tree and compare and contrast it to the one they drew in the Engage: Picture a Tree activity.