In this activity, students will cut and paste ecosystem services descriptions into the correct blank spaces on an ecosystem template.
The activity includes seven different ecosystem templates.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This activity hands-on and engaging way of getting students to appreciate ecosystems and their services.
Additional Prerequisites
Students can work in groups or pairs.
Each group will require printouts of the templates, crayons, scissors, and glue.
Differentiation
Teachers could make larger printouts of the finished work to display during an open day activity.
Students could create presentations about the ecosystem they worked on.
Other resources on this topic include this activity on assessing ecosystem services on school grounds and these games and activities that teach students about the environment.
Scientist Notes
The resource contains an activity for students to leverage, assess, outline, and connect observed ecosystem services with human interaction. This is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-2 Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
MS-LS2-3 Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-5 Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.7 Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.
