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Lesson Plans:
Determining transpiration from a schoolyard tree
This is a great exploration for middle to high school learners. It affords
the opportunity for them to see that trees are veritable climatic engines.
Furthermore, this inquiry can be extended to estimating the amount of water
transpired in a tropical region of our planet. The key to this
investigation and others of its kind is to turn our schoolyards into ecological
laboratories. Enjoy!
Design
an Ecosystem
A simulation activity: Students create a simple, imaginary ecosystem. They
describe the interrelations between the species inhabiting the ecosystem
and their physical environment. Then then imagine
an alteration in their environment and project the impact that such a
change would have on the organisms living in their ecosystem. Finally, they
write an environmental impact statement suggesting ways to mitigate the
effects of the change.
Defining
Drought
To examine the hydrologic impacts of drought.
Wetland
Ecosystems
A great collection of labs.
Acid Rain and How it Affects
Our Environment
Demonstrate phenomenologically the effects of
acid rain on our
environment and perform long-term "real-time" experiments..
Managing
the Everglades Ecosystem
To explore the Everglades ecosystem using
the Internet. To develop an understanding about conservation of resources
in the context of the Everglades; explore relationships between species and
habitats; and develop an understanding of how human beings have altered the
equilibrium in the Everglades.
Water
Hunt
Using everyday objects, students will create a tangible method to
investigate world water distribution.
Observing Tree
Rings
Students will determine the age of a tree and see if we can determine what
years had more precipitation than others.
Frosty the
Snowman Meets His Demise: A Carbon Dating Activity
To develop the idea that carbon dating is based on gathering evidence in
the present and extrapolating it to the past. Students will use a simple
graph to extrapolate data to its starting point.
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