This activity will help students understand that increases in the ozone hole will result in damaging ultraviolet-B (UV-B) rays penetrating deep into the ocean, and harming young marine life, such as floating fish eggs, fish larvae, juvenile fish, and shrimp larvae, and affecting phytoplankton movement. Students will discover how others in the Antarctic food web will be affected if phytoplankton are ... Full description.

This lesson focuses on global warming and a possible connection with the Paleocene extinction event. Students will explore how a global warming episode associated with the release of methane from methane hydrate deposits could have been responsible for the Paleocene extinction event 55 million years ago. They will be able to describe the overall events that occurred during the Paleocene extinction ... Full description.

Using the example of the Eastern United States continental shelf, this lesson helps students understand how alien species enter non-native habitats, what problems are associated with these species, and what can be done about them. Students will be able to compare and contrast "alien species" and "invasive species," explain positive and negative impacts associated with the introduction of non-native ... Full description.

In this activity students are given a map of an imaginary continent with marked locations of places where fossils have been found in rocks of a given geologic age. The object of the activity is to make a map of where the land and ocean areas were at that time. As a result of this activity students will learn how evidence from fossils can be used in paleogeographic interpretation and they will gain ... Full description.

Bucket Buddies is an online classroom project where students (grades 1-5) around the world participate in an environmental study. The project takes place during the fall and spring of the school year. Students will collect samples from local ponds to answer the question: Are the organisms found in pond water the same all over the world? Participants will identify macroinvertebrates in water samples; ... Full description.

Salmon Homing Instincts is an activity that enables learners to experience what it is like to be a returning salmon attempting to find its home by smell. Scientific research suggests that salmon use the smell of water to find their home stream; even after being out in the open ocean as many as six years. The activity allows the entire class to participate in the life cycle of the Pacific salmon and ... Full description.

This lesson plan is part of the DiscoverySchool.com lesson plan library for grades K-5. It focuses on habitats of the Earth and how animals and plants adapt to the conditions in which they live. Students divide into groups and research different habitats and how animals and plants have adapted to live in them. Included are objectives, materials, procedures, discussion questions, evaluation ideas, ... Full description.

This site explains how to use evidence from fossils to understand the ecology of ancient organisms. Fossils provide clues and together abiotic and biotic factors combine to form complete ecosystems, each with its own unique ecology and history. Predator and prey relationships and dispersal are used as examples to show how fossils can also tell us about biotic factors, such as what organisms are present ... Full description.

This article discusses the different zones of light that exist within the ocean and how the varying degrees of sunlight and total darkness affect what lives in each zone. Specifically, it covers: the photic zone, the only region where plants and organisms that depend on photosynthesis can live; the aphotic zone, where light is too dim for photosynthesis and organisms rely on detritus (bits of decaying ... Full description.

This experiment will help students to understand the role of plants in filtering the water moving through a watershed. Students will discover that soil and plants have something of a dual role in this process and, depending on whether materials are dissolved or suspended in the water, soils and plant roots can remove some or all of this material as the water moves down through soil. They also learn ... Full description.