This lesson plan is part of the DiscoverySchool.com lesson plan library for grades 6-8. Students research three types of symbiotic relationships between organisms in nature: mutualism, commensalisms, and parasitism. They report their research findings and hypothesize about how symbiotic relationships might have evolved. Included are objectives, materials, procedures, discussion questions, evaluation ... Full description.

This two-month project requires a nearby stream or river to use for testing. Students use river monitoring equipment to conduct water tests, fish observation, insect identification and to collect data related to physical properties of the stream or river. They then design a project based on one of four goals, and present their results to the class. This site provides research links, rubrics, lessons, ... Full description.

In this Internet-based collaborative project, students will investigate their local schoolyard environment and share information about the plants, animals and non-living objects found there with other students from around the country and the world. Participants will look for similarities and differences in the reported data and prepare a final report or presentation based on their findings. The site ... Full description.

This activity will allow students to observe and interpret fossil footprint evidence. From the evidence, they are asked to construct defensible hypotheses or explanations for events that took place in the geological past. Students will be asked to propose explanations and make predictions based on evidence, recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions, understand that scientific ... Full description.

At this site, students learn that sound moves five times faster in water than in air and cleaner fish have cleaning stations where they remove parasites. Students deepen their knowledge with this ocean life challenge. They learn about how living in the water differs from living on land. An ichthyologist first explains that ocean creatures have special features that allow them to breathe, eat, communicate, ... Full description.

This activity will help students learn about how tree rings provide a record of past growing conditions and, by inference, climate. They use this principle to work out how cores from three different trees (three strips of paper marked with stripes to represent rings) fit together to represent a longer period of time and then use this composite record to plot a graph of changing climate conditions. ... Full description.

In this activity students will simulate aspects of the Antarctic ice ecosystem, and see how simple life forms respond, thus modeling links between environmental factors and biological responses. Students should recognize the parallels between their work and that done by the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) team. Students will conduct a controlled experiment with brine shrimp eggs in order ... Full description.

While engaged in this activity students will explore phytoplankton, the food of tiny marine animals, particularly krill. Students will prepare a hay infusion in two identical glass aquarium tanks or a 1-liter glass jar and expose one to 24 hours of continuous light, and the other for only four hours during the school day, with all light blocked off by opaque material during the remaining hours. They ... Full description.

In this lesson, students will investigate the importance of coral reefs to the Earth as a whole and learn some possible explanations for the phenomenon known as "coral bleaching". They should be able to identify ways that coral reefs benefit human beings, identify major threats to reefs and discuss how they might be reduced or eliminated, describe the Coral Reef Early Warning System, and discuss why ... Full description.

This tutorial introduces students to the concept of animal ecology. The first section explains the different ways animals use camouflage. There is also a discussion of how the process of decay breaks organic matter down into nutrients, and how simple aquatic organisms (algae, zooplankton) provide a food source for larger organisms. The concept of food chains is introduced, and land-based and aquatic ... Full description.