Big Idea 15: Diversity and Evolution of Living Organisms

This site offers an abundance of information on Earth's biomes (rainforest, tundra, taiga, desert, temperate, and grasslands), as well as marine and freshwater ecosystems. The site features relevant facts, pictures, maps, indigenous plants and animals, additional links, and much more.

This resource is a wonderful reference, not a lesson plan. Teachers will need to provide an objective and structure for student interaction with the website.

Type: Educational Software / Tool

In this integrated lesson plan, Students will review civic responsibilities and come up with ways they can fulfill their civic duties by helping nearby ecosystems.  They will start with a school litter cleanup, then brainstorm other issues around their community and possible ways to help.  Individual students will then create flyers to display around their neighborhoods to inform residents of the issue and persuade them to help.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this integrated lesson plan, students will review what wetlands are and how humans are affecting wetlands. They will discuss what government agencies are doing to help restore and protect wetlands. Groups will be assigned different ecosystems to brainstorm possible human impacts and how plants and animals may adapt to these changes in their environment. Groups will also come up with a plan for a government agency to implement in order to limit human impact on that ecosystem. By the end of the lesson, groups will share their ideas with the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will build on background knowledge of human impact on ecosystems and what plants and animals have done to adapt to these changes to their environments. They will read about and discuss human impact on Florida wetlands. During and after reading, students will annotate their reading. This integrated lesson plan will spark about what citizens and governments agencies can and are doing to help restore the wetland ecosystems.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students use their knowledge of animal and plant adaptations as they rank them for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s social media campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness and funds to help protect the selected plant or animal species. Students will then use a government website to identify their local state representative to invite them to participate in the campaign. In the twist, the FDEP will ask students to rank the animals and plants again, but this time they must consider the rise in surface temperature and sea level rise predicted by 2099 in this Model Eliciting Activity. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will play an interactive game depicting the interactions in a habitat and the problems that occur with exotic species introduction.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will become Florida panthers, white tailed deer, and motor vehicles in an active, tag-like game to simulate the disappearance of Everglades habitat.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students are presented with this scenario: A horrible forest fire has come through an ecosystem near you! Students will need to provide a detailed news article explaining the effect that this fire had on the food chain and how local citizens can help to restore the ecosystem. In addition to providing steps to rebuild, they must also convince readers that steps need to be taken in advance to prepare ecosystems for similar disasters.

Type: Lesson Plan

This unit begins by classifying animals into major groups (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, vertebrates and those having live births and those which lay eggs) according to their physical characteristics and behaviors.

Students will review the path of the flow of energy from the Sun as it is transferred along the food chain through the producers to the consumers, and recognize ways plants and animals, including humans, can impact the environment.

Students will compare and contrast adaptations of animals and plants that enable them to survive.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity students will analyze data about the conditions in a hermit crab habitat to determine which one will be best to meet the animal’s needs.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn about the effects of a changing climate on the Arctic ecosystem and four of its well-known mammals: the polar bear, the walrus, the Arctic fox and the beluga whale.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will be presented a non-profit group that helps start school gardens. This client is looking to switch to a tomato seed that is adapted to increased moisture in the soil due to precipitation and is versatile and great tasting. The engineering team will examine the seeds presented and develop a procedural method to rank the seeds based on the client's needs. The engineering team will reach a decision as to the best choice of seed for the client.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will team up to select an endangered animal to relocate.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will apply their knowledge of plant and animal adaptations to create an opinion writing piece. Students will write to convince a fictional nature show producer to film plants and animals in a habitat of the student’s choosing. Students will be assessed on elements of persuasive writing including: strong introduction/conclusion, logical sequencing, strong word choice, and supporting evidence.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help fifth grade students apply the concept of how changes in an ecosystem can affect the survival of an animal species. Some suggested background building lessons are included, but it is not intended as an initial introduction to this scientific concept.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students act as predators searching for prey (beans) in two different settings to demonstrate the processes of adaptation and selection. They track and graph their data, then compare the results of the prey eaten in the different environments and develop explanations based on their data in a class discussion.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will observe and conduct an experiment to see whether differences in salinity (the environment) have an affect on the hatching rate and survival of brine shrimp.

Type: Lesson Plan

Glimpse into the variety of animal adaptations on Earth and the reasons these adaptations allow different animals to survive in various environments with this interactive research page.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how plants are adapted to their environment, including their life cycles, responses, physical characteristics, and ability to survive harsh environments with this interactive research page.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Identify the results of environmental changes on different types of plants as you gain a deeper understanding of how environmental changes allow some organisms to survive and reproduce, while others die, in this interactive tutorial. 

This is part 3 in a 3-part series. Click below to explore the other tutorials in the series. 

• Environmental Changes: Part 1
• Environmental Changes: Part 2

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore the different ways plants respond to changes in the environment in this interactive tutorial.

This is part 2 of 3. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.

• Environmental Changes: Part 1
• Environmental Changes: Part 3

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn what an environment is, how different environments meet the needs of animals that live there, and how environmental changes can impact the animals that live there with this interactive tutorial.

This is part 1 in a 3-part series. Click below to explore the other tutorials in the series. 

• Environmental Changes: Part 2
• Environmental Changes: Part 3

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Come along and explore the amazing adaptations of freshwater life in this interactive tutorial

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Come along and explore how lands animals are adapted to changing environments all around the globe in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Come along and explore amazing adaptations of marine animals with a biologist as your guide in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Join a biologist to explore amazing adaptations among plants in this interactive student tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Students will research protected plants and animals that live in their state and create a presentation about that species to share with others.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will create a protected environment that will meet all of a manatee's needs, thereby encouraging breeding.

Type: Teaching Idea

This lesson focuses on bird beaks, exploring the relationship between a bird's beak and its ability to find food and survive in a given environment.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this activity, the students will use number and listening skills as they reinforce their understanding of dolphin behavior using echolocation. As the students listen to the teacher read a story about a dolphin's adventure they can either connect dots or plot points on a graph to figure out what the dolphin gets to eat at the end of the story.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this activity, students examine some of the behaviors and physical characteristics that enable organisms to live successfully in their environment.

Type: Teaching Idea

As a result of this activity, students will be able to understand the interconnectedness of organisms and their environment. Additionally, they will obtain a simple understanding of how graphs are used to follow and determine scientific trends.

Type: Teaching Idea

This resource is a simulation game where students represent plants and animals living in a forest habitat. Sitting in a circle, they connect themselves using string to represent the ways they depend on each other. As they make connections, the string forms a web of life. They will also learn what occurs when an invasive species enters their environment.

Type: Teaching Idea