Nancy M. Esposito
adaptation
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food chain
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atmosphere
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germinate
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biome
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habitat
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biosphere
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herbivore
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climate
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hydrologic (water) cycle
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community
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nutrient
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compost
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omnivore
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consumers
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organism
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cycle
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pollution
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deciduous
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population
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decomposers
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predator
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ecology
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producers
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ecosystem
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scavenger
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environment
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territory
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evaporation
Lesson Plan #3
In addition to the many themes of environment and seasons presented thus far, I would like to have my students do a project which would make them aware of the local marine environment at the same time that they are studying their local land environment to ensure that they do not think of ecosystems as relating only to land environments. In order to demonstrate this, I will set up a Long Island Sound aquarium with my class. I will obtain a 20 gallon or larger aquarium and the underground filter required to keep it functioning effectively. (Tag sales are highly recommended as a source of these materials. Also, you may want to spread the word among parents of your students in case any of them are looking to get rid of stored tanks.)
Students will take a field trip to the dock at Schooner, Inc. to take water from Long Island Sound which will be taken back to the classroom for the aquarium. While there students will be encouraged to scout around the area and make observations about what they see and find. (If a trip is taken to a local beach in connection with the study of how soil is created, this theme can be expanded upon.) Careful supervision may be necessary, since there is sometimes dangerous debris along the shoreline area.
Upon return to the classroom, students will add the water they have taken from the Sound to the aquarium. Schooner, Inc. will attempt to provide living specimens taken from Long Island Sound upon request, but students may also wish to contribute those they have personally found in the Sound.
From here on, possibilities are enormous for classroom participation. Students can chart facts about animals in the aquarium: how they grow, how they interact with each other, what they eat, etc. They can make graphs of the water temperature (which does not need to be controlled by a heater since the Sound varies greatly in temperature). We may want to keep a classroom log of who contributes to the aquarium in any way: adding more water when needed, feeding fish, measuring water for evaporation, and so on.
Students may want to volunteer, or could be assigned, to do reports on various organisms living in the aquarium. Again, the whole idea would be to personalize this experience for the children in terms of organisms living in their environment. Charts, raps, dance,and pictures could all be examples of how students could tell about the animal they’ve studied.
Further lessons could focus on pollution which can/is happening in our area and how it affects the animals in our aquarium.