We have developed a variety of lessons that support conceptual understandings of urban ecology and sustainability, as well as integrate with our scientific protocols and games.
While our Ecology Explorer lesson plans can be delivered independently, all lessons support multiple themes. You’ll find all of our lessons below, both alphabetically by title, and grouped by various topics to inspire ideas for possible units.
Themes
Abiotic environment
Water, rocks, wind, sun, temperature and humidity are all examples of nonliving components in ecosystems that can interact with each other and also affect living organisms. How do human activities influence the abiotic environment in urban ecosystems?
Animal behavior and distribution
Human activities in urban environments can affect how animals behave and where they are found. What animals do and where they are found affects other parts of the ecosystem, too.
Arthropods
Studying arthropods can build an understanding of systems within an ecological area, including habitat, resources and food webs.
Birds
Ecologists study bird diversity, behavior and distribution within an urban ecosystem. What are they learning about relationships with other urban ecosystem components, including people, and how can students participate?
Built and natural environments
The following activities will challenge you and your students to think about the consequences to us and other organisms of our changing urban landscape.
Describing habitat
Survey, map, describe and think about local environments such as our neighborhoods, school yards and parks.
Fundamental ecological science practices
Help cultivate students’ “scientific habits of mind” by leading them through these activities that help them think, question, investigate, reason and interpret data like an ecological research scientist.
- Web of Inquiry: Urban Spider Behavior
- Pod Investigation
- Extreme Events: What Do the Data Say?
- Temperature Experiment: Surface vs. Air Temperature
- Exploring Microclimates In Your Schoolyard
- 15 minute graph: Biome and Arthropod Species
- 15-minute graphs: Seasonal Birds and Bird Distribution
- 15-minute graphs: Plants and Neighborhoods and Mycology
Land use and policy
Much of the urban growth in the Phoenix metropolitan area has taken place in the past 50 years. These lessons encourage students to think about patterns and impacts of development in the changing urban landscape.
Plants in the environment
aaAs plant ecologists, students will learn about the plants present in an ecosystem, including basics on identification, and how the various species of plants interact with each other and their environment:
Response to environmental change by organisms
Through investigations and learning activities, students can see the biotic reactions of various organisms, including people, to changes in their environment.
Urban heat island
A high growth rate combined with clear, calm weather, low altitude with intense sun and heat-absorbing surfaces explain our greater-than-normal urban warming. Explore both the abiotic and biotic factors involved in the phenomena scientists call the urban heat island effect.
This unit can be used in a variety of ways. The full sequence of lessons allows students to explore the abiotic and biotic factors involved in this phenomenon, and then apply these concepts toward mitigation of the urban heat island using the engineering design process.
Alternatively, a minimal overview of UHI could be achieved with the lesson, “Surface Temperatures in Microclimates” as a foundation for any combination of the subsequent lessons.
Urban impacts
We all influence our urban ecosystem, and at the same time we are influenced by ecological conditions.
Uncategorized
- Baseline and Offset Mapping – Baseline and offset maps can be created quickly or be very precise depending on the amount of time allocated to this activity.
- Community Walkabout
- Creating a School Herbarium – Collecting a few samples of vegetation to answer specific questions can help you learn about plants and their environments.
- Desert Biodiversity: Field Experience – Uses transect line study protocol to collect data on temperature, humidity, solar radiation, soil texture, minerals, vegetation and animal activity.
- Desert Plant Adaptations
- Desert Plant Diversity – Takes students through a sampling protocol to collect plant survey data across one or more 100m2 circles to address questions about diversity and possible impacts.
- Designing for Extreme Events
- Discovering the Hidden City
- Evapotranspiration in the Urban Heat Island
- Exploring Microclimates In Your Schoolyard
- Extreme Events
- Good Life of Birds
- Grid Frame Mapping – This lesson uses a grid frame of one square meter divided into one-decimeter squared sections to map a small area of study and focus on detail.
- Habitat Fragmentation: A Bird’s-Eye View
- Heat-related Illness
- Historical Air Photo Interpretation