All Activities
Geography

Ecosystem in a Box

Overview

Students design a simple ecosystem and explain how everything connects.

Learning Objective
Students understand that ecosystems contain living and non-living things that depend on each other.

Resources needed

  • Paper or soil tray
  • Natural materials

Lesson stages

0 / 7 done
  1. 1 Discuss what an ecosystem is — animals, plants, water, soil.
  2. 2 Choose a local ecosystem (forest, river, grassland).
  3. 3 Students collect or draw its components.
  4. 4 Arrange them to show connections.
  5. 5 Ask: what happens if one part disappears?
  6. 6 Discuss the impact on the whole system.
  7. 7 Share findings.

Tap a step to mark it as done.

Variations

  • Compare two different ecosystems.
  • Act out a food chain within the ecosystem.
More information

Teach ecosystem, habitat, depend, survive.

Use a food chain as a simpler starting point.

Can students explain at least one connection between living things in their ecosystem?

Use drawings in soil or on paper. Natural materials from outside provide free building components.

Students often think ecosystems only mean forests or jungles. A puddle, a hedgerow, or a field is also an ecosystem.

Strong link to science and environmental geography.