Ecosystems Curriculum

Section 2: Reinforcement Activities

Cycles of Nature Game

The aim of this card game is to show how energy travels through the food web and how matter is recycled into nutrients that support the growth of plants. It stresses the roles of producers and decomposers. Students try to make as many matter cycles as they can.

Nutrient Cycles Game

This game helps students understand that nutrients flow through ecosystems in cyclic patterns during the process of decay. This game also supports the understanding that matter is neither created nor destroyed during the decay process.

The Puzzle of the Rotting Log Video³

This is a film about the lifespan of a tree. While students are watching, they should recall the different kinds of organisms that they saw in their logs and compare them to the ones shown in the film. They should also think about what might happen if there were no decomposers. This video is appropriate for elementary classes.

The Forest Log⁴

Read The Forest Log by James R. Newton. Ask students what they think is meant by the term, "nurse log" and why it is important to the forest community. After the first paragraph on page 2, ask students to predict the kinds of changes that may happen to the log and the ways in which other living things may use it. Discuss the processes of decay that are described and ask students to explain why and how these are occurring. Again discuss what the term "nurse log" means and how it helps nurture new trees and provides living things with the resources they need to live. The book is currently out of print but can often be found in library collections.

Death is Natural⁵

Read The Travels of Atoms in Death is Natural by L. Pringle, a book that discusses how death in the plant and animal kingdoms is natural, why it is necessary and how it can be thought of positively. With students, create a map of how and where the atom of the rabbit travels in the ecosystem. The book is currently out of print but can often be found in library collections.