Exploring Ecosystems Lesson Plan

Sadie Perrin

Objectives / Understandings:

Students will understand how abiotic/biotic factors make up an

ecosystem.
Students will understand that energy comes from the sun and
flows through an ecosystem (learning about producers,
consumers, and decomposers).
Students will understand what characterizes different
ecosystems in PSP, and they will be able to identify some
common trees and plants.
Students will be able to use Labquests to take some ecosystem
measurements.
Value of a Tree

Essential Questions/ Guiding Questions:

What are the differences between biotic and abiotic factors?

How do ecosystems in PSP differ?
Is a tree worth more to us in the forest absorbing carbon dioxide
or as fuel?
What are some of the major tree species in PSP?

Materials Needed:

Field Notebooks
PSP Map/Compass
iPad
7 stakes
2 meter tapes
2 DBH tapes
Clinometer
Tree ID Sheets
Plants of the Rocky
Mountains
4 Blind folds for Meet a
Tree
Value of a Tree Chart

2 Increment borers
Labquests (probes: temp,
soil moisture, light, pH)
Densiometer
Scats and Tracks
Ecosystem cards (What
am I?)
20 Strings
flashlight
White board/marker
Tarp (teambuilding)

Route:
MOSS>sagebrush meadow>treated forest(lunch)>untreated
forest>quad forest

Outline with approximate times:

9:00 Meet and introduce mind map, abiotic/biotic factors game
10 Sagebrush Meadow (sense of place, what might live in/around
your sagebrush, characteristics of soil with Verniers), Home on
the range
11:30 Hike to forest (talk about different ecosystems, changes in
walk)
12:00 games and then lunch
12:30 Find a tree, become tree expert and explain to group with
skit, song, dance, diagram
2:00 Difference in managed and unmanaged forest, measure
density differences
2:30 Walk back to MOSS
3:00 Value of a tree in quad forest

Session plan:
Wrap-up / Summary

Refresher on abiotic/biotic factors that make up different

ecosystems and why ecosystems are valuable

Prepare for Fire Lab in the morning

Assessment

Have students point out their tree species on the walk back.

Students should be able to identify abiotic/biotic factors in

different ecosystems.

Students should understand the background of the Fire Lab on

the next day.

AL @ MOSS Prompt
What are the different ecosystems at MOSS?
What are different abiotic/biotic factors in these ecosystems?
Whats the value of a tree?