Decomposers
This activity explores the role and abundance of decomposers in a forest ecosystem, as well as the questions of what is alive and what is dead.
This activity explores the role and abundance of decomposers in a forest ecosystem, as well as the questions of what is alive and what is dead.
This lesson introduces students to the study of tree rings, and provides hands on experience with survey equipment used in the forestry industry. This activity quickly became a student favorite and is now a lesson we repeat with each new group of students.
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This fast paced activity is great for demonstrating ecosystem basics and what it takes to maintain the ecosystem. Small balls are used to represent the abiotic components of the ecosystem such as nutrients, water, sunlight, carbon dioxide.
This activity is designed to bring one of the simplest, yet most frequently ignored facts of life - everything is connected to everything else. Pyramid models are one of the best ways to demonstrate the flow of the sun’s energy through complex food webs or whole ecosystems.
Fort building is a cornerstone activity of our program at the Gulf Islands Centre for Ecological Learning. It helps to create a culture of comfort, connection, and community that permeates all of the other activities that we do. This activity works best when participants are going to be spending multiple days in or visiting an area. The fort becomes their home base, where they eat lunch or a snack, do activities or get some quiet time.
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Through observation and exploration, students learn easily observable indicators that can be used to measure the health of a forest ecosystem.
We have used journaling for all sorts of applications over the years in our programs. Primarily we use them to record important findings while participants engaged in activities such as “Build A Marine Ecosystem” or “Micro Trails or Parks”. We also incorporate journaling times into our schedule for students to have some regular quiet, reflective time.
These games help to develop observation and classification skills. They are best used to reinforce work learning to identify or study specific themes such as leaf patterns, different forest types, edible native plants, seeds or even the rock types of an area.
This hands-on activity teaches common tree identification using the senses of touch and smell.