Students will use the Web to find out about the plants and animals that live in their local area. They will design "eco parks" containing local plants and animals. If there is time, have students extend their research into the "real world" by doing some outdoors observations near school or their homes.

Geography, life science

Standard 8: "The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on Earth's surface"

Two hours

• Computer with Internet access
• Large pieces of construction paper
• Colored pencils or crayons

Students will

• describe some of the plants and animals they have seen in their area, or imagine the plants and animals that might have lived there before the city was built;
• use the Web to find out what ecoregion they live in, and take notes about this ecoregion;
• research and answer questions about one or more natural areas near their homes; and
• design "eco parks" for their local area.

Ask students to describe some of the plants and animals they have seen around their homes. If they live in a very urban area and don't see many plants or animals, ask them to imagine what this place might have looked like before the city was built. Discuss their ideas as a class.

Have students go to National Geographic's Wild World: Terrestrial Ecoregions site. Explain that the colors on this map show different ecoregions of the world. As defined at this Web site, an ecoregion is a geographical area with "shared ecological features, climate, and plant and animal communities."

Ask them to click and drag a rectangle over their part of the United States to zoom in on that region.

Have students try to pinpoint the location of their home town and click on that place. A new window will open, and they will see pictures of the landscape and vegetation in the area where they live.

Ask students to write the name of their ecoregion at the top of a piece of paper. Under the name of the ecoregion, ask them to write words describing this area.

Before class, locate the Web sites of one or more natural places that are relatively close to your school. For example, if you teach in urban Los Angeles, you might choose Descanso Gardens or the Santa Monica Mountains. If you're in the Chicago area, you might choose a forest preserve or a state park. If you live in a part of the country with a good deal of ecosystem variation (e.g., coastal California or a mountainous region), try to choose two or three places that are very different from each other.

Have students go to the Web site or sites you have selected. Ask them to take notes on their papers to answer these questions:

• What types of trees can you find here?
• What other types of plants live here?
• What types of animals live here?
• What does this place look like?
• How do people take care of and protect this place? What types of work do people do here?

Discuss the plants and animals students have learned about. Have they ever seen any of these species on their own?

Have students, either in groups or individually, design a park to be located near their school. This park should contain plants and animals that could successfully live there, based on what students have learned. Students should draw their parks on large pieces of construction paper and show where different types of trees, plants, and animals will live.

• If you have any grassy or "natural" areas within a short walk of your school or on school property, take the class to this area and ask them to observe the vegetation and animals there. Have them sketch their observations and write notes about what they see (e.g., "the squirrels chased each other around the tree" or "there are five large trees in this park and many smaller bushes"). As an option, use a tree identification book to help students identify the trees they see.
  
  
• Have students go to eNature.com's Native Plant Guide to find trees, wildflowers, and other types of vegetation in their region. They should click on the type of vegetation they are looking for and then select their region from the drop-down menu. Ask them to compare the species that come up on the screen with the ones they have learned about in the main part of this lesson.
  
  
• Take the class on a field trip to a local botanical garden, forest preserve, state park, or other natural place in your area.

National Geographic: Wild World—Terrestrial Ecoregions
eNature.com