- observe your neighborhood's ecosystem
- practice scientific sketching
![Approaching Bernal Heights Hill, San Francisco, California](https://www.calacademy.org/sites/default/files/styles/manual_crop_standard_960x540/public/assets/images/Education_Images/TYE_Images/neighborhoodecosystem_bernalhieghtsneighborhood_kenlund_1881x1000.jpg?itok=mP3qGPbE&c=7a0446b5446e56e3ce981c5382182a14)
©Ken Lund
Explore your neighborhood's ecosystems.
- paper or science notebook
- pencil
During your field trip to Africa, you explored a new ecosystem, discovering plants and animals that live there and how they are interconnected. Now its time to explore your neighborhood's ecosystem.
Reminder: As you explore your neighborhood, please follow all social distancing and park rules.
Copy or print the Neighborhood Ecosystem worksheet onto a piece of paper.
(Note: there are two pages)
What lives in your neighborhood’s ecosystem?
- Pick a location in your neighborhood – you can find living things almost anywhere. Some ideas: on the sidewalk, in a yard, or in a nearby park.
- Observe your location for 10 minutes.
- Find 3 living things to study. Try to find at least one plant and animal.
- Create a scientific sketch of each living thing.
- Remember to start with shapes, then add details
- To help you identify living things, download the SEEK app.
How are the living things interconnected in your neighborhood’s ecosystem?
- Using the information you collected about the living things, draw or write a food web for your neighborhood’s ecosystem.
- Remember to connect animals and plants in your ecosystem with arrows pointing towards who is doing the eating.
- Things to think about:
- What does your living things eat?
- What might be eating it?
Discuss with your class or family your discoveries:
- What living things did you find in your neighborhood?
- Where they connected on the food web? Why or why not?
- What other living things could you add to your ecosystem's food web?