Mix and Match Ecology: Human Impact (Teacher)
Pre-activities

Introduce students to the underlying theme of ecology: that all life is interconnected and that our actions can have lasting
(sometimes unintended) repercussions on the environment.

Familiarize students with the concepts of natural resources and ecological communities.

This lesson will be more valuable to students if they understand the idea of bioaccumulation, eutrophication,
photosynthesis (as a process that produces oxygen), and the consequence to climate of eliminating transpiration.
Activities
1. Hand out the worksheet. Put students in small groups of 2-3 and have them spend 10-15 minutes brainstorming as many
combinations as they can between a human impact (column 1), an ecological community (column 2), and a natural resource
(column 3). Have students describe how the human action impacts the community and how the natural resource is
threatened. For each combination, have students invent extra information in order for their mix-and-match to fit together.
For example, students might choose “parking lot built with impervious material,” “conifer forest,” and “clean air.” In order
to link these together, they could pretend that the parking lot is uphill from the edge of the forest. In the winter, ice trucks
spread salt on the parking lot often, and the snow melt runs off down to the forest. Because of osmosis, the tree roots lose
too much water to the salty run-off, the trees die, and therefore are not available to filter the air from the city.
2. Call time and instruct each group to choose their best mix-and-match combination to present to the class. Use the overhead
to help focus student attention during presentations by asking a group member to circle his or her group’s mix-and-match
combination on the overhead while describing it to the class.
Extension
Challenge students to think of a way to reduce the threat to the natural resource of their mix-and-match combinations without
eliminating the human action.

In what ways could the human action be changed to achieve the same result but with better environmental consequences?

Could any buffers or protection be placed on the ecological communities that might better preserve the natural resource?

What policies or laws could be passed that might help?
Mix and Match Ecology: Human Impact (Student)
Mix and match as many combinations as you can. Choose a human action, think how it might affect a nearby ecological
community, and which natural resource might be threatened as a result. Get creative!
HUMAN ACTION
ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY
NATURAL RESOURCE
Rancher’s cows eat grass and excrete
cow patties
Conifer forest
Clean air
Freshwater pond home to turtles, snails,
frogs, trout, etc.
Clean fresh water
Parking lot is built with impervious
paving materials
School group tours local state park
Factory uses water to cool its
machinery
High rise apartment building is built
Farmer fertilizes his/her crops
Student takes a load of trash (including
his/her old computer) to the dump
Nutrient-rich, pH-balanced soil
Deciduous forest in an area that
receives moderate rainfall
The decomposers in a cubic foot of soil
Salt-water marsh where migrating birds
stop to fish
Grassland home to prairie dogs and
American bison
Shoreline full of rocky tide-pools home
to limpets, starfish, anemones, etc.
New highway is built
Speedway holds loud races every
Friday night
Furniture factory has high levels of
chemical emissions
Climate (in an area where tourism
drives the economy)
The organisms living in the water and
shore of a medium-sized mountain
river
Wildlife (for fishing, hunting,
photographing, or inspiring)
Timber for harvesting
Sunlight
Moving water (for beauty,
hydroelectric power, or recreation)
Mineral deposits