LESSON PLAN
Habitat Detectives
What Students Will Do
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Investigate similar habitats and record
populations of plants and animals found in
each.
Identify organisms inclusive and exclusive
in each habitat.
Distinguish the difference between a
habitat and community.
Valued Outcomes
After doing the activities, the student should be
able to express and illustrate:
 All the animals, plants, and natural
resources in any particular habitat that
form a self-sustaining ecosystem.
 All parts of an ecosystem are
interdependent.
Grade Level Appropriateness: 2–4
Students will be lying on the ground to make close
observations during the day of the activity. The day
before the activity, encourage students to wear
appropriate clothing.
Make a transparency of the Venn Diagram to help
direct students to transfer the data to the diagram at
the conclusion of the investigation.
Prior to the activity, go outside to find two areas,
one that will be open and sunny, the other, shady
and cool. The areas should be within observation
distance of the other for you to patrol. Be sure to
choose areas that do not contain poison ivy and/or
poison oak or other organisms that might cause risk
of harm. Divide the students into two groups. Each
group will be assigned to one area at a time, and
then reversed. Plan to begin the activity in the
classroom. Make a list of safety rules and
expectations students should follow while outside
doing the investigation.
Materials
For each student:
1. Duplicated activity sheets
2. Metal coat hanger
3. Clip board or 9 by 12 in. corrugated
cardboard sheet to write on and 2
clothespins.
4. Hand lens
5. Pencil
For the class:
1. Transparency of the Venn diagram activity
sheet.
2. Overhead Projector
Vocabulary
Background Information:
Teaching Today’s Health, Anspaugh & Ezell, 9th
edition, Chapter 26: Strategies for Teaching
Environmental Health
“Students need to learn about the importance of a
healthy environment. They must recognize that it is
up to each of us to maintain the environment. Doing
so will more easily foster high-level wellness.
Instruction about environmental health should build
a sense of appreciation for all life and natural
resources and encourage personal practices that will
help to ensure the continued preservation of the
ecosphere.”
organism, habitat, community
Advanced Preparation
If clipboards are not available, make writing boards
by cutting corrugated cardboard squares
approximately 9 X 12 inches. Place two wooden
clothespins at the top of each board which will serve
to hold the paper in place. Each student will need
one wire coat hanger. Bend the triangular shape of
the coat hanger into a circle. Straighten the hook but
do not unwind the coat hanger near the hook. For
safety, wrap the straightened hook with masking
tape to reduce the risk of students accidentally
poking one another with the straightened end.
In this activity, students will investigate and
compare small plots of ground in different areas of
the school property. They will compare two sites
such as an open grassy sunny field and shaded
undergrowth area. They will identify the organisms
within the area of a metal coat hanger that has been
formed into a circle. By comparing and contrasting,
students will determine whether the organism is a
plant or animal. Plants can be identified by their
green, leafy structure. Animals can be identified by
their ability to move and respond to touch, and by
the identification of distinct body parts (legs, wings,
etc.)
Habitat Detectives
Guiding the Lesson
Support Information
Write organism on word cards or on a white/chalk
board and pronounce the word. Ask students to
recall the context in which they remember the term
being used. Explain that organisms are living things
that grow, develop, take in or make food, exchange
gases, respond to the environment, and reproduce
their own kind.
Ask: What are some examples of living organisms?
Any plant or animal is considered a living organism.
Students may not recognize the fact that some
organisms release and or take in gases such as
carbon dioxide or oxygen. All are designed to
reproduce in some way. Responses to the
environment may include motion toward or away
from sunlight, or death if they cannot obtain what is
needed for sustaining life. For example, a plant may
die because of lack of water, too much water or
inadequate nutrients or other environmental
conditions
Ask: What are some things necessary for organisms
to live? Accept responses that pertain to food,
shelter, space and water. Write habitat on word
cards or on a white/chalk board and pronounce the
word. Explain that the habitat is the place where
organisms find food, shelter, space and water. Elicit
examples of habitats of various animals including
vertebrates and invertebrates. For example, termites
are found where they have access to rotting wood.
Bees reside where there is nectar and pollen, and a
place to build a nest.
Students may question the need for shelter for
plants. Actually plants are adapted to withstand the
environment where they survive. Some become
dormant and if not, produce seeds before they die at
the end of the growing season. Point out that the
place where students find food, shelter, space and
water is their habitat or home.
Write community on word cards or on a
white/chalk board and pronounce the word. Invite
students to describe their community. They will
probably include the school, neighborhood,
businesses, churches and service agencies. Explain
that in nature, a community is a group of plants and
animals living in the same area and usually
depending on one another for food and other
requirements.
Students may have some knowledge of plant and
animal interdependencies such as food chains and
webs, symbiotic relationships etc. Relationships that
carry on these functions are found in a community.
A community may contain many habitats.
Before going outside, distribute the activity sheets
for sunny and shady habitats, clipboards and hand
lenses. Each student will need a pencil. Go over
data sheets, expectations and safety rules. Group the
students into two groups. Distribute the coat
hangers. Demonstrate how to place it on the grass
and explain that they are going to study only what is
inside the wire plot.
If students do not have experience using hand
lenses, demonstrate how to use them by placing the
lens close to an object and pulling away until the
object comes into focus.
When students are outside, invite them to locate
(point out) various habitats for animals such as
birds, chipmunks, earthworms, spiders, etc. Include
habitats where they will find plants such as clover,
grass, vines and shrubs.
Direct students toward their assigned areas. Give
students 15 to 20 minutes at each station, then
reverse.
Encourage students to be thorough with their
observations just as any scientist that studies nature.
You may also encourage them to use all senses but
tasting.
After the outside investigation, bring students inside
the classroom to share their observations and
predictions. Distribute the Venn diagram. Place the
corresponding one on the overhead projector. Show
students how to take the data from their data sheets
and place it in the correct part of the circle, 1, 2, or
3.
Venn diagrams show relationships between two or
more concepts or phenomena. The intersecting
circles show common properties or phenomena. The
areas outside the intersections indicate the
properties are exclusive of one another.
Conclude by discussing how the organisms’ needs
for food, shelter, space and water (in the intersection
of the two circles) are met in both the shaded and
sunny spots. Also discuss the impact that abuse of
the habitat by humans might have on the
populations of organisms living in each of the
habitats.
You may use the same activity in other seasons to
observe how environmental factors (temperature,
rainfall, amount of daylight etc.) affect the
organisms that were found in the habitats students
compared in this activity.
Name________________
Date_____________
VENN DIAGRAM
Plants and animals in
an open, sunny space
only
Plants and animals in
a sunny and shady
space
Plants and
animals in a
shady space only
Name________________
Date_____________
Habitat Detective Data Sheet
for a Shady Habitat
Is the organism a
plant or animal?
Evidence used to What is the
classify organism. organism?
Number found
in wire ring.
Drawing of
the organism
Which organisms do you predict you will find in both the sunny and shady
habitat?______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Name________________
Date_____________
Habitat Detective Data Sheet
for a Sunny Habitat
Is the organism
a plant or
animal?
Evidence used
to classify
organism.
What is the
organism?
Number found
in the wire ring.
Drawing of the
organism
Which organisms do you predict you will find in both the sunny and shady
habitat?______________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________