Everything Ecocolumns
My students’ favorite lab is building and taking care of Ecocolumns. This lab gives them practice in long-term data collection and a myriad of other essential topics in APES. Here …
Category: lab
APES Lab Supplies Part 2: Other Recommended Labs
The labs on this post tend to be popular, because they cover a lot of topics within the lab, build skills, and/or are engaging. You don’t need to do all …
APES Lab Supplies Part 1: Essential Labs
A question new AP® Environmental Science teachers ask is “What supplies do I need?” or “What kits should I buy?” This post will go over basic APES lab supplies. Kits …
Air Pollution Lab-Airborne Particulates
One of the best (and easy to implement) labs I do is an air pollution lab–airborne particulates lab (Click for student handout). I worked with a colleague at a neighboring …
Biomagnification Activity from the Monterey Bay Aquarium
I really like this biomagnification activity from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I discovered this activity in a Monterey Bay Aquarium workshop at a conference I attended a couple of years …
Water Quality Testing in the Lab
Water Quality Testing is essential for AP® Environmental Science students. Every released exam has water quality test questions. Water quality is usually covered in Unit 8, but some teachers cover …
Fecal Coliform Bacteria
Students need to understand fecal coliform bacteria. This is bacteria that comes from mammal waste and can be an indicator of a sewage spill, or something else that contaminates the …
Biological Oxygen Demand
I live in arid Southern California where surface water is scarce and it is impossible for my students to measure Biological Oxygen Demand in person. So, I filmed the process …
GPP/NPP Virtual Lab
I don’t always have time for students to do a lab. Every day is precious. And, sometimes I don’t have the funds to do a certain lab. Sometimes, I find …
Soil Salinization Lab
One of the most common (and important!) labs in AP® Environmental Science is the Soil Salinization Lab. There are many versions of the lab that are great. This is a …
Things Go Wrong in Ecocolumns-and its OK!
Things will go wrong in ecocolumns, they always do. And that’s part of the magic of ecocolumns. Being able to say “hmmm” or “huh, I don’t know” and being okay …
Electricity 5E using Kill-A-Watt Meters
Updated Spring 2019! This year, I revised my Kill-A-Watt lab with a lot more math, better leading questions to help students to figure out the concepts, a phenomena that is …
lab / Labs For CED Units / Unit 5 / Units
Tragedy of the Commons 5E
A great way to teach Tragedy of the Commons is with a “fishing” activity. There are many ways to run this simulation that are wonderful. Some teachers use goldfish crackers, …
Ocean Acidification Experimental Design Lab
Students learn not only about the effects of increasing acidity in the ocean on marine organisms, but also practice their experimental design skills in this Ocean Acidification Lab. In addition, …
10 Scientific Concepts Learned from Ecocolumns
Ecocolumns can teach the kids A LOT of scientific concepts if you are purposeful with the learning. If not, the kids just enjoy growing plants and having a fish and …
Where to Find Science Grants and Other Funding
When I was beginning science teacher 20 years ago, a very wise science education professor told me to find the money and don’t buy supplies for my class out of …
Ecocolumns with a Small Budget and with a Big Budget
Sometimes new teachers panic when they see all the shiny probes, grow lights and data measuring stuff that veteran teachers have. Don’t worry…most of us started out with limited supplies …
Building the Aquatic Chamber in Ecocolumns
After two weeks of draining your ecocolumns, its time to build the aquatic chamber. DO NOT RUSH this step. No fish for two more days! Student directions for building ecocolumns. …
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