ECOSYSTEMSOFCOLORADO
Pre/PostActivities
The following activities are ways to extend your Ecosystems of Colorado program at Denver Botanic Gardens: 
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Classify which ecosystem the area around your school falls into. Identify places within Colorado that students have visited. Discuss which ecosystem each of these locations is in. Compare and contrast the characteristics of plants and animals from different ecosystems. Come up with patterns for plants or animals within a specific ecosystem. Identify the living and non‐living components of the schoolyard or neighborhood ecosystem. Identify the living components as producers, consumers or decomposers. Conduct a survey of the schoolyard, identifying all of the plants, animals and non‐living components present. Have students draw connections between each of the items found with the schoolyard. Have students create a list of all plants and animals they can think of for a given ecosystem. (You can read a book to assist with this.) Have students classify the inhabitants as producers, consumers or decomposers. Create a food web connecting all of the inhabitants. Have students create a list of all plants and animals they can think of for a given ecosystem. (You can read a book to assist with this.) Write each of the plants and animals on a nametag and assign each student to one of the organisms. Gather students in a circle. Give a ball of yarn to one student. Ask them find someone in the circle that is either food for them or eats them. Have that person pass the ball of yarn to that person, making sure to hold onto the end of the yarn. Have students continue to pass the ball until all people are holding part of the yarn. Discuss how all aspects of the ecosystem are connected. Have one or two people drop their yarn, denoting that they have been removed from the ecosystem. Discuss how many other people are affected by this change. Create a miniature ecosystem using a large plastic bottle. Place a shallow layer of horticultural charcoal (available at garden centers) on the bottom of the bottle, followed by a slightly thicker layer of gravel. Place damp potting soil on top of the gravel. Plant a variety of houseplants in the soil. Place the lid on the bottle. Observe how water condenses on the sides of the bottle and then falls back into the soil (occasionally you may need to open the lid and rewet the soil, although the bottle should reach an equilibrium). Observe how leaves die and decompose into the soil. Choose an animal that frequently visits the schoolyard (bird, squirrel, spider, etc.). Identify the components of this animal’s habitat (food, water, shelter, space).