• The Gift of the Tree by Alvin Tresselt
• ProScope HR
• Computer with ProScope software installed
• Lab notebook
• Decomposing log
• About 16 balls

Students will

• Use literature, The Gift of the Tree, to make connections to the world around you.
• Play the Ecosystem Game.
• Use the ProScope to analyze a decaying log.
• Make observations about animal habitats.
• Understand that living things do specific kinds of “jobs”.

1. Read The Gift of the Tree

2. Play the Ecosystem Game

• Students are grouped, with nametags, as decomposers, consumers, and producers (class of 28 example: 8 consumers, 4 decomposers, and 16 producers).
• Use as many balls (recycled log) as producers.
• The balls should be placed in two or more piles in a confined playing area.
• The game involves a basic chain. The producer is eaten by a consumer. The consumer is broken down by a decomposer (returning to a ball). Producer can take from the piles.
• The goal of the producer is to get the balls out of the piles.
• Consumers can get a ball by a two-handed tag on the producer.
• The decomposer can only get the ball by a two-handed tag on the consumer holding a ball.
• Producer begin the game. Consumers then join the game. Finally, decomposers join the game.
• Players may only hold one object at a time. If they are tagged, they can pass the ball to another member of their team.

3. Take students to a log that is in the process of decomposing (or purchase a log).

4. Look at the condition of the log. Take a snapshot using the Proscope. If life is present, use the video also. Record observations in your lab notebook.

5. Look for evidence of new life on the log: mosses, algae, fungi, etc. Take a snapshot using the Proscope. Record observations in your lab notebook.

6. Observe the inside of the log. Is there proof that other animals have been inside the log? Take a snapshot using the ProScope. Record observations in your lab notebook.

7. Look at the condition of the trees / plant life near the tree. Take a snapshot using the Proscope. Record observations in your lab notebook.

Students should keep a record of their observations and pictures from the microscope, in a format such as this:

Prompts:

How would your observations change the way you look at your surroundings? Was there a purpose for the decomposing log?

Explain the game, Ecosystem Game, in relation to what you observed with the ProScope. Was the “game” a realistic simulation? How might you change the game to create a more realistic “picture?”