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Living
Things Activities
Building
a Terrarium Habitat
Resource: LHS GEMS Terrarium Habitats, pp. 15-22
Note: If you have saved
the soil from Week 4, your students are welcome to use it this week to
build their terrariums. See Terrarium Habitats for ideas about adding
living things to the terrarium. Fast growing plants (marigolds, Chinese
cabbage, turnips, radishes, peas, oats and beans) can be purchased at
a local hardware or grocery store. Or you may order small plants that
can go through an entire life cycle in just 35 days from Wisconsin Fast
Plants at:
Wisconsin
Fast Plants
1630 Linden Drive
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
After plants have been added to
the terrariums, you can have your students add earthworms to the terrariums
and then observe the additional changes that occur. Refer to “Adding
Worms to the Terrarium Habitat” on pp. 23-32 in Terrarium Habitats.
Materials
- LHS GEMS Terrarium Habitats
- Soil from Week 4
- Fast-growing plants
- Earthworms and other animals
Questions for Students
- How do plants and animals
adapt to the terrarium? (Send down roots; watch the roots grow along
sides of the container if it's transparent.)
- How do the plants in the
terrarium differ from those outdoors? (Grasses may be shorter, leaves
may be smaller.)
- Do the plants reproduce?
Do the earthworms reproduce? (See the life cycle of the earthworm and
follow the life cycles of what is planted.)
- How do worms get the nutrients
they need to survive?
- Are the worms thriving,
surviving, or dying? (Look for signs of activity such as dirt piles
at the surface.)
- Are the worms eating the
plants? Have they helped the plants?
- Is there any water on the
inside of the terrarium walls? (The water could be from plant respiration,
or it could be coming from the wet soil condensing onto the terrarium
walls.)
- Can the terrarium be sealed
and continue to live? What might be missing?
- Can you watch decomposition
happening?
Other Suggestions
- Try keeping track of how much water is put into
the terrariums. Weigh the terrariums. Where does the water go?
- Think about splitting the
class in some way to try different things (e.g., different plants, numbers
of worms, or types of soil).
Teacher References
- AIMS. "Primarily Plants." AIMS Education
Foundation. Fresno, CA.
- AIMS. "Budding Botanist." AIMS Education
Foundation. Fresno, CA.
- AIMS. "Critters." AIMS Education Foundation.
Fresno, CA.
- Logan, William Bryant (1995).
Dirt, The ecstatic skin of the Earth, Riverhead Books.
Children's References
- Baker, Lucy. "Life in the Deserts." Scholastic,
Inc., NY., 1990.
- Bash, Barbara. "Desert Giant: The World of the
Saguaro Cactus." Little, Brown & Co., 1989.
- Carle, Eric. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."
Philomel, 1987.
- Carle, Eric. "The Tiny Seed." Picture Book
Studio, USA, 1987.
- Dorling, Kindersley. "What's Inside Plants."
Dorling Kindersley, 1992.
- Gibbons, Gail. "From Seed to Plant." Holiday
House, 1992.
- Guiberson, Brenda. "Cactus Hotel." Holt, 1991.
- Heller, Ruth. "The Reason for a Flower."
Grosset & Dunlap. 1983.
- Jordan, Helene. "How a Seed Grows." Harper
Collins, 1993.
- Mazer, A. "The Salamander Room." Knopf, 1991.
- Sowler, Sandie. "Amazing Animals Disguises."
Knopf, 1992.
- Ryder, Joanne. "When
the Woods Hum."
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