Activity: Mind-Meld Game – Ecosystems

Teacher Preparation

Overarching learning goals: Students build on their understanding of an ecosystem's components and of subject-specific vocabulary.

Teacher content information: The biosphere describes our living world, from the upper areas of the atmosphere to the depths of the ocean. Biodiversity is a term used to describe all the living organisms that make up the web of life on Earth. From a microscopic bacteria to a naked mole-rat! Biodiversity consists of three levels: species diversity, ecosystem diversity and genetic diversity - all of which are equally important when considering conservation.

As the biosphere is too big to study as a whole, scientists study smaller parts called ecosystems. An ecosystem is made up of living things (biotic components) and non-living things (abiotic components) that interact in a particular area called an environment. The key to understanding ecosystems is realising that nothing exists in isolation, but rather all living things are connected

Thought Starter: Do your mind and your friends' mind work in the same way?

What you need: Each of you will need a copy of this worksheet and a pen.

What to do:

Step 1. Pair up with another student.

Step 2. The whole class will be given a word or term, for example, 'mobile phone'. Each team member silently writes down three words that come to mind about the term mobile phones. The aim is for both members of the team to create a mind-meld by coming up with the same word. Each mind-meld scored is worth five points.

Step 3. The team with the most amount of points after three rounds wins!

Team Name: 

Round 1:	1.
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Score: 

Round 2:	1.
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Score: 

Round 3:	1.
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