Aquatic Ecology: Macroinvertebrates

This page includes links to resources to go along with my Aquatic Ecology: Macroinvertebrates Unit! Find the Macroinvertebrates Unit and other environmental science learning materials in my Shop!

1.) Related freebies from Wild Earth Lab

2.) Related aquatic ecology reading from Wild Earth Lab

3.) Additional suggested reading and reference websites (external links)

• Read more about water striders, from the National Wildlife Federation
• A video and readings about what makes an insect a true bug, from Arizona State University’s Ask a Biologist
• Check out these cool photos plus info about the many different types of water beetles, from Jan Hamrsky’s Life in Freshwater
• Watch this awesome video about backswimmers from Deep Look on YouTube
• Learn more about invasive zebra mussels and the problems they cause in aquatic ecosystems, from the US Geological Survey
• More info on water mites, from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection
• Interesting article about mayfly swarms from the New York Times (subscription required/limited free articles)
• Reference info on biological integrity and indexes, from University of Washington
• Macroinvertebrates: habitat and life history from the National Park Service
• The University of New Hampshire website has tons of pictures of different aquatic macroinvertebrate taxa in their stream key, plus info about water quality and EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera)
• Learn more about species richness and evenness in ecological communities, from The Nature Education’s Knowledge Project

4.) Additional activity ideas and free lesson plans for instructors/parents (external links)

• Utah State University Extension offers many aquatic macroinvertebrate lesson plans for a wide variety of grade levels (grades K-12)
• What is an arthropod? lesson plan from Arizona Fish and Game (grade 1)
• Learn about the characteristics and diversity of insects with this elementary school lesson plan from the California Academy of Sciences (grades 2-5)
• Try out this biological diversity lesson plan from the Convention on Biological Diversity. Lot’s of great background info in this one on food webs, species loss, and more (grades 4-6)
• The National Park Service offers this middle school aquatic macroinvertebrates lesson plan, focusing on the macroinvertebrates of the Obed River (grades 5-8)
• Intro to scientific classification systems activities, from the National Park Service (grade 7)

5.) Related units from Wild Earth Lab