Design for a Pond Habitat A WebQuest for 4 th - 5 th grade Designed by Debbie Goehring Charles Dial

1. Design for a Pond Habitat A WebQuest for 4th - 5th grade Designed by Debbie Goehring Charles Dial

2. Introduction Welcome to the Design for a Pond Habitat WebQuest! While on this WebQuest, you will be learning how to design a pond habitat for your school’s outdoor education classroom. You will start by exploring your school’s climate zone. Then you will take a close look at fresh water aquatic plants and animals. Finally, you will create a design, including a food chain for your pond. At the end of the WebQuest, you can compare your pond environment to other schools’ outdoor education classrooms. Let’s take the plunge! ……

3. Catching Flies • Your task will be to design a pond habitat for your school’s outdoor education classroom. In order to create an effective pond design, you will need to know: • Your climate zone • Fresh water aquatic plants of your area • Fresh water aquatic animals of your area • A food chain of a fresh water pond • Pond design When you finish this WebQuest you should be able to: • Create a food chain • Identify natural aquatic plants in your pond • Identify natural aquatic animals in your pond

4. The Process The Lily Pad You have started on a journey to create homes for your aquatic creatures and plants. In order to know what kind of environment to put them in, you will need to choose the correct climate zone. Look at the following websites and choose a climate zone that matches with your environment. Climate Zones

5. The Process The Lily Pad Now you will need to research the aquatic plants and animals that you want to include in your pond. Below are some interesting sites. Choose five aquatic plants and animals to put in your pond. List the price of each plant and animal. Aquatic Depot Tennessee Freshwater Farming Water Garden Information Pond Information

6. The Process The Lily Pad Now, you will need to design a pond for your plants and animals. Let’s visit several build a virtual pond sites. Create a pond Virtual Pond Build a Pond Water Garden Studio Gallery Half Barrel Ponds Building a Pond

7. Evaluation more

8. Evaluation (continued) back

9. Conclusion • Now that you have finished this activity, you have learned about many plants and animals that live in a pond and how they depend on each other. You now know that not all plants and animals can survive in all climates. • You have learned how to select animals and plants according to your climate zone to develop a complete pond environment. • Take a look at your final costs for developing a pond. Would it be something that you would like to develop for our school? What other information do you need to know in order to make your pond a reality on our school campus? • How would your pond environment compare to other ponds created by schools across the country?

10. Credits & References Include a link back to The WebQuest Page so that others can acquire the latest version of this template and training materials. Photos: Bigg’s Wildlife Pond, Sebastopol, California http://www.bigsnestpond.net/