Step into Living vs. Nonliving: The Mystery of the Deserted Carnival! In this thrilling escape room adventure, you’ll explore an eerie, abandoned carnival to discover what’s truly alive…and what’s not. With your Adventure Guide video on hand, you’ll uncover clues and test your knowledge of living vs. nonliving things as you navigate mysterious rides and attractions. Are you ready to solve the carnival’s secrets?
Lesson Plan: Living vs. Nonliving
Grade Level: Elementary
Subject: Biology
Duration: 1 Hour
Standards Alignment: Understand characteristics that differentiate living and nonliving things based on observable traits and interactions.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Identify the characteristics of living things.
- Recognize the features of nonliving things and how they differ from living things.
- Describe how living and nonliving things interact within an environment.
Materials Needed
- Adventure Guide Video (Instructional Resource)
- Living vs. Nonliving: The Mystery of the Deserted Carnival (Online Escape Room)
- Living vs. Nonliving Worksheet (for optional additional assessment)
Lesson Outline
Introduction (10 Minutes)
- Begin by discussing the terms "living" and "nonliving" and ask students to share examples from their surroundings.
- Explain that the class will explore a carnival setting where they will identify and compare living and nonliving things.
- Play the Adventure Guide Video to introduce key concepts and vocabulary that will help students succeed in the escape room.
Instructional Steps
1. Characteristics of Living Things (10 Minutes)
- Direct Instruction: Describe the characteristics of living things, such as the need for air, water, and nutrients, and their abilities to grow, respond, and reproduce.
- Vocabulary Focus: Organism, Habitat, Characteristics.
- Engagement: Emphasize that in the escape room’s first setting, students will need to look for clues about what makes something truly “alive.”
2. Characteristics of Nonliving Things (10 Minutes)
- Direct Instruction: Define nonliving things, explaining that they do not require resources like food or water, cannot grow or change independently, and lack response to their environment.
- Vocabulary Focus: Nonliving, Environment.
- Engagement: Explain that the escape room’s second setting will challenge students to identify items that do not meet the characteristics of life.
3. Interactions Between Living and Nonliving Things (10 Minutes)
- Direct Instruction: Discuss how living and nonliving things interact, such as how plants grow on rocks or animals build homes in trees.
- Vocabulary Focus: Interaction.
- Engagement: In the final setting of the escape room, students will observe how living and nonliving elements coexist and affect each other.
Assessment & Engagement (20 Minutes)
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Online Escape Room:
- Guide students into Living vs. Nonliving: The Mystery of the Deserted Carnival. They will apply what they’ve learned to progress through each section of the carnival by answering questions related to living vs. nonliving things.
- Encourage students to revisit the Adventure Guide Video through the “Adventure Guide” button if they need help on specific questions.
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Optional Worksheet:
- For further assessment, provide students with the Living vs. Nonliving Worksheet to reinforce concepts from the lesson. This can be completed in class if time permits or assigned as homework.
Relevant Vocabulary
- Organism: A living thing that can grow, reproduce, and respond to its environment.
- Environment: The surroundings in which living and nonliving things exist and interact.
- Habitat: The natural home or environment where a living thing can find what it needs to survive.
- Characteristics: Features or qualities that help to identify or classify living and nonliving things.
- Interaction: The way living and nonliving things affect or depend on each other within an environment.
Closing & Review (5 Minutes)
- Wrap up by revisiting the three main sections explored: characteristics of living things, characteristics of nonliving things, and how they interact.
- Congratulate students on completing the Mystery of the Deserted Carnival and mastering the differences between living and nonliving things.
Teacher Reference Guide
This guide provides the key information you’ll need to convey to students as they explore the differences between living and nonliving things. Use this guide as a reference throughout the lesson to ensure students grasp each concept before they apply it in the Living vs. Nonliving: The Mystery of the Deserted Carnival online escape room.
Characteristics of Living Things
Living things are defined by several essential characteristics. First, they need resources such as air, water, food, and sometimes shelter to survive. Living things grow and develop over time; for example, plants grow taller, animals grow larger, and people change as they age. Another crucial characteristic of living things is reproduction—the ability to create offspring. Additionally, living things respond to their environment in different ways. A plant may grow toward sunlight, and an animal might seek shade on a hot day. This ability to sense and respond to surroundings is key to identifying something as alive. Overall, examples of living things include humans, animals, plants, and even microscopic organisms like bacteria. Encourage students to keep these characteristics in mind as they explore the first section of the escape room and identify clues that reveal what makes something truly alive.
Characteristics of Nonliving Things
Nonliving things, by contrast, do not need resources like food, water, or air and cannot grow, reproduce, or respond to their environment. Nonliving things are often created through natural processes (like rocks and water) or by humans (such as toys, tools, and buildings). These objects stay unchanged on their own over time, maintaining the same state unless acted upon by an external force. For example, a rock will stay the same size and shape unless something causes it to break or wear down. It’s essential for students to understand that while nonliving things can be found in the same environment as living things, they do not possess the characteristics that define life. The Funhouse of Forgotten Objects, the second setting in the escape room, provides students with the chance to observe and differentiate nonliving items from living things based on these criteria.
Interactions Between Living and Nonliving Things
Living and nonliving things are often found together and interact within an environment, each playing a unique role. Living things, such as plants, animals, and humans, often rely on nonliving elements to survive. For example, plants need sunlight (a nonliving thing) to grow, animals may use rocks and trees as shelter, and all living things depend on water to survive. These interactions demonstrate how living things depend on nonliving things to meet their needs, and vice versa. Encourage students to look for examples of these interactions in the final section of the escape room, the Ferris Wheel of Interactions. Here, they will observe how vines grow around the Ferris Wheel or how animals nest in nonliving structures. This section reinforces that while living and nonliving things are different, they often coexist and interact in meaningful ways.
Relevant Vocabulary
Introduce students to the following vocabulary terms, which are essential to understanding the lesson:
- Organism: A living thing that can grow, reproduce, and respond to its environment.
- Environment: The surroundings in which living and nonliving things exist and interact.
- Habitat: The natural home or environment where a living thing can find what it needs to survive.
- Characteristics: Features or qualities that help to identify or classify living and nonliving things.
- Interaction: The way living and nonliving things affect or depend on each other within an environment.
By using these concepts, students will be able to differentiate living things from nonliving things and describe how they interact within shared environments. Once students grasp these ideas, they’ll be ready to tackle the Living vs. Nonliving: The Mystery of the Deserted Carnival escape room, where they will apply this knowledge to answer questions, explore each setting, and solve the final mystery.
Teacher Answer Sheet
Overgrown Carousel of Life (Multiple Choice)
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Which of the following is a characteristic of all living things?
- A) They grow and develop.
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What do all living things need to survive?
- A) Air, water, and nutrients.
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Which of these shows that something is alive?
- A) It responds to changes around it.
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Why do living things need food or nutrients?
- A) To gain energy for growth and survival.
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What is one way living things differ from nonliving things?
- A) Living things grow and reproduce.
Funhouse of Forgotten Objects (True or False)
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Nonliving things do not need food, water, or air to survive.
- True
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Nonliving things can grow and change on their own over time, just like living things.
- False
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A mirror, a rock, and a plastic toy are examples of nonliving things.
- True
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Nonliving things cannot respond to changes in their environment.
- True
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Nonliving things can reproduce and create other nonliving things naturally.
- False
Ferris Wheel of Interactions (Multiple Choice)
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Which of the following is an example of a living thing interacting with a nonliving thing?
- A) A vine growing on the Ferris Wheel.
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Why do living things sometimes depend on nonliving things?
- A) Nonliving things can provide support or shelter.
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Which is an example of how nonliving things affect living things?
- A) Sunlight helps plants grow.
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What do both living and nonliving things have in common at the Ferris Wheel?
- A) They can be found in the same environment.
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Which of the following shows how living and nonliving things interact?
- A) A bird building a nest on the Ferris Wheel.