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Welcome to the first step in engaging your students in an exciting, unique, and place-based curriculum! This module will introduce students to ecosystem basics. They will learn about the history and geography of the Hudson River; the relationship between watersheds and waterbodies; measurement tools that aquatic ecologists use to understand river ecosystems (including how dissolved oxygen and temperature affect important processes like respiration and photosynthesis); and how animals and plants interact to shape ecosystem function.

This module is in 3 parts, each of which has lessons that are accompanied either by Power Point presentations, worksheets, and/or background reading. In the Hudson River Introduction, students will learn about the river's geography, its tides, and its watershed. In What is an Ecosystem, students will learn basic ecosystem concepts, how to collect and identify aquatic organisms and how organisms are connected to the environment. Lastly, students will learn to use the tools scientists use to understand the Hudson River ecosystem.

Lessons were written by Cornelia Harris, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies.

Human Accelerated Environmental Change: A framing lesson for all students using major change events in the Hudson Valley to encourage discussion about how different changes interact.

• HAEC Lesson Plan
• HAEC Reading
• HAEC Student Questions
• HAEC Powerpoint Presentation
• HAEC Powerpoint Notes and Handout

A: An Introduction to the Hudson River

• Lesson A1- A Journey Down the Hudson River
  
• Lesson A2- Hudson River Tides


• Lesson A3- Watersheds


• Lesson A4- Hudson Valley Rocks


• Lesson A5- Glacial Groundwater

B: What is an Ecosystem?

• Lesson B1- Hudson Food Webs


• Lesson B2-Biomanipulation


• Lesson B3- An Aquatic Ecosystem


• Lesson B4- Ecosystem Disturbance


• Lesson B5- The Nitrogen Cycle

C: Ecosystem Measurement Tools

• Lesson C1- Introduction to Dissolved Oxygen


• Lesson C2- Understanding and Creating Graphs in Excel


• Lesson C3- Inquiry Oxygen


• Lesson C4- Dissolved Oxygen and Temperature


• Lesson C5- Respiration


• Lesson C6- Photosynthesis


• Lesson C7- Animals and Dissolved Oxygen


• Lesson C8- Photosynthesis and Respiration Combined


• Lesson C8A- Aquatic Interactions


• Lesson C9- Dissolved Oxygen and Decomposition