What is an Ecosystem? Building a Living Web

In this lesson plan designed for primary and secondary school classrooms, students will define and explore the concepts of ecosystems and ecosystem services. They will enact different roles within a forest ecosystem and then map out the network of relationships between them. By the end of this class, students should be able to: 1) define and explain the terms: "ecosystem" and "ecosystem services", 2) identify the interactions between living and non-living parts of a forest ecosystem, 3) understand the many connections that exist within an ecosystem, using examples from the Solomon Islands, and 4) analyze the effects of human actions on ecosystems and ecosystem services.