Alien Explorer Science Activity – Dichotomous Keys, Food Webs & Drag-and-Drop Ecosystem Analysis

Interactive Google Slides Lab • Creature Identification, Food Web Construction & Stomach Content Analysis.

This digital modeling lesson introduces students to dichotomous keys and food webs through a structured scientific investigation set on a fictional planet. Rather than completing isolated worksheets, students work through a coherent storyline that requires them to classify organisms, analyze traits, and construct a functioning food web from evidence.

Students begin by learning how dichotomous keys work using simple shapes before applying that process to classify unfamiliar alien organisms. They then transition into food web construction by analyzing organism traits and dietary evidence, allowing both skills to build toward a single culminating model.

The storyline provides context, but the work remains rigorous and skill-driven. Students must observe carefully, justify classification decisions, and apply ecological reasoning throughout the lesson.

Learning Focus

Students practice:
• Creating and using dichotomous keys
• Observing and recording distinguishing traits
• Applying classification logic
• Interpreting feeding relationships
• Constructing and analyzing food webs
• Making predictions about ecosystem interactions

Lesson Flow (Teacher Overview)

Students:

1. Learn how dichotomous keys work using geometric shapes

2. Create their own dichotomous keys to classify alien organisms

3. Use their keys to identify unknown organisms

4. Review food web structure and vocabulary

5. Analyze organism diet evidence

6. Build a complete food web model for the alien ecosystem

7. Extract food chains and make ecological predictions

What’s Included

✔ Google Slides student lesson
✔ Organism classification cards
✔ Food web construction activities
✔ Structured modeling tasks
✔ Student-ready answer key
✔ Printable literacy-based exit ticket

Why Teachers Love It

✔ High engagement without sacrificing rigor
✔ Strong focus on scientific reasoning and modeling
✔ Makes abstract classification skills concrete
✔ Builds toward a meaningful final product
✔ Supports visual and logical learners
✔ Easy to assign digitally or use in class

Teachers use this lesson when students need:
• Practice with dichotomous keys
• A deeper understanding of food webs
• A modeling-based ecology activity
• A narrative framework that supports scientific thinking
• A lesson that integrates classification and ecosystem relationships

This lesson combines classification, energy flow, and model construction into a single cohesive investigation. Students are not memorizing definitions — they are building systems and reasoning from evidence.

Click here for a lesson preview

Grade Recommendation

• Middle School: Grades 8 — aligns with MS-LS2 (Ecosystems) and MS-LS4 (Biological Evolution) standards.

• High School: Grades 9–11 — supports HS-LS2-3 and HS-LS4-2 as an applied reinforcement of ecosystem dynamics and classification systems.

Cross-Curricular Connections and/or Extensions

• Art & Design: Students can design their own alien species and dichotomous key illustrations, integrating creativity and science visualization.

• ELA: Encourages scientific communication as students describe features, use evidence to support food web claims, and explain ecological relationships.

• Technology: Incorporates Google Slides and Docs for interactive engagement, promoting digital literacy and collaboration.

• Extension Option: Have students design an “Alien Field Guide” that includes their classified species, diet, and role in the ecosystem.
  

Daily slide + literacy - based exit ticket included with purchase

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NGSS (Middle School)

Performance Expectations (PEs)

• MS-LS2-1: Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
  

• MS-LS2-3: Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
  

• MS-LS2-4: Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
  

• MS-LS4-2: Apply scientific ideas to construct an explanation for the anatomical similarities and differences among modern organisms and between modern and fossil organisms to infer evolutionary relationships (relevant through dichotomous key classification).

Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs)

• LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
  

• LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems
  

• LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience
  

• LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity

Science & Engineering Practices (SEPs)

• Analyzing and interpreting data (interpreting food web relationships).
  

• Developing and using models (food webs, classification charts).
  

• Constructing explanations (identifying roles of organisms).
  

• Engaging in argument from evidence (predicting effects of ecosystem changes).
  

Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs)

• Cause and Effect (how predator/prey relationships affect populations).
  

• Energy and Matter (cycling of matter, flow of energy in food webs).
  

• Patterns (classification with dichotomous keys).
  

• Systems and System Models (ecosystems as interacting systems).

NGSS (High School)

Performance Expectations (PEs)

• HS-LS2-1: Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales.
  

• HS-LS2-2: Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.
  

• HS-LS2-3: Construct and revise an explanation based on evidence for the cycling of matter and flow of energy in aerobic and anaerobic conditions.
  

• HS-LS2-4: Use mathematical representations to support claims for the cycling of matter and flow of energy among organisms in an ecosystem.
  

• HS-LS2-6: Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
  

• HS-LS4-1: Communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence (applies to classification through dichotomous keys).

High School DCIs

• LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
  

• LS2.B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems
  

• LS2.C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience
  

• LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity

SEPs & CCCs at HS level

(Same core practices, but with higher complexity expectations)

• Practices: Using mathematical models, constructing explanations, evaluating arguments, communicating information.

• Concepts: Stability and change in ecosystems, energy and matter conservation, cause and effect, systems and system models.

Common Core Alignment

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-12.3 – Follow precisely a multistep procedure.

Students follow branching directions in a dichotomous key to classify organisms.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-12.7 – Integrate information expressed visually and in text.

Students analyze food web diagrams and data tables to understand energy transfer.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6-12.1 – Engage effectively in collaborative discussions.

Students work in groups to interpret food webs and discuss relationships between organisms.

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4 – Model with mathematics.

Students apply proportional reasoning to trophic levels and energy flow.