Student Worksheet

Shoebox Ecosystem Diorama - Activity Instructions

How good is your David Attenborough impression? Create mini ecosystems in a shoebox with natural materials from around your home, and perhaps you can practise narrating nature and start on the path to becoming a world-famous ecologist.

Step 1.

An ecosystem is a group of living and nonliving things found in a certain area. It includes plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as the rocks, soil, landscape and the weather. Everything interacts together to keep the area alive.

Using the internet, research four ecosystems that are visually different from one another. Quickly list all the things you might find in these ecosystems.

Step 2.

Divide your shoebox into four quadrants by cutting walls of cardboard and sticking them down the middle both ways. Label your four different ecosystems, for example 'Desert, rainforest, mountain, ocean'.

Step 3.

Gather materials from outside that you can use to decorate your ecosystems, such as leaves, twigs, dirt, sand, rocks and flowers. Anything that looks useful. Remember to only take things that have fallen to the ground. Don’t hurt trees by ripping off their leaves.

Anything that you don’t find can be created out of coloured paper.

Step 4.

Using glue, stick the ‘earth’ (soil, sand or coloured paper) to your different quadrants. Pour a small amount of soil into the section and leave it to dry thoroughly. If you use too much, it will just fall out of the box.

Sand could be used for the desert ecosystem, but you might have to get creative for the others. Try ripping up white paper to make snow, or using coloured cellophane for water. Remember that even under snow and water, there is still sand or soil.

Step 5.

Decorate the rest of the space, including the walls, with your materials. Twigs can be trees, leaves can make bushes or grass. Paper can be cut and stuck to the walls to make a background of mountains. Remember to try to show the weather. If it’s always raining, or very sunny, you will have to create these elements somehow. Be as creative as possible! It doesn’t have to look perfect.

Step 6.

Print off some pictures of animals and add them to the ecosystems they like to live in.

Step 7.

Write a short statement about each of the ecosystems, including the typical plants and animals of each ecosystem and why you chose those ecosystems. Stick these statements to the outside of the box next to the relevant ecosystems.

Taking It Further

You could look up some origami instructions to fold 3D versions of the animals rather than using flat printouts.

Ecosystems contain lots of things we can’t necessarily see, including bugs and bacteria. Why might these be important for your ecosystem? You could create a 'microscopic' ecosystem representing these things, or write a short paragraph and stick it on the outside of the box.

Is there such a thing as a human ecosystem? What might that look like? Create a diorama of your own room or another human space in a second shoebox.

Shoebox Ecosystem Diorama (home learning)

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