Middle School Units
Our NGSS-aligned middle school units use oysters and New York Harbor as anchoring phenomena. Through real data, models, and local restoration work from the Billion Oyster Project, students explore inquiry-based lessons to learn standards-based content. The Harbor Ecosystems unit is designed to fit flexibly into 6th grade Ecosystems NYS scope and sequence. It includes ready-to-use slides, a detailed storyline/unit map, and NGSS-aligned cluster questions for assessment and test preparation. All resources are provided digitally in Google Suite, so you can easily make copies and adapt them to meet the needs of your students. More units like this coming soon!
The Harbor Ecosystem
NYC DOE Scope and Sequence standards alignment: 6th Grade Unit 3: Ecosystems
This unit explores the role of oyster reefs in the New York Harbor ecosystem by examining how oysters influence biodiversity, water quality, and the flow of energy and matter through the harbor. Using real data, models, and local restoration efforts from the Billion Oyster Project, students investigate human impacts, explore ecosystem interactions, and evaluate design solutions that support a healthier, more resilient harbor.
Human Impact on the Environment
NYC DOE Scope and Sequence standards alignment: 7th Grade Unit 5: Minimizing Human Impact through Engineering Design
Coming fALL 26
Standalone Lessons
Billion Oyster Project has newly created several inquiry-based and NGSS-aligned standalone lessons for your classroom. These lessons are designed as engaging, informative ways to use oysters as an anchoring phenomenon to teach common content. These lessons can be taught individually and fit into your scope and sequence, or used as content-based context for Billion Oyster Project programs like the Oyster Research Tank or Oyster Research Station.
All resources are in Google Suite, so you can easily make a copy of anything and modify it to fit the needs of your classroom. More lessons like this to come throughout the year!
Oysters are a Keystone Species
In this reading investigation, students figure out the many important roles that oysters have in their ecosystem. Depending on grade level, students may complete a jigsaw read or participate in collaborative sensemaking from a shared text, and build foundational knowledge of oysters and their ecosystem functions.
Oysters are Shoreline Protectors
In this hands-on lesson, students design and build a structure that can break wave energy before it hits land. They collaborate through the engineering design process, figure out that there are many possible ways to solve the problem, and reflect on the role that oysters play as natural breakwaters.
Oyster History in New York Harbor
In this interactive history lesson, students review facts from the last 400 years of NY Harbor history, and discuss the decisions of people in the past to consider the impact those choices have on our resources today. Students then make observations and inferences of images to create a timeline of these changes.
Oyster Anatomy and Life Cycle
In this hands-on lesson, students explore oysters’ unique anatomy and life cycle. Students may observe patterns in the oyster’s development and how structures change over time, or dive deeper into different structures’ functions and how they work together as a system