The Salmon Forest

About this resource

In southeast Alaska, spruce trees where salmon lay their eggs grow about three times faster than spruce along stretches of stream with no salmon — and their needles hold nitrogen from the ocean. Trees can’t eat fish. How did ocean atoms get inside the trees? Matter cycles and energy flows: the same atoms go around and around an ecosystem, but energy comes in as sunlight and leaves as heat. In this one-week, 5-level Ecosystems: Matter Cycles & Energy Flow unit for middle school science (NGSS MS-LS2-3), students investigate a real mystery, then use their evidence to crack the case.

The Salmon Forest is part of Science Unlocked, a series of mystery-driven lesson sets. Every set opens with a real, surprising phenomenon, builds the science one level at a time, and ends with students solving the mystery in a claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) write-up.

Topics: ecosystems, energy flow in ecosystems, food chains and food webs, claim evidence reasoning (CER), science phenomenon, review games.

What's included

• Teacher Deck (88 slides, PowerPoint). Answers are highlighted on the slides. Speaker notes tell you what to say and do, what to watch for, and how to support students or push GT students further. Prep slides and answer keys are hidden, so they skip during a slideshow.
• Interactive Student Deck (54 slides, PowerPoint + PDF). Students type in boxes, drag cards and check marks, and rate their confidence. Assign one copy per student in Google Classroom or your LMS.
• Google Slides versions of both decks. Click a button in the Google Slides Links PDF to make your own copy in Google Drive.
• Teacher Guide (26-page PDF). The standard, a week at a glance, a materials list, misconceptions to watch for, a run-of-show for every level, answer keys and sources.
• Student Printable (18-page PDF + a low-ink greyscale copy). The same tasks on paper in 12 pt type, for students without devices, sub days, or anyone who learns better with a pencil. Slide numbers match the Student Deck.
• Self-grading digital activity. SCORM 2004 and SCORM 1.2 packages for an LMS that accepts SCORM uploads, a web package, and a single HTML file that opens in any browser. Notes, sorts, matches, tables and multiple-choice items grade themselves, and students get a copy-and-paste backup of their work. A 2-page teacher quick start is included.
• Two whole-class review games that open in any browser: a Jeopardy-style game (6 categories, 30 clues) and Trashketball, where teams answer on whiteboards and then shoot for points.
• Kahoot! and Blooket import files. 48 review questions, one file per level plus an all-levels file, with a printable answer key.
• Start Here guide, HTML & SCORM how-to guide and Terms of Use, so you know which file to open first.

The 5 levels (about one 45–50 minute class each)

1. Trees Made of Fish? Ecosystem parts, producers, consumers, decomposers. Key activities: Salmon-forest mystery, 12-card role sort.
2. Follow the Energy. Food chains & webs, energy pyramid, energy leaves as heat. Key activities: Salmon’s life story, food chain order, Energy In / Along / Out sort.
3. The Nitrogen Journey. Decomposers recycle nutrients, atoms cycle again and again. Key activities: Rot Watch data, Nitrogen Journey dice model, Lab Conclusion CER.
4. Cycles and Boundaries. Matter cycles, energy flows, system boundaries, tree-core evidence. Key activities: Label the salmon-forest model, critique it, Boundary Tracker.
5. Crack the Case. Stretch HS-LS2-4: energy pyramid math (10% rule). Key activities: Pyramid math, Stretch CER, final Salmon Forest CER.

Built for real classrooms

• Every level follows the same routine: "I can" targets with a confidence check, a warm-up, copy-it notes with a word bank, hands-on practice, a checkpoint students must pass to unlock the next step, and an exit ticket. A 10-item Mini Quiz wraps up the week.
• Level 1 opens with a Power-Up on the earlier-grade ideas this standard builds on (K-LS1-1, 5-LS1-1, 5-PS3-1, 5-LS2-1).
• The last level includes a high school Stretch (HS-LS2-4) that every student tries and advanced students can take further.
• Hands-on lab (The Nitrogen Journey: How to Play). Student materials list: 1 die per group (or a dice app); The 7 Station Cards (next slide — on the walls or on your screen); My Atom’s Journey table; Your Student Deck. Safety notes are on the slides and in the Teacher Guide.
• Support is built in: word banks, sentence starters and support notes on the slides, plus GT extensions.

Standards

• NGSS MS-LS2-3: Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem. (Kentucky 6-LS2-3 uses the same wording.)
• SEP: Developing and Using Models · DCI: LS2.B · CCC: Energy and Matter
• Stretch: HS-LS2-4
• CCSS connections: 6.EE.C.9, SL.8.5

Try the digital activity first

• Not sure the self-grading activity will work in your LMS? Download the FREE HTML & SCORM Sample and test it with your students before you buy.

Save with a bundle

• Ecosystems (5 sets)
• Middle School Life Science (21 sets)
• Science Unlocked Mega Bundle (all 89 sets)

Teach next

• Boom and Bust (MS-LS2-1)
• Open Wide (MS-LS2-2)
• The Vanishing Kelp Forest (MS-LS2-4)
• A Bridge for the Wild (MS-LS2-5)

More from Mystery Lab Learning

• See every Science Unlocked set, and follow to hear when new ones are added, at Mystery Lab Learning.

Good to know

• The illustrations in this resource were created with AI image tools, and AI tools helped draft the lesson text. Every slide, answer key and lab step was then fact-checked against the sources listed in the Teacher Guide and proofread.
• Kahoot!, Blooket, Jeopardy!, Google Slides and PowerPoint are trademarks of their owners. This resource is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
• License: one teacher, for use with their own students. Please buy an additional license for each colleague who uses it.