The Interactive Science Classroom
Grades 4-6
Grade 6 Understanding Life Systems:
Biodiversity
LEGEND:
Individual Activity
Group Activity
Demonstration
Outdoor Activity
Exploring a Local Habitat
What better way to learn about biodiversity than by experiencing it? Take your students to a nearby park, forest, or green area. Equip them with tablets or ask them to bring their smartphones if they own one. Have them snap pictures of the living things around them, trees, plants, insects, animals, etc. You will also want them to take photos of the surrounding environment.
Back in the classroom, have your students submit their pictures to a class Google Drive photo. Divide your students into small groups and assign them ten images each. As a group, ask them to classify the living things in their images. You may want to assign specific images to each group member; working in groups allows them to ask each other questions and to confirm what they have found. Once done, have your students re-submit the labelled images, verify them, and post them as a collage. Your students can then visually see the amount of diversity that they found in one green area.
Note: prior to doing this activity, you will want to practice classifying organisms with your class. Bring in samples when possible and introduce them to the classification system you will be using.
Expectations Addressed: 2.1, 2.2
How do humans affect green spaces?
Once students have a good understanding of the amount of biodiversity that a single green space contains, have them examine the images they took of the whole green space and its surroundings. As a group, have them answer the following questions:
-
What is adajacent to the park?
-
What human-made structures are present?
-
How are people interacting with the park?
-
How are they interacting with the area surrounding the park?
Once the groups have answered these questions, discuss them as a class. How do the human-made structures around the green space benefit humans? How might they affect the green space and the biodiversity within it? Is there a way to balance the needs of humans with those of the biodiversity around us?
From there, you can lead an investigation into a local biodiversity issue. When researching, have your students engage with the community, either by polling people in their school, by looking at local literature, or by interviewing activists and researchers in their area. Researching a local issue will make them feel connected, and the solutions they offer will feel achievable.
Expectations Addressed: 2.4, 2.5, 3.1
