Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section One: What is Biodiversity?
Four intriguing and scientific activities invite learners to explore the natural resources of their town. The activities cover concepts such as genetic traits, organizing species in a taxonomy, the differences between different species...
American Museum of Natural History
What is Biodiversity?
Not all dogs are the same just like not all finches are the same. An interactive online lesson helps individuals learn about the causes and limitations to biodiversity. The clickable sections describe the basics of the genetics of...
American Museum of Natural History
What do you know about Biodiversity?
What do your classes know about biodiversity? A 10-question online quiz asks questions related to biodiversity and species groups. As learners answer questions, they click on links to additional information. The lesson could be an option...
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section Two: Why is Biodiversity Important?
Explore soil, genetic traits, natural resources, and pollution in a series of lessons that focus on biodiversity. Kids complete experiments to learn more about the importance of varied genes and organisms in an ecosystem.
Curated OER
Illinois Biodiversity
Students examine the amount of biodiversity in the state of Illinois. They practice using new vocabulary and listening to stories about animals. After given time to reflect, they write their own haiku. They work together to create a...
Curated OER
Exploring Ecosystems
Young scholars examine the relationships between plants, animals, and the environment in ecosystems. They sort animal cards, collect natural materials from the schoolyard, and record an ecosystem web in the form of a poster.
American Museum of Natural History
Bio-Benefits
Kick-start a discussion of the importance of biodiversity with a colorful resource that touts the benefits of maintaining healthy ecosystems. The images stress the interdependence of all the elements of an ecosystem.
Curated OER
The Basics of Creature Connectedness: Biodiversity Diversions
Students study biodiversity. They participate in a scavenger hunt to look for presence of wildlife and connections in nature. They create a collage about Venezuelan biodiversity in small groups and present to the class. They write a...
Rainforest Alliance
Colombia Biodiversity
How diverse is the rainforest? How much more diverse is a rain forest than a temperate forest? Explore these focus questions in a lesson that explores the plants, animals, and insects in forests. After listening to a reading about...
Curated OER
Preserving Health Through Biological Diversity
Students research and explore the benefits of biodiversity, particularly as it relates to human health. They write an essay in which they explain the possible effect of human activities on the emergence of new diseases.
Curated OER
Introducing Biodiversity
Students identify the basic components necessary for biodiversity, the critical and countless benefits of habitats, as well as the serious present and future threats to their ongoing existence.
American Museum of Natural History
Cuban Wildlife Matching Game
Young biologists match Cuban wildlife to their ecosystems by dragging images of the creatures to either a forest, coral reef, cave, or wetland habitat.
ARKive
Biodiversity and Evolution – Darwin’s Finches
Teens experience natural selection firsthand (or first beak) in an activity that has them act as finches foraging for food. Using different household items to act as different beak styles, your little finches will collect as much food...
Curated OER
Backyard Birds: Who's Who Out There?
Students practice techniques of field observation and data-gathering while studying local bird population, describe ecosystem as complex combination of elements, which can affect or be affected by each other, and determine effects of...
Curated OER
Ecology Community Status
In this ecology community status worksheet, students research their state's ecosystem, make a chart of the biodiversity, analyze the chart and identify issues with wetland species. This page has several links to helpful web resources.
Curated OER
The Impacts of Human Activities on Biodiversity in New Haven County
Students discover how plants and animal ecosystems are affected by the growth of a city. In this ecology lesson, students study and observe a plant over a period of time. They develop a creative presentation of their data and share them...
Curated OER
GPS Ecosystem (Ecotone) Scavenger Hunt
Students describe the characteristics of an ecotone. In this ecotone lesson, students pick out their area and describe the visual appearance, conditions, ecosystem, biodiversity, predators, prey, and trees in their ecotone. They create a...
Curated OER
Climate Change Effects on Organisms and Ecosystems: You are the Experts!
Seventh graders research about the effect of climate on different ecosystems. In this life science lesson, 7th graders present their research by creating a poster, infomercial, skit or song. They discuss how organisms adapt to climate...
Curated OER
Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2005
The 2005 version of the Regents High School Examination in the area of ecology is as comprehensive as previous years' exams. It consists of 40 multiple choice questions on everything from the structure of DNA to the interactions within...
Michigan State University
Bug Lyphe!
Introduce ecology classes to biodiversity and interdependence in ecosystems with a PowerPoint presentation. Then, they get up-close and personal with the invertebrate world by collecting insects, classifying them, and graphing their...
Curated OER
Community Action
Fifth graders decide how one uses resources within a particular bioregion. In this decision making lesson, 5th graders consider the biodiversity and complexity of the ecosystem. Students select a resource (water, paper, electricity)...
American Museum of Natural History
Web of Life Game
Get caught in a web of learning. Classmates play a game to build a web to model the interaction of species that live in a specific ecosystem. They each assume the role of one species and work together, passing a ball of twine to indicate...
American Museum of Natural History
Life in the City
Believe it or not, biodiversity exists even in areas of disturbed habitat. An interactive activity challenges learners to look for species with a magnifying lens in an image of a city habitat. Pop-up images and descriptions explain how...
Curated OER
Big Fleas Have Little Fleas
A benthic habitat hosts a vast collection of organisms and its structure influences the biodiversity. Middle-school marine biology explorers will discuss how corals impact structure, and therefore diversity, on the ocean floor. They draw...