Are you working on those biodiversity lesson plans for your middle school classroom? Whether you are a first-year science teacher or you are a veteran teacher looking for fresh ideas, this post is for you!
Our planet is full of life. This is biodiversity! Biodiversity is the variety of living things in an area. A variety of life is key to keeping our world healthy.
In this post, I share ways that you can teach this topic to your middle school students. First, I share how to bring the WONDER and get your students internally motivated to learn about biodiversity. Second, I share an interactive lesson that will keep your students engaged while learning the content and helping them to remember it! Finally, I share some ways to WIDEN your students’ knowledge on biodiversity.
Let’s bring the WOW Factor to your biodiversity lesson plan!
WONDER Activities Before Teaching Biodiversity
WONDER activities are those activities that help your students WANT to learn. These are your hype activities to get them excited to learn more. Here are three ideas to help your students WONDER before diving into the biodiversity content. You can choose to do just one, or you can do more!
Weird Animals
Biodiversity is the variety of life, right? Well, there are some interesting creatures that are a part of this, and your students may love to check them out!
There are three components of biodiversity – genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity.
This allows your students to explore some unique species that make up our world.
You can choose to introduce your students to unique animals any way you wish. You can print pictures and have them explore them throughout the room, you can pull up pictures on your classroom screen, or you can even show them some videos of some unique animals.
Here’s a suggested list of which animals you could show them.
- Axolotl
- Aye-Aye
- Glass Frog
- Platypus
- Goblin Shark
- Superb Bird of Paradise
- Flying Squirrel
- Tarsier
- Leafy Sea Dragon
- Blobfish
Have fun exploring biodiversity!
Biodiversity Maps
Another unique way to introduce biodiversity to students is to let them explore some biodiversity in your area, country, or even the world.
This resource by Biodiversity Mapping is amazing! You are able to visually explore biodiversity maps that are global (terrestrial and marine), the USA, Brazil, and more.
You can have your students just explore as they wish and give them some guided questions.
- Which maps did you explore?
- What did you find most interesting while you were exploring?
- Did you notice any patterns?
- Why do you think biodiversity was higher in some areas and lower in others?
- How do you think biodiversity impacts humans in the area?
This is a great introduction to how biodiversity can look different in different places and students can start to think of the why of it.
Explore a Small Ecosystem
What better way to get excited about biodiversity than to explore the biodiversity in your area? Take your class on an adventure outside and explore.
It would be great for each group of students to explore a different small habitat. Here are some examples: crack of a sidewalk or pavement, a leaf litter pile, under a rock, around a patch of flowers, a puddle, edges of a building, and more.
- Assign your students an area to explore (or let them choose)
- Let them carry a pencil, paper, or tablet outside.
- Give students the task of finding 5-10 different organisms in the habitat. If they can identify it, they can sketch it or take a picture of it.
After the class comes back inside, have students share what they find and reflect!
Biodiversity Interactive Lesson
Now that your students are excited about biodiversity, now it’s time to dive into the lesson so that they can learn even more.
Interactive Lessons are great because they use the 7 steps to help students retain information. They are engaging and help students learn the content.
Some of the strategies used in the lessons include highlighting important information and segmenting the content. In addition, there are questions and activities embedded inside the lesson to help students reflect on the content they just read.
The biodiversity interactive lesson (currently only found in the Bright in the Middle Membership) is no exception.
In this lesson, students will learn all about biodiversity and the different levels: genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity. Students will also learn why biodiversity is important, factors that impact biodiversity, threats to biodiversity, and more.
As mentioned, inside there are activities that help assess student learning. This includes drag-and-drop questions, answering critical thinking questions, exploring outside resources, an anticipation guide, and more!
WIDEN Activities to Add to Your Biodiversity Lesson Plan
After your lesson, you might have some time to WIDEN and extend your students’ knowledge. This is where you can help your students really soak in the content and/or help them learn more beyond what your state standards require. Here are some ideas.
BioBlitz
This can be an extension if you explored the outdoors before the lesson. BioBlitz is a citizen science project (love these!) where students try to find as many species as possible in a short amount of time.
Bio means “life” and blitz means sudden endeavor.
It can be a big or small event. There are so many ways you can do this.
There may be some events locally in your area, but you can also do this as a class. You can even host an event for the community to take part in this. It’s what you want to make it!
I like the iNaturalist app for this.
To learn more on how to do this yourself, check out this resource by National Geographic.
Case Studies
Another WIDEN idea is to let your students explore case studies of how just one organism can impact the biodiversity in an area.
Here are some examples:
- Sea Otters and Kelp Forests
- Wolves in Yellowstone
- Honeybees
- Brown Tree Snake in Guam
- Cane Toads in Australia
There are a lot of examples!
Biodiversity Graphic Organizer
Building off of the case studies, students can create a graphic organizer to represent how one organism can impact the biodiversity in the area, whether it be a positive or a negative impact.
The graphic organizer could be a cause-and-effect chart, a concept map, a t-chart, a flow chart, a pyramid, or any graphic organizer that helps students explain the relationship of an organism to the rest of its environment.
I hope these ideas are a valuable addition to your biodiversity lesson plan for middle school!
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