Biodiversity

Engage

Ask: What is biodiversity to assess student prior knowledge

Ask: What is the importance of biodiversity?

The teacher defines the concept and emphasis on the importance of biodiversity. He then states the objectives of the day and other activities that student will be doing to understand the concept.

Explore

1.   Brainstorm a list of the organisms found in your local ecosystem and write the list on the board. Discuss with the class the importance of biodiversity. Elicit their opinions on why biodiversity is important and in what ways preserving biodiversity enhances the life of local people. Ask students to think of any ways in which preserving biodiversity locally might have a national or global effect. Encourage them to think about the far-reaching effects of habitat destruction and species loss. Form teams of three or four members each.  Take students to a selected area on the school ground to find as many different kinds of tree species.

2.  Tell students to make a list of those plant species.

3.   With a tape measure, have students divide the area into 4 plots measuring 20 ft by 20ft and use stakes to mark the boundaries

4.   Have them measure the height in each plot by estimating the height, the tree girth size by tape and count each tree using a metal tag.

5.  Have them record the number of trees in each plot.

6.  Have them collect tree leaves and shrubs to class for identification.

7.   When they return to class, have them use digital camera to take pictures of leaves collected in each plot and down load it into the laptop using iphoto software.

8.   Have then transfer their data into Microsoft Excel and generate graphs to show heights and girth size of trees. Let them save their work.

9.   Then, have them research the important of trees, biodiversity using the Internet and write their report using Microsoft word.

10. Guide them in class to organize their work by transferring their pictures, graphs and data generated into word document.

Explain

Teacher then explain the significant of biodiversity and how it relates to food chain in the ecosystem. Examples of animals in the rainforest as compare to desert could be use to explain the abundance of animals in both biomes. Interactions of animals as it relates to food web in a diverse ecosystem are also explained in class.

Elaborate

A. Restate the objective of the project and give examples of websites where they can fine more information.

B.  Reinforce the importance of biodiversity, conservation and the impact of habitat destruction help them in their project.

C. Finally, give them additional time to work on their research to produce at least 10 pages essay on Biodiversity of flora and fauna found on their school ground.

Evaluate

The following grading rubrics will be use to evaluate students work

BIODIVERSITY PROJECT GRADING RUBRIC

Rubric A

Today, your task is to use Microsoft word and create research template for your project:

First you need to create "A TITLE" page and include the topic of our research project on the title page as :

 “Survey of Biodiversity of Flora and Fauna at Rockfish Gap Turnpike Crozet”

1.   Write your name on the cover page (See examples attached) [10 points]

2.   Now, move to another page and start a new heading which will be your introduction. To develop each sub-topic on that page, go to the Internet and find articles on the important of:

i.      What is Conservation                  [10 points]

ii.     What is Biodiversity                     [10 points]

iii.   Importance of Biodiversity            [10 points]

Causes of Habitat Destruction each topic (cite your references please)           

iv.   When you finish, move to a new page,        [10 points]

v.     Importance of Trees                   [10 points]

1.   Write at least three to four paragraphs on your heading for this section will be

“Methodology.”                              [10 points]

i.          Create a sub heading call it “Study Area.”

a. Tell us where your school is located (State and County)

b.     Tell us a brief history about your school, just a paragraph or two.

c. Make sure you get a digital aerial map of the school from me 

ii.     Create another subtitle or heading, call it Procedures. [10 points]

iii.   Tell us how you collect your data and leaf samples.

iv.   What did you do with the leaf samples

v.     What equipment did you use to preserve your leaf sample

vi.    How did you preserve it? Have you identified your leaves? If not skip the identification method, we will come back to that later.

vii.  Did you take any pictures of the leaves? Tell us how you do it and with what equipment.

viii.         Tell us how you collect data on girth and height of trees at our Biodiversity Plot.

ix.   What instruments did you use and how did you use it.

1.   Create another subheading call it “Data analysis”. [10 points]

i.      Here, tell us what you did with the data collected.

How did you find the mean girth size/ height of trees?

ii.     Did you use any computer programs? Name the programs.

iii.   Did you generate any graphs? What software did you use?

1.   Create another heading call it “Results.” [5 points]

i.      I will help you to consolidate all your data in class, after that,

ii.     You will now plug the data in Excel and get your graph

1.   Create another heading call it “References.” [5 points]

i. Here you cite where you get your information on conservation, biodiversity etc from…is it from the Internet or from a textbook? I want to know the name of the author, the book, website, and year of publication. We will use APA format.

Total Points: 100 % [I will give extra credit for format, and organization]

Stop here and save all your work

Return the laptops

Thank you.

Rubric B: Postal Board

Extend

Have student conduct research on the Internet and find a list of endangered and extinct animal species in Virginia.

http://www.earthsendangered.com/

http://www.fws.gov/Endangered/wildlife.html

http://www.iucnredlist.org/

http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/