Why does biodiversity matter to an ecosystem? How do the removal and/or addition of a new species affect the overall balance of an ecosystem?
Overview
Pair up Bill Nye the Science Guy and Jenga to kick off the Biodiversity Watershed Experience. This activity engages students with the concept of biodiversity, and underscores the importance of maintaining healthy, diverse ecosystems. Students remove native species from an ecosystem, and add non-native or invasive species. They see and understand how these actions may ultimately compromise the health and stability of an ecosystem.
This activity sets the stage for Diversity Statements whereby students create their own working definition of diversity and biodiversity.
Standards (MLR)
E1. Biodiversity. Students differentiate among organisms based on biological characteristics and identify patterns of similarity.
E2 Ecosystems. Students examine how the characteristics of the physical, non-living environment, the types and behaviors of living organisms, and the flow of matter and energy affect organisms and the ecosystem of which they are part.
E2a. List various kinds of resources within different biomes for which organisms compete.
E2b. Describe ways in which two types of organisms may interact including competition, and predator/prey.
Learning Objectives
Students gain an individual and collective understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem health that will support their future watershed investigation.
Jenga board game – one game per class, or one game per team (4-5 students per team)
(or) Small pieces of wood that can be stacked
Time Needed
5 minutes for Bill Nye video
15 minutes for Jenga
10 minutes to discuss and reflect
Activity Procedure
Watch Bill Nye the Science Guy, Biodiversity Part 1 of 3 (stop the video at 4:50!)
Play Ecosystem Jenga like Bill does at 3:09 in the video
Ecosystem Jenga Rules
The Jenga tower represents an ecosystem. Use an ecosystem that is familiar to your students and/or the ecosystem where you plan to do your biodiversity investigation.
Each block represents one different species in that ecosystem. Give students specific examples of plants and animals that live in your local ecosystem.
Take turns taking one block out at a time. Removing one block represents the removal of one species from your ecosystem.
Note: You may or may not want to include reasons why species are removed from ecosystems as the result of natural processes, natural disturbance, and/or human disturbance. Reasons include succession, storms, floods, habitat loss, changing climate conditions, predator/prey relationships, and competition with another species for resources.
After you take a species block out, you must introduce a new species to the ecosystem by replacing your block on top of the tower. Use an invasive species that is of concern in Maine as your introduced species (purple loosestrife, Asian longhorn beetle, Asian shore crab, variable milfoil, hydrilla, etc.).
Note: All blocks that are replaced on the top of the Jenga tower represent the same species. Your ecosystem will slowly shift from one that is diverse, to one that has all the same species.
Collect data in a table. Keep track of the number of native species you remove, and the number of new individuals you introduce before your ecosystem collapses.
Discuss your results. Ask students to explain what happened. Does this really happen? Could this happen in your local watershed?
Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas
In small groups, ask students to sketch what happened to the ecosystem over time in comic strip fashion. For example, the first frame will show a diverse ecosystem, the second and much less diverse system with one species starting to take over, and finally a collapsed system or one on the brink of collapse.
Publish the comic strips collectively as a newspaper page.
Upload your newspaper comic strip project to the Vital Signs Project Bank for others to see and learn from.
Extension Ideas
If you have more than one team of students playing, and you don’t mind inviting some competition, ask teams to see if they can remove more species from their ecosystem than other teams can. Adding an element of competition tends to focus students and encourages more careful removal and placement of species blocks. Of course, competition also has potential to distract from learning goals, so take a proactive approach to keep students focused.
If you own the Jenga game and plan to only play Ecosystem Jenga from here on out, you can add things to each block to support your learning goals (species names, reasons for removal, instructions to remove more species, etc.).
Have your shop class make the blocks!
Label a block “keystone species” (herring, beaver), and put it in a critical spot in your Jenga tower (lower edge). When this block is removed, it will collapse the food web and the entire ecosystem.
Have other extension ideas? Share them with us in the comments section below and we’ll try them out in our own classrooms!
Resources
Have a great resource that extends or supports this type of learning? Tell us about it in the comments section below.
References
Have a good reference for this type of learning? Let us know about it in the comments section below.
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Biodiversity Jenga
Author(s):
Sarah Morrisseau, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Vital Signs Program
Table of Contents
Question(s)
Why does biodiversity matter to an ecosystem? How do the removal and/or addition of a new species affect the overall balance of an ecosystem?
Overview
Pair up Bill Nye the Science Guy and Jenga to kick off the Biodiversity Watershed Experience. This activity engages students with the concept of biodiversity, and underscores the importance of maintaining healthy, diverse ecosystems. Students remove native species from an ecosystem, and add non-native or invasive species. They see and understand how these actions may ultimately compromise the health and stability of an ecosystem.
This activity sets the stage for Diversity Statements whereby students create their own working definition of diversity and biodiversity.
Standards (MLR)
E1. Biodiversity. Students differentiate among organisms based on biological characteristics and identify patterns of similarity.
E2 Ecosystems. Students examine how the characteristics of the physical, non-living environment, the types and behaviors of living organisms, and the flow of matter and energy affect organisms and the ecosystem of which they are part.
E2a. List various kinds of resources within different biomes for which organisms compete.
E2b. Describe ways in which two types of organisms may interact including competition, and predator/prey.
Learning Objectives
Materials
Time Needed
5 minutes for Bill Nye video
15 minutes for Jenga
10 minutes to discuss and reflect
Activity Procedure
Ecosystem Jenga Rules
Note: You may or may not want to include reasons why species are removed from ecosystems as the result of natural processes, natural disturbance, and/or human disturbance. Reasons include succession, storms, floods, habitat loss, changing climate conditions, predator/prey relationships, and competition with another species for resources.
Note: All blocks that are replaced on the top of the Jenga tower represent the same species. Your ecosystem will slowly shift from one that is diverse, to one that has all the same species.
Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas
In small groups, ask students to sketch what happened to the ecosystem over time in comic strip fashion. For example, the first frame will show a diverse ecosystem, the second and much less diverse system with one species starting to take over, and finally a collapsed system or one on the brink of collapse.
Publish the comic strips collectively as a newspaper page.
Upload your newspaper comic strip project to the Vital Signs Project Bank for others to see and learn from.
Extension Ideas
Have other extension ideas? Share them with us in the comments section below and we’ll try them out in our own classrooms!
Resources
Have a great resource that extends or supports this type of learning? Tell us about it in the comments section below.
References
Have a good reference for this type of learning? Let us know about it in the comments section below.