What areas, big and small, do scientists use in their statements about biodiversity?
Overview
Students take a Google Earth Diversity Tripto engage with the idea of biodiversity in their local watershed. Google Earth is a free online resource that lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery and maps. Using this tool, students become more familiar with the boundaries, features, and orientation of their own watershed within the larger Gulf of Maine watershed.
This activity builds on the previous Diversity Statements activity that helps students generate their own working definition of diversity and biodiversity that everyone understands and can use effectively. It sets the stage for subsequent activities whereby students will experience what it’s like to be native, non-native, or invasive species vying for resources in their watershed (There’s a New Bird in Townand Oh Deer: Invasive species style).
Standards (MLR)
A1 Systems. Students describe and apply principles of systems in manmade things, natural things, and processes.
A1b. Explain how the output of one part of a system can become the input of another part of a system.
A1c. Describe how systems are nested and that systems may be thought of as containing subsystems and apply the understanding to analyze systems.
A4. Scale. Students use scale to describe objects, phenomena, or processes related to Earth, space, matter, and mechanical and living systems.
A4a. Describe how some things change or work differently at different scales.
Learning Objectives
Students engage with the concept of biodiversity at a global scale
Students engage with the concept of biodiversity in their own watershed.
Materials
Computer with Internet access
Projector (optional)
Time Needed
30 minutes
Activity Procedure
Use Google Earth to familiarize students with Earth’s natural and human systems at progressively smaller scales
Note: Place-based education theory would shake its head and tell us to start small and local and go big and global, rather than the way this activity is laid out. This activity works just as well moving from local to global scales. Your choice….or your students’ choice.
Open Google Earth and project it for the whole class to see.
Slowly zoom in from Earth to continents (North America)….to countries (United States)….to biomes (temperate deciduous forest)….to regions (New England)….to states (Maine)….to ecosystems (freshwater river > lake > stream)….to watersheds (yours!)….to habitats (rocky intertidal)….
At each zoom, ask students to make a statement about diversity or biodiversity. These can be made aloud, in small teams, or individually in journals. Examples of statements that teachers can use as models, or that students may make:
Earth has many different types and shapes of land and water
Earth is a diverse planet with 1.8 million known, named species
Maine has less different types of ecosystems than the entire planet, but still has quite a few (forests, streams, lakes, developed areas….)
Big cities in Maine have more diversity in the types of buildings than rural towns
Maine might have less biodiversity than southern states because winters are really cold and it’s harder to live here
Towards the end of your trip, focus in on your local watershed (Kennebec, Piscataquis, Androscoggin…). You may want to revisit with your students the definition of a watershed (an area of land that drains into a river, river system, or other body of water). Make observations. Ask questions. Examples of observations and questions:
Trace the boundaries of your watershed.
Where in the watershed is our school? Point out landmarks familiar to students.
Follow a major river system to the Gulf of Maine.
Notice how the land is being used throughout the watershed.
How big is our watershed compared to neighboring watersheds?
What other watersheds is our watershed connected to?
Start asking questions about the diversity/ biodiversity in your watershed. Ask students to point to areas that seem to have more or less diversity than others. Do they think that one place in the watershed (forested pond) may have more species than another (housing development)? What resources are available for plants and animals and humans? How do species get from one place to another? Which areas are students most curious about? Why? Make a list of the questions or things that students wonder about.
Look at your list of questions. It will likely include references to species, to resources species need to live in a certain place, competition among species for those resources, species adaptations, and human and natural activities/ disturbances that influence what resources are available and what species are there. Focus your attention on these to set the stage for introducing the concept of non-native and invasive species in the next section of activities.
Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas
Travel Log. Choose one part of your Google Earth diversity trip that you would like to revisit. Write a journal entry about that part of your trip. Prompts may include:
What bigger system is it a part of?
What smaller systems make up this bigger system?
What did you see there?
Was it a diverse place?
What did you wonder about while you were there?
How did this part of your trip compare to other parts?
Extension Ideas
If your students are ready to ask their own research questions in an Open Inquiry environment, the list of questions generated during the watershed biodiversity discussion becomes a great springboard for students’ developing their own research investigations.
Have other ways to extend or enhance this lesson? Add your ideas to this lesson plan in the comments section below.
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Google Earth Diversity Trip
Author(s):
Sarah Morrisseau, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Vital Signs Program
Table of Contents
Question(s)
What areas, big and small, do scientists use in their statements about biodiversity?
Overview
Students take a Google Earth Diversity Trip to engage with the idea of biodiversity in their local watershed. Google Earth is a free online resource that lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery and maps. Using this tool, students become more familiar with the boundaries, features, and orientation of their own watershed within the larger Gulf of Maine watershed.
This activity builds on the previous Diversity Statements activity that helps students generate their own working definition of diversity and biodiversity that everyone understands and can use effectively. It sets the stage for subsequent activities whereby students will experience what it’s like to be native, non-native, or invasive species vying for resources in their watershed (There’s a New Bird in Town and Oh Deer: Invasive species style).
Standards (MLR)
A1 Systems. Students describe and apply principles of systems in manmade things, natural things, and processes.
A1b. Explain how the output of one part of a system can become the input of another part of a system.
A1c. Describe how systems are nested and that systems may be thought of as containing subsystems and apply the understanding to analyze systems.
A4. Scale. Students use scale to describe objects, phenomena, or processes related to Earth, space, matter, and mechanical and living systems.
A4a. Describe how some things change or work differently at different scales.
Learning Objectives
Materials
Time Needed
30 minutes
Activity Procedure
Use Google Earth to familiarize students with Earth’s natural and human systems at progressively smaller scales
Note: Place-based education theory would shake its head and tell us to start small and local and go big and global, rather than the way this activity is laid out. This activity works just as well moving from local to global scales. Your choice….or your students’ choice.
Reflection/Formative Assessment Ideas
Travel Log. Choose one part of your Google Earth diversity trip that you would like to revisit. Write a journal entry about that part of your trip. Prompts may include:
Extension Ideas
If your students are ready to ask their own research questions in an Open Inquiry environment, the list of questions generated during the watershed biodiversity discussion becomes a great springboard for students’ developing their own research investigations.
Have other ways to extend or enhance this lesson? Add your ideas to this lesson plan in the comments section below.
Resources
Google Earth free download
References
Have a great reference. We all want to hear about it. Leave it in the comments section below.