Why Do We Need Biodiversity?
Articles/Websites
Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12Biology, Earth and Space Sciences
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Provided by The Kid Should See This
What it is
- This animated video, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, describes the pressures that biodiversity is under due to many human activities and details the many benefits of biodiverse ecosystems for humans.
- Through the video and article, students will learn why biodiversity is so important to all of us, see examples of ecosystems that rely on biodiversity to function, and be inspired to protect and improve biodiversity in our own backyards and around the world.
Teaching tips
Positives
- Sir David Attenborough is an articulate narrator who makes this video engaging and easy to follow.
- This resource provides specific, relatable examples of why biodiversity is so important, even focusing on crop production and medicines that originate from plants and fungi.
Additional Prerequisites
- It is important for students to understand what biodiversity is before beginning this video.
- Provide students time to explore the 14 other links within this site in order to enhance learning on this and other related topics.
Differentiation
- While watching the video, ask students to take notes on specific examples of biodiversity loss, the importance of biodiversity, human actions that are causing it, and what we can do about it.
- As an extension, have students use the first link within the text to read more on The Royal Society's website about reversing biodiversity loss and come up with a poster to support their findings.
- Consider having students use this interactive map to learn more about the planet's biodiversity hotspots and discuss relationships that they notice between cities, agricultural areas, and biodiversity.
- This video could be used as a hook for biology classes learning about the diversity of life, evolution, ecosystems, habitat loss, overharvesting wildlife, coral bleaching, or deforestation.
- Language arts or science classes could do research projects to do a deeper dive into specific species that are being impacted by human activities and how to protect them.
From the scientist review
This video, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, introduces and discusses the importance of biodiversity, how climate change is affecting it, and what we can do about it. The video also adds a focus on smaller organisms and animals we often do not think about in biodiversity discussions, as well as how many species of plants and animals that are still unknown but are in danger from human actions, and human caused climate change. This information presented is accurate and this video is recommended for teaching.
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