This video provides an overview of environmental science terms and topics.
It discusses scientific models, environmental ethics, biotic and abiotic systems, ecosystems, biomes, biodiversity, genetic diversity, endangered species, population dynamics, food webs, trophic levels, and how humans affect the environment.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This video would be great to use for defining ecological vocabulary terms.
The video is segmented so that it can be used in smaller segments to cover specific topics.
Additional Prerequisites
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Differentiation
The acronym HIPPOC or HIPPCO is introduced towards the end of the video (at 14:58), which could be used as inspiration for an art project or poster project for students to visually display the reasons for species decline and/or reductions in biodiversity.
Students could use this video as a review of material covered in a biology or environmental science class.
This resource is a 19-minute video that gives a broad overview of environmental science. It starts with a discussion of ethics and ways of thinking about our environment before walking through examples including predator-prey relationships, ecosystem services, habitat dynamics, evolution, conceptual models, symbiosis, and others. This resource is rather comprehensive but is well-sourced and approachable. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.2 Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.
