This video from the National Park Service describes a research study about Pika, an important climate indicator species present in Rocky Mountain National Park.
The video explains how scientists monitor the species, track their health, and collect data with the help of citizen science volunteers.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This video provides an example of how volunteers can support climate change research.
Pika are cute mammals that students will likely enjoy learning about.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should have some understanding of the ways that climate change affects ecosystems.
Differentiation
This video could be used in a lesson about migrations of animals and plants due to climate change, citizen science, habitat loss, or ecosystem dynamics.
Science and math classes could discuss the steps that scientists must take when they design a research project and tie it into lessons about the scientific method, data collection, and data analysis.
Pika in the Rocky Mountain National park is being studied in this video to understand the impact of climate change and seasonality on its spatial distribution. This is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
HS-LS2-6 Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
HS-LS2-7 Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
