The Flight Free Podcast: Aviation and Wildlife

Podcasts

Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12Biology

Scientist Reviewed

Provided by Flight Free UK

Open Resource

What it is

This podcast explains how airport expansion causes biodiversity loss, especially among birds.
Students will learn how airports increase noise pollution, light pollution, and habitat loss, making it difficult for animals to survive.

Teaching tips

Positives

The podcast features an interview with scientists and activist Dr. Jennifer Jones, who explains how an expansion of the Liverpool Airport will damage the surrounding wildlife.
Students will learn about several environmental problems that airports cause, such as dangerous runoff caused by deicing chemicals and bird strikes.

Additional Prerequisites

Students should be familiar with the effects of habitat loss on biodiversity.
The podcast can be downloaded.

Differentiation

Students could research local airports to find out what kinds of wildlife live in the vicinity. Students could learn about how the airport affects wildlife in the area.
Economics classes could discuss how people are often interested in expanding airports because it means more jobs for the community. Students could discuss environmentally sustainable alternatives to airport jobs.
Other resources on this topic include this Khan Academy video on how human activity threatens biodiversity, this video on the collapse of biodiversity, and this interactive map of airport-related injustice and resistance.

From the scientist review

The podcast raises awareness of how aviation growth affects wildlife, plants, biodiversity, ecological habitats, and climate change. Nocturnal animals, birds, and wildlife are negatively impacted by artificial illumination at the airport. This is a great resource that should be taught in the classroom.

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Hosted on flightfreeuk.podbean.com

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At a glance

Grades: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Subjects: Biology
Language: English
Location: Earth, Europe
Provider: Flight Free UK
Authors: Flight Free UK
Published: July 12, 2022
Last updated: July 16, 2026
: Reviewed by our climate scientists How we review

Standards alignment · MS-LS2-1. + 4 more

Core

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

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.
MS-LS2-5.Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
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-ESS3-3.Create a computational simulation to illustrate the relationships among management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, and biodiversity.

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Teaching tips

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