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Biodiversity
Activity
1: Species Diversity
Grade
Level: 6 - 8 grade
Time:
30 minutes plus optional field trip
Concept:
Students will compute the percentage of several groups of living
species compared to the total number of species identified.
Objectives:
Students will:
1. calculate
percentages of living species (Mathematics, Science)
2. compare calculated
percentages with real life representations draw conclusions related to
public understanding (Mathematics, Geography)
National
Standards
Mathematics
Geography
Science
Materials:
copy of species numbers below for each person; field trip
procedures to local zoo or natural history museum
Preparation
Needed:
field trip arrangements, optional
Procedure:
1. Make the following
information available to each student (statistics from World Wildlife
Funds Windows on the Wild, “Sizing up Species”):
Group
Number of Identified Species
Bacteria
4,800
Fungi
69,000
Algae
26,900
Trees, shrubs, etc.
248,400
Protozoa
30,800
Sponges
5,000
Corals, jellyfish, etc. 9,000
Flatworms
12,200
Roundworms
12,000
Earthworms
12,000
Mollusks
50,000
(clams, squids, etc.)
Seastars, etc.
6,100
Insects
751,000
Non-insect arthropods
123,400 (spiders, crustaceans, etc.)
fishes, tunicates, lancelets
18,800
amphibians
4,200
reptiles
6,300
birds
9,000
mammals
4,000
(including humans)
2. If 1.4 million
species have been identified by scientists, calculate the percentage of
each group compared to the total identified.
3. Discuss the results
(see Extensions and Modifications below for ideas, if needed)
Evaluation:
Students can define and explain the basics of biodiversity.
Extension:
Take a field trip to a local zoo or natural history museum.
Visit each exhibit and real labels.
Is each group listed above represented or discussed?
If so, in the same percentages of the total exhibited as in the
percentage of identified species? If not, which ones are left out?
Modifications:
Older
students
1.
Divide the class into six teams.
Give each team the science textbook for a different elementary
grade or use general science books from the library.
Tally the number of articles, pictures, or references (best
tallying methods will be determined by
the type of book) to each of the groups listed above.
Figure the percentages of references to each group in the book to
the total number of references. How
do these percentages compare to the identified species percentages?
(In general, students will find that the greatest number of
references goes to the groups with the fewest number of identified
species.) How does this
influence what people think of species in terms of what groups are most
important, “nicest,” etc.
Younger
students
1. Instead of figuring
percentages, make a class bar graph and discuss those results.
Which group has the most species?
Which group is shown the most at a zoo or in books they like to
read or on movies? Are these
the same?
ACTIVITY TWO
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