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Introducing Biodiversity Essential Question(s): What does biodiversity mean? At a Glance: Learners develop a definition for biodiversity. Background Information: Location: inside the classroom Objectives: Learners will 1) Understand what biodiversity means Skills: communication, observation, listening Biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms. It includes every living thing. Also, biodiversity refers to more than individual Supplies: species. It includes the genes they contain, and the ecosystems dictionaries and pencils habitats of which they are a part of. Biodiversity can be paper considered at three levels: 1. Variety of genes – The differences between the genes of Subjects: science particular species. Blue jays, pigeons, and woodpeckers are all birds, but they are not the same Time: 10-15 minutes because their genes are different. It’s the difference in our genes that makes us all different. 2. Variety among species – A particular variety of animal or plant may occur in many different shapes, sizes, and colors. Scientists group living things into distinct kinds of species. For example, dogs, grasshoppers, and pansies are all different species. 3. Variety of ecosystems – Deserts, coral reefs, and tropical rain forests are all ecosystems. Each one is different, with its own unique species living in it. Contains a number of species that depend on each other. An ecosystem is where a habitat contains a number of species which depend on each other. Genes, species, and ecosystems working together make up Earth’s biodiversity. Biodiversity is necessary for life and that species preservation is important to all of us. Every species is linked with a multitude of others in an ecosystem. All animals are part of food webs that include plants and animals of other species. Minor disruptions in a particular ecosystem tend to lead to changes that eventually restore the system. But large disturbances of living populations or their environments may result in irreversible changes. Maintaining diversity increases the likelihood that some varieties will have characteristics suitable to survival under changed conditions. Procedure: 1. Ask students: What do the following have in common: cats, grasshoppers, daffodils, students, plankton, bluebirds, squid, wheat, toads, giraffes, and mice? [The common thread is that they are all living organisms. In spite of their diversity, they all share the characteristics that distinguish living from nonliving.] 2. Ask: What are some characteristics of living things? [Living things grow, respond to stimuli, adapt to changes in their environment, reproduce, and carry on respiration.] 3. Ask: How do organisms differ? [size, shape, color, mobility, body covering, habitat, food, behavior] 4. Ask student to use all this information to come to a simple definition of biodiversity. Have them record what they understand of the concept. 5. Then have students share their definition with a partner. 6. After partners have shared their definition, have them use a dictionary to find the meaning of the word “biodiversity.” The word may need to be separated into individual parts (bio + diversity). Explain that biodiversity is actually a contraction of the words “biological” and “diversity.” Bio = a prefix meaning life and Diversity = a variety. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems. The rainforest ecosystem, for instance, has a lot of biodiversity. There are a lot of different living organisms in this one area.