When Species Disappear: Understanding the Impact of Biodiversity Loss
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Students will be able to explain how the loss of biodiversity affects ecosystem stability and human well-being by engaging with hands-on simulations, visual models, and student-chosen expression tasks — accessible to all learners through multiple means of representation, engagement, and action.
Lesson Overview
Students explore how the loss of biodiversity affects ecosystems, human survival, and even space science through hands-on simulations, visual models, and choice-based tasks. This lesson connects local and global biodiversity loss to real consequences using multiple entry points.
Materials
- Biodiversity Web Cards (pre-cut cards with species names and pictures — 1 set per group)
- Yarn or string (to connect species in food web simulation)
- Scissors (for cutting web connections)
- Large paper/chart paper for anchor charts
- Markers (multiple colours)
- Sticky notes (two colours per student)
- Printed 'Biodiversity Loss' scenario cards (laminated if possible)
- Tablets or computers (optional — for digital research or video clips)
- Printed graphic organizers with visual supports
- Image cards of species (for non-readers / ELL students)
- Video clip: NASA Earth observation footage showing deforestation (YouTube — NASA Goddard)
- Exit slip printed sheets
- Optional: modelling clay or LEGO for 3D food web model
Scaffolded Task Progression
Each student receives a card with a species name and picture (e.g., Oak Tree, Caterpillar, Robin, Hawk, Earthworm, Mushroom, Bee, Wildflower, Deer, Wolf).
Stand in a circle. The teacher holds a ball of yarn. Connect species by passing the yarn to anything your species depends on — hold your strand tight!
Once the web is built:
- The teacher calls out: *'The bees have gone extinct due to pesticide use.'* The Bee student drops their strands and sits down.
- Everyone whose yarn goes slack must wiggle — they are 'stressed.'
- Repeat with one more species removed.
Discuss with a partner: What did you notice? What surprised you?
[ Interactive graph / diagram, available in the full lesson ]
You have a set of 6 image-and-text cards. Each card shows a cause (a species or habitat being lost). Match each cause card to its effect card.
| Cause Card | Effect Card |
|---|---|
| Bees go extinct | ? |
| Wolves removed from Yellowstone | ? |
| Coral reefs bleach and die | ? |
| Forests in Ontario are cleared | ? |
| Wetlands are drained | ? |
| Kelp forests disappear | ? |
Effect options (cut apart and match):
- Deer overpopulate; riverbanks erode
- Fruit and vegetable crops fail; food shortage
- Thousands of fish species lose their nursery habitat
- Songbirds, insects, and mammals lose their homes
- Sea otters and fish populations crash
- Flood protection is lost; water quality drops
Sentence frame: *When _______ disappears, _______ is affected because _______.*
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