大象传媒

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Biodiversity and the human implications

Description

Biodiversity is the planet鈥檚 full range of life forms. Humans are only one species among millions. Biodiversity benefiting humans and other species alike.

Experts discuss that biodiversity is required with issues surrounding food, medicines, industrial products, gene pool preservation, and biological services - such as pollination and cleaning water. We also have an ethical responsibility of stewardship over other species on the planet.

Classroom Ideas

After watching this clip students could be asked to describe biodiversity in their own words. They could discuss their different understandings and summarise that biodiversity is the huge variety of living things on the planet. Students could go on a nature walk around their playground, park or local neighbourhood and be challenged to find as many examples of biodiversity as possible in order to discover the variety of plant and animal life. They could collect leaves, feathers, and twigs and take photographs of animals or insects. Ask students to observe these examples closely and look for signs of connections, such as a leaf that has been nibbled by an animal. These could then be recorded and classified into groups.

Students could also review the reasons given in this clip to conserve biodiversity, and discuss what these mean in the students鈥 own language. Working in small groups, students could explore the importance of maintaining biodiversity by learning about interdependence. Each group could be assigned an animal which they could research in order to find out what the result of this animal becoming extinct may be.

Living things

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