Dr Joanna Rhodes shares a selection of engaging KS3 activities to help learners understand how extinction happens – and why it matters…
Based on current rates, the earth could be moving towards a mass extinction. Species are disappearing every day at a rate not measured in the geological record since the end of the dinosaurs.
Not only do we have a moral and cultural responsibility to conserve endangered species, but biodiversity also has an impact on the human population by maintaining the future possibility that we might identify plant species for medicines, keep damage to food chains and food webs to a minimum and protect our future food supply.
There are strong cross-curricular links to geography and opportunities to link biodiversity to your SMSC programme.
In this lesson, students will learn about biodiversity and how animals are adapted to live in their surroundings.
This will support an understanding of the reasons for species becoming extinct and what we could do to reduce the rate of extinctions currently taking place. Students will also investigate whether science can bring species back from extinction.
Why teach this?
The recognition that extinction is something that is happening now, along with reinforcement of the need to reduce habitat loss, limit global warming and end the poaching of endangered species, is an important part of KS3 science.
Starter activity
Create a game of habitat snap by laminating playing card images of different habitats (e.g. the desert, the arctic, plains, forest, rainforest, mountain, ocean, river, pond, fields and city).
Now laminate pictures of different animals and plants that could be found in these habitats. As students play the game they should call snap when the animal matches its habitat.
To receive the points they must state why the animal is adapted to survive in that habitat.
As an extension you could ask the students themselves to make the cards to play with each other. After the game, display on the board an animal or plant with a habitat that does not match.
Ask students to explain why the animal or plant would not survive in this habitat, for example a cactus in a rainforest or a snake in the arctic.
The aim is to prompt students to think about what habitat loss might mean for a species’ survival.
Dr Joanna L. Rhodes M.Chem, D.Phil, MRSC is a teacher of science at Shelley College, Huddersfield.
