Biodiversity Detective
(Activity for the kids!)
A garden with lots of living things helps make a strong ecosystem. From tiny microorganisms in the soil to the towering trees reaching for the sky, living organisms build relationships with each other to help meet their own needs and meet the needs of others. In this activity, kids will explore their local ecosystem and look for signs of life.
Materials
Clipboard and paper or notebook
Pen or pencil
Trowel
Magnifying glass (optional)
Detective’s hat (optional) - Want to add to the fun? Have kids find or make their own detective’s hat before beginning your search!
Instructions
An ecosystem is something that is made up of a wide variety of living things. Each living thing interacts with each other and with the non living things in their environment. It’s important for there to be a wide variety of living organisms in an ecosystem. When conditions like temperature or weather change, some organisms will be able to survive and reproduce, while others may fail.
Encourage kids to become biodiversity detectives. If you can do this in your backyard go ahead, if not, visit a garden or local green space and hunt for the many different organisms that live there. Remind them of how to determine whether something is alive. Common characteristics of living things include that they:
grow and develop
reproduce
breathe
need food and water to survive
adapt or respond to their environment
(MRS GREN - Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion and Nutrition)
Before they begin, ask them to predict how many different kinds of living things they will find in your chosen space. Using a piece of paper and clipboard or a notebook, ask students to search for the living things present.
Younger kids can simply make a tally mark for every new thing they see. Ask older kids to list the organisms they find or draw pictures. Some things kids may discover include: plants, insects, spiders, birds, mushrooms, small mammals, lizards, and frogs.
To help their exploration, you may want to suggest they organise their search by layer. Here are some prompts:
Begin by looking up for tall plants and flying organisms. They will find things like trees, birds, and flying insects.
Next, lower your attention closer to eye level. They will be able to see shrubs and perennial plants. Do they see any nests or other creatures’ homes? Look under leaves on trees for insects of different kinds that may be hiding from you. If available, use a magnifying glass for a closer look.
Continue by sitting or kneeling on the ground to view organisms living right above the soil. Are there any creatures hiding in leaf litter or under rocks? What about mushrooms or other fungi? Ants carrying food?
Finally, use a trowel to dig a shallow hole and see if you can find signs of life in the soil. They may uncover earthworms, sow bugs, and earwigs. Again, if you have a magnifying glass, look for small creatures that may not be immediately noticeable. Also, share with them that there are organisms in the soil called microorganisms that are so tiny, that they will not be able to see them without a microscope.
Continue your search for as long as it is appropriate for the age and attention span of your young gardeners. When they’re done, have kids add up the number of different types of organisms they found. Ask them, Was it more than you were expecting? Talk about some of the roles each of the organisms play in your garden in green space. How are they connected to each other? Why are they all important? What would happen if any of them were missing?