Crossing Boundaries

Students will discuss the importance of maintaining ecosystems and will learn about the various arguments that people make in favor of preserving the Earth's biodiversity.

"Distracted by a mysterious rash of dying bees, researchers may be overlooking a more insidious pollinator crisis. It has little to do with bees and everything to do with booming markets from pears, raspberries, and chocolate."

BioKIDS: Kids' Inquiry of Diverse Species addresses both inquiry and life science content standards through exploration of local biodiversity, collection of animal species, and the investigation of individual animals and how animals interact with one another. Through these activities students will gain a clearer understanding of how organisms meet their basic needs and the role the environment plays in supporting a variety of organisms. In this curriculum, students use CyberTracker, an animal-tracking program that runs on hand-held computers (PDAs), to log animal sightings in their schoolyard. Students then analyze the data for class and team experiments. Another salient feature of the curriculum is the Critter Catalog, an on-line animal species database developed by the BioKIDS team. Students use this as the main resource when they write species accounts (conduct research on individual animals).