Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section Two: Why is Biodiversity Important?
Explore soil, genetic traits, natural resources, and pollution in a series of lessons that focus on biodiversity. Kids complete experiments to learn more about the importance of varied genes and organisms in an ecosystem.
Curated OER
How can we keep our forests intact and have chocolate too?
Fourth graders recognize the need to sustain crops in the rainforest. In this rainforest instructional activity, 4th graders consider the use of products from the rainforest. Students discuss how people of different points of...
Curated OER
Biodiversity
Students complete activities to study the importance of biodiversity. In this biodiversity lesson, students find images to categorize into organism groups and illustrate their interconnections. Students use measurement tools to study a...
Curated OER
What's in Our Woods?
Students observe their local forest and document the change that occurs over the school year. For this forestry lesson, students utilize a GPS to mark a certain area of the woods as their study area for the remainder of the year....
Curated OER
Michigan Ecosystems: The Web They Weave
Students examine the forest ecosystem and how all life in the forest depends upon itself. In this ecological lesson, students participate in a personal connections activity where someone pulls on a string and everyone feels it,...
Curated OER
Biodiversity Bird Hunt
Students examine the influence of biodiversity on human culture through the use of birds. They brainstorm words that come to mind when they think of human cultures. They describe ways that human culture and biodiversity are linked.
Curated OER
Dichotomous Keys
Students utilize dichotomous keys to identify trees in their schools. In this ecological identification lesson plan, students practice creating dichotomous keys based on simple subjects such as hair color or sex of a person....
Curated OER
How Far Away is a Tropial Rainforest?
Students explore how far a rainforest is from their home. In this rainforest lesson students examine how far they live away from the rainforest. Students use the length of their school day to compare how long it will take to travel to...
Curated OER
Animal Characteristics
Students investigate the characteristics of animals by creating a chart. In this animal life lesson, students create a KWL chart listing all the different animals a class can name. Students take a field trip to a science facility to get...
Curated OER
Saving Tropical Rainforests
In this rainforest worksheet, students watch a video of Prince Charles wanting to save the tropical rainforest and then fill in the blanks to sentences about the video. Students complete 12 sentences.
Curated OER
Breaking News English: Loss of Nature Will Damage Economies
For this English worksheet, students read "Loss of Nature Will Damage Economies," and then respond to 1 essay, 47 fill in the blank, 7 short answer, 20 matching, and 8 true or false questions about the selection.
Curated OER
What Would Halloween be Like Without the Ecuadorian Rainforest?
Fourth graders are given a number of typical Halloween treats and work in groups to determine which foods came from the Rainforest (chocolate) and which foods came from temperate regions (apples, popcorn) and treats that don't have...
Curated OER
Eco-Poetry
Students explore the Earth's various biomes and ecosystems using Internet research. They create a multimedia poem using the photos, sounds, and vocabulary from their research.
Read Works
Read Works: Can the Amazon Be Saved?
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read about the disappearing Amazon rain forest. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in cause and effect.