KS3 Biodiversity

Biodiversity is our most important asset and yet it is under threat like never before. Explore the importance of biodiversity and current threats to life on our planet.

Field of colourful flowers and long green grass

Level

Key Stage 3

Duration

90 minutes

Allocated space

15 pupils per group

Overview

Biodiversity means the variety of life, from the smallest beetle to the largest redwood. Biodiversity is our most important asset and yet it is under threat like never before. Explore the importance of biodiversity and current threats to life on our planet.

Pupils will perform a “bioblitz” to assess and measure biodiversity levels and discover the role of Kew in working to conserve biodiversity. 

Learning Outcomes: 

  • Understand what biodiversity is and why it is important to maintain it 
  • Explore the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem 
  • Discover how organisms are affected by their environment and by human activity and how this can lead to extinction of species

Keywords:  

Biodiversity, ecosystem, biome, environment, interdependence, species, conservation, extinction, climate change, fieldwork

Curriculum links 

BIOLOGY

Material cycles and energy
  • The dependence of almost all life on Earth on the ability of photosynthetic organisms, such as plants and algae, to use sunlight in photosynthesis to build organic molecules that are an essential energy store and to maintain levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
Interactions and interdependencies
  • The interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, including food webs and insect pollinated crops
  • The importance of plant reproduction through insect pollination in human food security
  • How organisms affect, and are affected by, their environment, including the accumulation of toxic materials
Genetics and evolution
  • Changes in the environment may leave individuals within a species, and some entire species, less well adapted to compete successfully and reproduce, which in turn may lead to extinction
  • The importance of maintaining biodiversity and the use of gene banks to preserve hereditary material

CHEMISTRY

Earth and the atmosphere
  • Earth as a source of limited resources and the efficacy of recycling
  • The production of carbon dioxide by human activity and the impact on climate
 Student examining seeds

Key Stage 3 sessions

Our Key Stage 3 sessions offers a science and geography focus for pupils of 11 to 14 years.