Threats to biodiversity
Activity idea
In this student activity, students research one of three aspects of biodiversity loss – direct species loss, habitat loss, or pests and weeds.
Instructions
- Read the Hub article on biodiversity.
- Your teacher will divide the class into groups, and allocate one of the three ways in which New Zealand has suffered biodiversity loss for you to research - direct species loss, habitat loss, or pests and weeds.
- Use links within the Hub and links to resources outside the Hub to find out:
- the time scale of the loss
- the historic reasons behind the loss
- the scale of the loss
- what measures are in place to prevent further biodiversity loss in that way.
- Present your findings to the class.
- As a class, discuss why biodiversity is important – culturally, ethically, food web, bioprospecting (the search for compounds useful to humans).
