Caretakers versus Exploiters: Impacting Biodiversity in the Age of Humans

Learning Objectives

Thanks to the “Save The Turtle” movement and Greta Thunberg’s #schoolstrike4climate my students are very aware of the human impact on the environment. They want to make changes and even suggest content for me to research on my own. However, they do not know the entire extent, as even scientists are still discovering the extent to how humans are changing the world. One of the struggles I see in my classroom is students have difficulty looking at different scenarios and predicting what the outcome would be. For example, one of the standards asks students to predict changes in an environment. This is a higher order thinking skill that relies on having prior experiences to draw from in order to make an assumption about the possibilities of what could happen. Although the specific standard asks students to assess animal overpopulation and humans building bridges, examining the impact that humans have on our own health is a more essential skill in my opinion. Especially in the time of Covid-19.

The target grade for this unit would be fifth grade, however the subject matter covered could potentially teach 6-12^th as well. In this unit the students will analyze how humans and disease are tied together. Students will complete several activities to advance their knowledge, including inferring the relationship between humans, frogs, fungi, and viruses, immersing themselves in a sort of role-play in which they analyze data from the SARS 2003 epidemic and SARS-CoV2 pandemic and the spread of chytrid fungus, and engage in scientific debate while making a prediction on a possible emerging pandemic with bananas. The student will be able to form opinions on the role of humans in the environment, provide examples of human impact on environment, and develop an argument analyzing the potential for a future outbreak. I will also keep Social Emotional Learning in mind during the lesson and also recognize that SARS-CoV2 could have potentially been traumatic in more ways than one. It’s important to focus on the facts and not opinions during the lesson.