1. Biodiversity and human impact
3rd grade amazing earth
Presentation should take about 15 minutes to allow ample time for the experiment.
Some information is noted as optional and helps as background info for potential questions or additional information to share as time allows.
Not everything needs to be reviewed so make it your own and have fun!
Just keep an eye on the clock as the kids love the hands-on activities.
Ask helpers to:
set up during the presentation.
familiarize themselves with the activity and its goal.
Ask students to sit on the carpet so the activity can be set up at their desks.
You may have to limit questions or the number of students who can answer a question if time runs short.
Have fun & thank you for making Amazing Earth possible!

2. What is biodiversity? Bio means life
Diversity means many different types
So bio-diversity means many different types of life
Biodiversity is important because the environment needs many different species to be healthy
ASK:
Who knows what Biodiversity means?
If no one guesses correctly, prompt them by breaking it down and asking: Who knows what diversity means or what the pre-fix bio means?
CLICK to reveal.
EXPLAIN by giving an example such as: Many people do not like snakes. But snakes eat rats. If we didn’t have snakes we’d have a terrible rat problem.
Biodiversity means maintaining the balance of nature so that no one species becomes too powerful and bad for the other species.

3. What impacts biodiversity?
Land Conversion
hunting
Pollution and oil spills
Plant, animal, or insect species can become endangered or even extinct if impacts are too much
Human activities are responsible for most of the loss of biodiversity throughout the world.

4. Land Conversion Converting forests to farm land
Converting wilderness to housing or urban use
Draining swamps to create farmland
Reforestation and wilderness conservation are used to balance human and animal land use
REVIEW slide
OPTIONAL:
Land conversion is the biggest threat to biodiversity.
Amazon Rainforest is being converted to farm land at a rate of millions of acres a year.
Suburban areas are growing out into wilderness areas.
Construction of road systems and highways can cause serious migratory obstacles for animals.

5. Hunting
Over-hunting game animals (like deer) or predators (like wolves)
Species Trading (like rhino horns)
Too much fishing in one place
Hunting and fishing are managed to try to keep a balance
REVIEW slide
OPTIONAL:
When humans over­hunt key predators such as lions, wolves and bears, they remove the very animals that keep plant consumers in balance and prevent overgrazing.
A healthy ecosystem has a balance of predators and prey that naturally cycle through life and death sequences.
Over­ hunting causes a species imbalance and environmental stress.
Species trade is a very big problem in many countries.
Plants and animals (some already endangered) are taken from their natural habitats and sold, traded or made into various products.
Products like gifts made of ivory from elephant tusks, coral, sea turtle shells and reptile skins or traditional Chinese medicines.
Commercial overfishing uses massive fishing nets that result in “bycatch”.
Unwanted fish are caught in nets and then thrown away (like sharks).
Also nets have heavy weights that drag across the bottom of the ocean destroying coral reefs.

6. Pollution and Oil spills
Impacts humans, wildlife, and plants
Happens on air, land, or water
can be very Difficult to clean up
Air pollution spreads quickly
Land pollution can require cleaning a lot of dirt!
Oil floats on water but is hard to scoop up

7. oil spills
oil crosses the ocean because drilling occurs there or it’s carried on shipping tankers…spills can happen
SOME SPILLS had millions of gallons of oil
It is harmful to fish, birds, and other animals
Cleanup can require thousands of workers, tons of equipment, and years of hard work – it’s a real mess!
OPTIONAL:
Human disasters affect biodiversity.
Humans use oil for transportation, making plastic, and many everyday products.

8. How do you clean an oil spill?
Use a floating boom to keep it from spreading
Scoop it back up by “skimming”
Use a “dispersant” to spread it more
Wait for ocean organisms to eat the oil (Natural breakdown)
Spread little organisms (Biological agents) to eat the oil
Use a chemical agent to make the oil clump or gel so it’s easier to skim
ASK: Does anyone know how you clean up an oil spill?
CLICK to reveal bullet points and pictures.
OPTIONAL:
Booms: These are used to make a barrier to prevent the oil from continuing to spread on the water’s surface.
Skimming: There are different methods but these scoop water up from the top of the surface.
Dispersants: Chemicals can be added that will cause the oil to spread into smaller size droplets – this helps speed up evaporation and bioremediation.
Biological agents: Some microbes are capable of breaking down oil by consuming (“eating”) it. Warm waters, like the Gulf of Mexico, are naturally full of these organisms already. Cold waters, like near Alaska and the Arctic, have very few so engineers might try to add them to a spill directly. This can be used in combination with a dispersing agent.
Natural breakdown: If a spill happens in a wide open area away from shores, it may be better to let it break down / evaporate naturally (see “biological agents”)
Polymers: Polymers are chemical compounds that can absorb oil and turn it into a gel. Many are still experimental and haven’t been used on a large scale.

9. Let’s try an experiment
Pretend You are a group of environmental engineers who have been asked to clean up an oil spill.
We will use different methods to contain and clean the spill.
Each group of engineers will have the same materials to build a boom and attempt to remove oil by skimming, absorbing, and dispersing.
Each group will also be able to try an experimental polymer to soak up the remaining oil.
REVIEW the experiment while the students are still seated at the carpet.

10. What is a hypothesis?
A hypothesis is a guess or prediction you make based on information you already know.
Scientists formulate a hypothesis before doing an experiment.
Once you come up with a hypothesis, you can perform your experiment to see if your hypothesis was correct.
As a group, formulate your hypothesis to the following question:
Will skimming, using the absorbing materials, or dispersing
be the best method for clean up?
REVIEW slide and then ask students to return to their seats to formulate their hypothesis.

11. CREATE OIL spill
Create your ocean by adding 3 drops of blue food coloring and stir.
Using a dropper, “spill” the cup of oil INto the center of the water surface. Record your observations.
Create a boom to contain the oil.
The presenter will walk the students through the experiment step by step.
Review the slides with the students for the general outline of steps.
Follow the Activity Instructions for detailed steps and discussion points.

12. Clean up methods
METHOD ONE SKIM: Using the plastic spoon, skim oil from the surface and transfer it to the cup.
METHOD TWO Absorb: ABSORB the oil using cotton balls and transfer it to the cup. You may have to squeeze the cotton ball.
METHOD THREE DISPERSE: Add a drop (or two/three) of dish soap to disperse the oil.
METHOD FOUR POLYMER: Add a spoonful of polymer to the oil on top.
The presenter will walk the students through the experiment step by step.
Review the slides with the students for the general outline of steps
Follow the Activity Instructions for detailed steps and discussion points.

13. Questions for discussion
In our experiment, What did the oil do when it was spilled? Does it float or sink? Does it stay in one place?
What worked best to remove the oil? Was your hypothesis correct?
Were you able to remove all of the oil that was spilled?
How can we manage human impact on biodiversity?
OPTIONAL:
What is a hypothesis?
What is Biodiversity?
Why is Biodiversity important?