How Nature Works in Coastal Peru: Amazing Biodiversity

Lesson Plans

Grades3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8Biology, Geography

Scientist Reviewed

Provided by The Nature Conservancy

Open Resource

What it is

In this virtual field trip from Nature Lab by The Nature Conservancy, students will see different parts of Peru and learn about the ecosystems, the animals that live there, the biodivsersity hotspots, and how to protect marine life.
Students will hear from a fisheries specialist, participate in a video scavenger hunt, and work to acquire new vocabulary.
This resource connects with climate change topics and solutions such as changing ocean conditions, biodiversity and ecosystem services, and environmental conservation.

Teaching tips

Positives

The resource includes various resources that keep students engaged in the virtual field trip.
Students will love seeing other kids contribute to the video by sharing facts they have learned in their research.

Prerequisites

Teachers will need to access the virtual field trip using this link. If teachers don't have access to YouTube, they can use this link and scroll to the video titled Peru: A Coastal Ecosystem.
It may benefit students to understand the basics of ecosystems.

Differentiation & Implementation

Teachers can use the vocabulary graphic organizer in future vocabulary activities, as students will be familiar with using it after this lesson.
On the back of the vocabulary graphic organizer, students can draw images that help them remember what the word means.
The beginning of the video has many text boxes on the screen, so teachers may want to pause the video and read the text out loud.
Teachers can isolate segments of the video to extend various topics of discussion in the classroom, such as historical art, balance in an ecosystem, sustainable fishing, El Niño, and our responsibility to protect the ocean no matter where we live.

From the scientist review

Students can use this virtual trip guide to learn about wildlife in Peru. For example, they can learn about El Nino and the Humboldt Current, which is important for keeping Peru's ocean ecosystem healthy. This resource is well-sourced and is recommended for teaching.

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At a glance

Grades: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Subjects: Biology, Geography
Other types: Videos, Activity - Classroom, Worksheets
Format: PDF, YouTube Video
Language: English
Location: South America
Provider: The Nature Conservancy
Authors: Nature Lab by The Nature Conservancy
Published: June 14, 2025
Last updated: July 16, 2026
: Reviewed by our climate scientists How we review

Standards alignment · D2.Geo.8.6-8 + 26 more

Core

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards

D2.Geo.8.6-8Analyze how relationships between humans and environments extend or contract spatial patterns of settlement and movement.
D2.Geo.11.3-5Describe how the spatial patterns of economic activities in a place change over time because of interactions with nearby and distant places.
D2.Geo.4.3-5Explain how culture influences the way people modify and adapt to their environments.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

MS-ESS3-4.Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
3-LS2-C.When the environment changes in ways that affect a place’s physical characteristics, temperature, or availability of resources, some organisms survive and reproduce, others move to new locations, yet others move into the transformed environment, and some die. (secondary to 3-LS4-4)
3-LS4-C.For any particular environment, some kinds of organisms survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. (3-LS4-3)
3-LS4-D.Populations live in a variety of habitats, and change in those habitats affects the organisms living there. (3-LS4-4)
3-ESS3-B.A variety of natural hazards result from natural processes. Humans cannot eliminate natural hazards but can take steps to reduce their impacts. (3-ESS3-1) (Note: This Disciplinary Core Idea is also addressed by 4-ESSS3-2.)
4-ESS2-E.Living things affect the physical characteristics of their regions. (4-ESS2-1)
5-LS1-C.1.Food provides animals with the materials they need for body repair and growth and the energy they need to maintain body warmth and for motion. (secondary to 5-PS3-1)
5-ESS2-A.Earth’s major systems are the geosphere (solid and molten rock, soil, and sediments), the hydrosphere (water and ice), the atmosphere (air), and the biosphere (living things, including humans). These systems interact in multiple ways to affect Earth’s surface materials and processes. The ocean supports a variety of ecosystems and organisms, shapes landforms, and influences climate. Winds and clouds in the atmosphere interact with the landforms to determine patterns of weather. (5-ESS2-1)
5-ESS3-C.Human activities in agriculture, industry, and everyday life have had major effects on the land, vegetation, streams, ocean, air, and even outer space. But individuals and communities are doing things to help protect Earth’s resources and environments. (5-ESS3-1)
MS-LS2-A.2.In any ecosystem, organisms and populations with similar requirements for food, water, oxygen, or other resources may compete with each other for limited resources, access to which consequently constrains their growth and reproduction. (MS-LS2-1)
MS-LS2-B.Food webs are models that demonstrate how matter and energy is transferred between producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem. Transfers of matter into and out of the physical environment occur at every level. Decomposers recycle nutrients from dead plant or animal matter back to the soil in terrestrial environments or to the water in aquatic environments. The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem. (MS-LS2-3)
MS-LS2-C.1.Ecosystems are dynamic in nature; their characteristics can vary over time. Disruptions to any physical or biological component of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations. (MS-LS2-4)
MS-ESS3-A.Humans depend on Earth’s land, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere for many different resources. Minerals, fresh water, and biosphere resources are limited, and many are not renewable or replaceable over human lifetimes. These resources are distributed unevenly around the planet as a result of past geologic processes. (MS-ESS3-1)

New Jersey Climate Education Hub

English Language Arts

SL.II.5.2Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, (e.g., visually, quantitatively, and orally).
L.VL.8.3Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, including technical meanings, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

Science

3-LS1-1.Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
3-LS2-1.Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
3-LS4-3.Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
3-LS4-4.Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
5-ESS2-1.Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
5-ESS3-1.Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
MS-LS2-1.Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-2.Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
MS-ESS2-5.Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses result in changes in weather conditions.

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