Pika Models + Climate Change
Lesson Plans
Grades3-12Biology, Earth and Space Sciences
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Provided by Bay Area E-STEM Institute
What it is
- In this lesson, students will examine the Pacific Northwest where American pikas live, how they communicate, and how climate change impacts them.
- This resource includes one version of the lesson for grades 3-8 and one for high school students.
- Students will watch videos about the American pika, engage in an outdoor activity that reveals what it's like to be a pika, and create educational models about their ecological importance.
Teaching tips
Positives
- There are many hands-on activities and different visualizations for all kinds of learners.
- This lesson encourages students to think deeply about biodiversity.
Additional Prerequisites
- It may benefit students to know how to calculate a triangle's area.
- This lesson requires access to an outdoor space with plenty of room.
- The links to A Short Guide to Sierra Nevada Predators & Prey, the Field Journaling lesson plan, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Sagebrush Ecosystems diagram may not load.
Differentiation
- This lesson has extension resources that can enrich students' understanding of pikas.
- After learning that increasing temperatures due to increased carbon emissions are reducing the pika population, students can discuss which human activities are causing harm to ecosystems worldwide and solutions to decrease the human impact.
- Students can discuss the ecological importance of biodiversity and keystone species.
- This lesson can enhance a classroom discussion on other species threatened by climate change.
- Some students may benefit from guided notes while reading the fact sheet or watching the videos.
From the scientist review
This resource is from the CLEAN collection. “The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness.”
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