Biodiversity Box - Activity Instructions

Do you know what biodiversity is? Your challenge is to create a collection of objects that represent biodiversity and think carefully about why you chose them.

Safety advice: When you are exploring nature, look with your eyes before your hands, in case there are hidden prickles or insects.

Part A: Biodiversity Object Or Image

Step 1.

Begin by thinking about the following question and talk about your answers with the people around you:

What do you already know about ‘biodiversity’?

Suggested definition for biodiversity: Biodiversity is short for biological diversity. Biodiversity refers to all the millions of different species that live on our planet, and to the different ecosystems in which species live, interacting with one another and the air, water and soil.

Your parent/caregiver will now show you an image or object that they think is connected to biodiversity. Spend some time investigating this image or object together and talking about your ideas. The following questions might help you:

What is the first thing that comes to mind when looking at this object or image?
What else do you notice or what else comes to mind?
What more can you tell us about your observations?
What puzzles you about this object or image? What questions do you have?

Part B: Biodiversity Box

Step 1.

You’re now going to create your own curiosity box around biodiversity. This means finding a box (cardboard box is fine) and collecting objects and images to go into the box that you feel relate to biodiversity.

You could collect objects from both inside or outside. At this stage you don’t need to explain why you have chosen certain items to be added to the box - this can come later.

Step 2.

Once you have found a range of objects and images, you can begin talking about what’s in your box.

In addition to describing each object or image that you found, try to answer the following questions:

Why did you add this object or image to the box? How do you think it relates to biodiversity?
What connections can you find between this object/image and other objects/images in the box?
What questions do you have about this object/image?

Use the suggestions in the table below to guide your discussions:

Taking It Further

Take a look back at any questions you thought up about any of the objects or images in your biodiversity box. You can use these questions to guide an investigation. This could be done by conducting research in books or on the internet, by phoning a friend or by writing a letter to an expert. You could then create a poster that describes your question and answer.

You could repeat this activity around other topics, such as energy, waste, health, oceans, etc.

Biodiversity Box (home learning)

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