“Is this the biggest tree in the park. . . the forest. . . or the whole world?
We may hear kids being impressed by trees, plants and animals and that is great. But we can also support kids to notice and be impressed by the variety of different types of trees, plants, and animals that live in your garden, or local park.
What is biodiversity and why do we need it?
Biodiversity is the variety of life in an area or ecosystem and a great outdoor science activity to do with kids is to explore more in-depth the ecosystem in your garden, schoolyard or local park. Trees, shrubs and plants will be growing in the area and insects, birds and perhaps small animals will visit the area.
Biodiversity changes with the season in an area. Where we live there are fewer flowers and birds in the garden during the winter months. In the spring and summer months, the garden is bursting with flowers that attract a huge variety of insects.
Spend some time together and enjoy counting the types of plants, animals and fungi that you can see. Also, count the number of each species. Wait a couple of weeks and then make count the number of species and the number of each species. You can calculate the biodiversity index by dividing the number of species by the number of each species. It is fascinating to see how the index might change depending on the season and also on where you are making the count.
Here is a great book about biodiversity.
In the video below David Attenborough talks about why we need nature and what we can do to conserve biodiversity.
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Biomimicry for Young Children 