Animal Adaptations and Climate Change
A lesson plan for high school teachers
By Kirsten Bartlett I
NSPIRING LEARNERS TO FIND the connection between daily classroom activities and real-world events is a monumental undertaking. One of today’s most press-
ing real-world problems is climate change, which is one of the largest threats to global ecosystems,1-2
partly due to its impact
on natural selection. Given its severity and the fact that it is occurring at an alarming rate,3
climate change education is
necessary at the high school level, and teachers are encour- aged to include it in their curricula. For US-based teachers, this has become widespread due, in part, to the large-scale adoption of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)4 to help foster future generations of scientifically literate individuals.5 A common way to connect learners to real-world phe-
nomena is through Problem Based Learning (PBL). PBL is categorized as constructivism teaching philosophy, and all learning activities or tasks must be authentically designed, anchored to a larger real-world problem (phenomenon), and supportive of learners by encouraging reflective thinking and enabling them to develop ownership of the problem.6
The
driver of PBL is the asking and investigating of real-world questions, a concept which dates back to John Dewey,7
who
promoted teaching about topics relevant to students’ lives.8 The following set of lessons supports the constructivism teaching philosophy, PBL learning, and NGSS through a kin-
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esthetic activity that connects classroom activities to relevant issues facing global ecosystems. Its overall goal is to increase students’ scientific literacy, specifically their understanding of microevolution, natural selection, and how climate change impacts animal adaptations globally.
Guiding scientific concepts Climate change can affect biotic and abiotic factors within ecosystems and can therefore create a chain reaction among all of the plants and animals within them, eventually affecting humans. Animals are indicators of ecosystem health due to biological changes,10 ing habitats11
and animals will need to adapt to chang-
dicted rise in global temperatures. Teaching about animals in the classroom promotes empathy in students,12 ple view animals as companions.13
via natural selection in order to survive the pre- as some peo-
Animals also play a signif- icant beneficial role in people’s psychosocial lives.13
Summary of lessons Students implement data analysis skills to evaluate various bird beaks’ adaptations to a variety of food sources. As climate change causes an increase in the magnitude and frequency of natural disasters, food resources that were once plentiful in an environment may become scarce or eventually eliminated. Students thus recognize that beaks which were previously well-adapted to a specific food source may no longer be “fit” for the remaining food sources due
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Photos by Kirsten Bartlett
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