What Lives Where & Why? Understanding Biodiversity through Geospatial Exploration

Using an interactive map-based PDF, students learn key concepts related to biodiversity while developing data-analysis and critical-thinking skills. The Bird Island lesson provides students with experience in translating geospatial data into bar graphs, then interpreting these graphs to compare biod...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American Biology Teacher
Main Authors: Nancy M. Trautmann, James G. Makinster, Michael Batek
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: National Association of Biology Teachers 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2013.75.7.4
Description
Summary:Using an interactive map-based PDF, students learn key concepts related to biodiversity while developing data-analysis and critical-thinking skills. The Bird Island lesson provides students with experience in translating geospatial data into bar graphs, then interpreting these graphs to compare biodiversity across ecoregions on a fictional island. When the lesson is extended to include real data for Puerto Rico, students can explore distributions of selected bird species based on environmental attributes, making connections between each species' adaptations, habitat requirements, and distribution across the island. This introductory lesson provides a jumping-off point for field and Web-based biodiversity investigations.