Abstract:
Incorporating geographic concepts into biology was accomplished
through a biodiversity investigation project in Colorado. The project
brought together scientists and educators from the US Geological Survey,
the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the Colorado Natural Heritage Program,
the University of Colorado, the University of Northern Colorado, and
K-12 schools across Colorado's Front Range. Participants in the project
created lessons, new maps, and new digital spatial data, which were
used to conduct training sessions over a two year period for hundreds
of teachers statewide. The project provides a model of collaboration
across multiple organizations to improve inquiry-based, hands-on, interdisciplinary
teaching and learning about the interaction among urban growth, climate,
vegetation, transportation, rivers, wetlands, landforms, watersheds,
and biodiversity of plants and animals.
Introduction
Through a grant from the
National Geographic Society,
geography and technology has been effectively spread into science curricula
through a project entitled "Exploring Biodiversity Along the Front
Range of Colorado."
This project was innovative
in four areas. First, it brought together federal, state, university,
and K-12 researchers and educators to produce educational lessons based
on biodiversity. Second, it brought concepts of biodiversity conservation
to Colorado high school students, while simultaneously satisfying important
state geography standards and providing a model for similar instructional
activities in other regions. Third, it incorporated GIS technology and
methods into some of the lessons, and resulted in the production of
new spatial data and a new series of maps. Fourth, teachers and students
began to use geographic concepts in their biology and other science
courses.
Biodiversity is the variation
among life and its processes at all levels from genes and individual
organisms, through species and ecosystems, to landscapes, regions, and
continents. Global species biodiversity is now being lost at a rate
similar to that of the mass extinction of the geological past, even
though the goods and services that flow from biodiversity in the USA
alone are worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Because many
concepts pertinent to biodiversity conservation have spatial aspects,
geography proved to be an excellent means of introducing students to
biodiversity.
A group of a dozen teachers
created the lessons. In a series of three workshops, they trained other
teachers to incorporate the lessons into the curricula throughout the
state.
The US
Geological Survey, the University
of Northern Colorado, the University
of Colorado, the Colorado
Natural Heritage Program, the Colorado
Division of Wildlife, and dozens of school districts partnered to
make this project a success.
