Indiana Science HS-ENV4-1

ScienceGrades 9–12Environmental Science

The Standard

Use a model or simulation to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.

Indiana Academic Standards for Science (2023) · Biodiversity

Teacher's field guide

What This Standard Means

What Students Need to Do: Students use a model to test how runoff, habitat loss, or another change affects an ecosystem. They count species and individuals, compare a small site with a larger area, and revise their explanation using the results.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can use model counts to explain changes in both species diversity and population size. They can explain why a species might disappear from one pond but remain in the wider watershed.
Common Misconceptions: Students may count individuals instead of species, so 30 fish can seem more diverse than three kinds of organisms. They may also mistake a local disappearance for extinction everywhere.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: A pond model drops from 4 to 2 species and from 20 to 8 fish after runoff. A watershed model drops from 9 to 8 species. Use these results to revise the claim, “Runoff affects biodiversity equally at both scales.”

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

Build 10-cell pond and 50-cell watershed grids with colored species tokens; remove runoff-hit cells, then count individuals and species.
Ask, “If fish disappear from the pond grid but remain in the watershed grid, are they extinct? Which counts support your answer?”
Draw runoff, drought, and invasive-species cards; change both grid models, record counts, and revise predictions after each round.
Use a campus map to compare the school garden with the whole campus; shade paved areas and model where insect populations could persist.

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