HS-LS4-6
The standard
Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity.
Next Generation Science Standards
What this standard means
Students need to build or improve a model that tests whether a human action could reduce harm to biodiversity. They should define the problem, choose variables, set limits, run trials, and use results to compare solutions. The simulation can be digital, physical, or paper based, but it must connect human activity to species survival or genetic variation.
Mastery looks like a student explaining why the model works, what the data shows, and what changes would make the solution stronger. Students often get stuck making a poster instead of a testable model, or they change too many variables at once.
Ways to teach it
- Use beans, cups, and habitat cards to model how wildlife corridors affect survival after habitat fragmentation.
- Ask students to write which variable their simulation changes and what outcome would show the solution is working.
- Give students a flawed simulation setup and have them identify one missing control, one variable, and one improvement.
- Connect to local roadkill data by testing how underpasses, fencing, or speed limits might change animal survival in a simple model.
Plan a lesson for HS-LS4-6
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Related standards
- HS-ESS3-3
Create a computational simulation to illustrate the relationships among management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, and biodiversi...
- HS-ETS1-4
Use a computer simulation to model the impact of proposed solutions to a complex real-world problem with numerous criteria and constraints on interactions withi...
- HS-LS2-7
Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
- 4-ESS3-2
Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.