Biodiversity - stretch and challenge activity
The proposed wall between the US/Mexico border has implications for wildlife.
Students could research the habitat and the types of species that exist along the border.
Ask students to think, pair,
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Biodiversity - stretch and challenge activity
The proposed wall between the US/Mexico border has implications for wildlife.
Students could research the habitat and the types of species that exist along the border.
Ask students to think, pair, share what these might be e.g. populations divided, food and water sources reduced, less mates available for reproduction, reduced gene pool, population decline, reduced biodiversity etc.
Watch the BBC video clip 'Divided desert', about the endangered pronghorn might be affected.
Natural selection - stretch and challenge activity
Link the wall to the idea of geographical isolation leading to speciation by asking students to predict what may happen, over a long period of time, if the pronghorn population gets subdivided and isolated into two smaller groups.
To aid their thinking give students prompt cards to help with terms such as - variation, mutation, natural slection, favourable alleles, offspring etc.
Ask what might happen if conditions on one side changed e.g. the main food available on one side of the wall was different to the other - e.g. ground plants or bushes. Ask what would happen to the two populations if the conditions on both sides of the wall stayed much the same.