BioKIDS is a companion site to the ADW, written for upper elementary and middle school children. We created the website and accompanying biodiversity curriculum (also called BioKIDS) in partnership with the Center for Essential Science at the University of Michigan School of Education. The Critter Catalog is one of the technology components of the curriculum. It comprises species accounts for many North American species, adapted for a middle school reading level. The BioKIDS app for iOS devices guides students through the process of conducting a schoolyard biodiversity survey, to gather data for curricular activities. It is available on the iTunes app store, and has been used successfully for many years in schools with classroom sets of iPod Touches.
More recently, we again collaborated with the Center for Essential Science to develop an 8 to 12 week online curriculum that focuses on climate change and its impacts on ecosystems. This is aimed at middle and high school students and aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The online interface SPECIES (Students Predicting the Effects of Climate In Ecological Systems) empowers students to explore climate and ecosystem models. The innovative curriculum fuses core science ideas with science practices in several important topic areas, including weather and climate, the greenhouse effect, and the carbon cycle (example lessons).
Teachers across the country have created activities that use the Animal Diversity Web in their classrooms. Here are 3:
Have you used the Animal Diversity Web in your course? Please let us know what you and your students thought by filling in this form. If you have developed exercises using ADW, please send us a copy and we'll make them available from the site.