Year 9 · Science · beta

Climate change and biodiversity

In this unit pupils learn about the impact of agriculture and deforestation on biodiversity, and to more thoroughly consider the effects of climate change on biodiversity and food production.

This is an attributed Oak National Academy lesson sequence, not a completed or academically approved DASKEREL course. Supporting transcripts may depend on video, images, practical equipment or teacher explanation. Follow each lesson’s supervision guidance. For religious education and RSHE, follow the school’s syllabus, policy and safeguarding procedures.

Prior knowledge

  • Increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is leading to global warming and climate change.
  • Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, released by living organisms and produced when burning fuels.
  • Methane is a greenhouse gas, released by living organisms and from the ground.
  • Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
  • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions can reduce the rate of global warming and may even help to reverse it.
  • Since the industrial revolution, in the 1850s, overall global surface temperatures have been increasing.
  • Scientists can explain how increased levels of greenhouse gases contribute to global warming.
  • Burning fuels produces greenhouse gases, other pollutant gases, and particulates.
  • Greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by using less energy and switching to renewable energy sources.
  • Renewable energy resources will not run out because they are replenished more quickly than we use them up.

Source curriculum references

  • The interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, including food webs and insect pollinated crops
  • Changes in the environment which may leave individuals within a species, and some entire species, less well adapted to compete successfully and reproduce, which in turn may lead to extinction
  • The importance of maintaining biodiversity and the use of gene banks to preserve hereditary material
  • Earth as a source of limited resources and the efficacy of recycling
  • The composition of the atmosphere
  • The production of carbon dioxide by human activity and the impact on climate

Oak source metadata. DASKEREL has not independently verified school-level coverage.

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