Pre-Blitz Teacher Discussion Guide

To Educators,

Thank you for joining EcoBlitz! We are delighted you are taking the opportunity to enhance your classroom learning experience through participating in this project with us.  We created this guide in the hopes that it facilitates thoughtful pre-blitz discussions, prepares your students for meaningful engagement with the EcoBlitz activities, and fosters a sense of curiosity about the interconnectedness of humans and our environment. We can’t wait to get outside with you and conduct some amazing interdisciplinary community science!

Sincerely, 

EcoBlitz Team

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BioBlitz 

Students prepare for the BioBlitz portion of the EcoBlitz by defining biodiversity and thinking about the characteristics of habitats that affect biodiversity. Students are asked to think about what makes organisms different from each other, the importance of interactions between major groups of living organisms and their local environment. Students are then asked to make predictions about the biodiversity they may observe during their local BioBlitz and to reflect on their interactions with biodiversity and what a biodiverse world means to them. 

*Listed below are some sample discussion questions. Please modify accordingly for the needs of your students.


I. Defining Key Terms


II. Thinking like a Biologist: What impacts biodiversity? 


III. Biodiversity activity 


IV. Predict


V. Reflect


National Geographic and iNaturalist have additional resources to help you and your students prepare for the BioBlitz portion of the EcoBlitz. Here are two that helped us produce this guide:


TrashBlitz

Students prepare for the TrashBlitz portion of the EcoBlitz by learning to think like an archaeologist and view trash as an artifact of human behavior. Students will examine the types of processes that affect trash after it’s been discarded, and reflect on their own waste production to make predictions about the trash assemblage they may observe during their local TrashBlitz. 

*Listed below are some sample discussion questions. Please modify accordingly for the needs of your students.


I. Defining Key Terms 


II. Thinking like an Archaeologist


III. Introduce Site Formation Processes


IV. Reflect


V. Predict