This biodiversity grade 6 lesson plan gives Ontario teachers a complete 60-minute classroom experience built around the Understanding Life Systems strand. Students explore local Canadian ecosystems, practise classifying species, and begin connecting biodiversity loss to real consequences. Everything is ready to use, adapt, or expand.

Lesson Overview: Biodiversity Grade 6

Grade: 6 | Subject: Science | Strand: Understanding Life Systems | Duration: 60 minutes | Curriculum Connection: Ontario Science and Technology, Grade 6 (2022) biodiversity expectations.

This biodiversity lesson introduces students to the variety of life in a local Canadian ecosystem. Using familiar species from Ontario’s forests, wetlands, and grasslands, students define biodiversity, sort organisms into classification groups, and examine what happens when species disappear from an ecosystem.

Learning Goal

Students will be able to define biodiversity, classify local Canadian species into major groups, and explain why biodiversity is essential to healthy ecosystems.

Success Criteria

  • I can define biodiversity in my own words and give two examples from a Canadian ecosystem.
  • I can sort a set of local species into classification groups (plants, mammals, birds, insects, fungi, etc.).
  • I can describe at least one way that losing a species affects other living things in an ecosystem.
  • I can use the word species diversity correctly when talking about what I observed.

Materials

  • Species card set (30 laminated cards showing Ontario species: beaver, monarch butterfly, white trillium, black bear, wood frog, chanterelle mushroom, etc.) printed or digital
  • Large sorting mats or table labels: Plants, Animals (Mammals/Birds/Reptiles/Amphibians/Fish/Insects), Fungi, Other
  • Mini whiteboards or scrap paper for brainstorming
  • Projector and short video clip (2-3 minutes) on a local Canadian ecosystem (NatureServeCanada.ca has freely available clips)
  • Anchor chart paper and markers
  • “Biodiversity Web” graphic organiser (one per student, see the printable in our teaching resources library)
  • Optional: field guides or iNaturalist Canada on tablets

Hook (5 minutes)

Display a photograph of two contrasting scenes side by side: a dense Ontario mixed forest teeming with visible wildlife, and a single-crop agricultural field with no visible animals. Ask students: “What do you notice? What do you wonder?” Give 60 seconds of think time, then take three or four responses.

Pose the driving question for the lesson: “Why does having MORE kinds of living things in one place actually matter?” Record student predictions on the anchor chart. Tell students they will come back to revisit these predictions at the end of the period.

Direct Instruction (10 minutes)

Introduce the term biodiversity explicitly. Write it on the anchor chart and say: “Biodiversity means the variety of all living things in a place, including every plant, animal, fungus, and micro-organism.” Connect it to prior knowledge by asking students to think about a garden versus a parking lot.

Walk through three levels of biodiversity briefly: species diversity (how many different species exist), genetic diversity (variation within a species), and ecosystem diversity (different habitat types). For Grade 6, keep the focus on species diversity. Show two minutes of video footage of a Canadian ecosystem, pausing to name species as they appear. This sets up the classification lesson that follows.

Guided Practice (15 minutes)

Place the species card sets on each table group (groups of four work well). Model the first sort together as a class: hold up the beaver card and think aloud. “A beaver is an animal, it feeds its young with milk, so it’s a mammal.” Students then sort all remaining cards on their sorting mats. Circulate, listen to reasoning, and prompt with questions: “What features did you use to put that one there?”

After sorting, ask each group to count their cards per category and report out. Build a quick class tally on the board. Use this to spark a brief discussion: which group has the most species represented? Least? This naturally leads into the idea that a healthy ecosystem needs representatives from many groups, reinforcing the ecosystem lesson grade 6 concept.

Independent Practice (15 minutes)

Students complete the “Biodiversity Web” graphic organiser individually. The organiser has a central circle labelled “Local Canadian Ecosystem” with six branches: the organism group, the role it plays (producer, consumer, decomposer), one species example, what it eats or what eats it, what would happen if it disappeared, and a sketch. Students choose two organisms from the card set to complete two web branches.

This task addresses the impact of biodiversity loss directly. It also develops scientific reasoning skills students will use across the Understanding Life Systems strand. Find more printable graphic organisers in our lesson plans and teaching lessons section.

Consolidation (10 minutes)

Return to the anchor chart predictions from the hook. Ask: “After this lesson, what would you change, add, or confirm about your prediction?” Take three or four student responses and annotate the chart together.

Close with an exit ticket (written on scrap paper or mini whiteboards): “In one sentence, tell me what biodiversity means AND give one reason it matters.” Collect these. They serve as formative assessment and inform tomorrow’s lesson.

Differentiation

Students Who Need More Support

Provide a pre-sorted sample showing two completed categories on the sorting mat before students begin. Offer a word wall card with key vocabulary (biodiversity, species, ecosystem, classify) and a simple visual beside each term. Pair these students with a peer during guided practice rather than working alone.

Students Ready for Extension

Challenge students to research one endangered Canadian species using Canada’s Species at Risk Public Registry and prepare a 60-second oral summary for the class explaining its role in its ecosystem. They can also attempt all six branches of the Biodiversity Web rather than two.

Multilingual Learners

Provide species cards with both the common name and a clear photograph. Allow students to label the sorting mat in their home language alongside English. Use iNaturalist Canada on a tablet so students can photograph classroom plants or look up species using images rather than text alone.

Assessment

This lesson uses two assessment tools. The exit ticket is assessment for learning: review responses before the next class to identify misconceptions about what biodiversity means versus what a single species is. The Biodiversity Web graphic organiser is assessment as learning: students self-monitor their own understanding as they fill it in.

For assessment of learning, use the Web organiser as a marked task if desired, scored against the success criteria above. A simple four-point scale tied to the “I can” statements works well. Our 5-point rating scale tool can help you build a quick rubric in minutes.

Follow-up Lessons

  • Lesson 2: Conduct a schoolyard biodiversity survey using iNaturalist Canada; students record and photograph species in a designated outdoor area.
  • Lesson 3: Introduce food webs and examine how removing one species cascades through the system, deepening the ecosystem lesson grade 6 sequence.
  • Lesson 4: Explore human impacts on biodiversity in Canada, referencing habitat loss, invasive species (e.g., emerald ash borer in Ontario), and conservation efforts.
  • Lesson 5: Students design a habitat restoration plan for a degraded local area, applying everything learned in the unit.

Browse the subject-specific links directory for curated Canadian science resources that support each of these follow-up lessons. You can also filter by province in the province links directory to find ministry-aligned supports for your specific region.

Have questions about running this lesson or want to share how it went in your classroom? Join the conversation at the Canadian Teacher Community Forum.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is biodiversity in Grade 6?

In Grade 6 science, biodiversity refers to the variety of all living things found in a specific area or ecosystem. Ontario’s Grade 6 Understanding Life Systems strand asks students to identify, classify, and evaluate the importance of biodiversity at the local, national, and global level. The emphasis is on species diversity: how many different kinds of organisms share a habitat and how they depend on each other.

How do you teach biodiversity?

The most effective biodiversity lesson approaches start with something familiar and local. Show students Canadian species from their own province, have them sort and classify, then connect the dots between species variety and ecosystem health. Hands-on activities like species card sorts, schoolyard surveys, and graphic organisers keep Grade 6 students engaged and build scientific vocabulary naturally alongside conceptual understanding.

What is a Grade 6 biodiversity lesson?

A Grade 6 biodiversity lesson is a structured classroom activity that meets the Understanding Life Systems expectations in the Ontario (or equivalent provincial) science curriculum. It typically covers defining biodiversity, classifying local species, examining food-web relationships, and exploring the consequences of biodiversity loss. This lesson plan covers all of those outcomes in a single 60-minute block, with extension ideas for a full multi-lesson unit.

Why is biodiversity important?

Biodiversity keeps ecosystems stable and resilient. When many different species fill different roles, such as pollinators, decomposers, and predators, the ecosystem can absorb disturbances like drought or disease without collapsing. For Canadians, healthy biodiversity supports clean water, food security, medicine, and climate regulation. Losing species narrows these systems until they become fragile and difficult to restore.