Bring Biodiversity to Your Classroom with Utah's Great Salt Lake

By Ximena Marquez

Biodiversity: It’s the incredible mix of plants, wildlife and ecosystems that fills us with wonder, helps grow the food we eat, combats climate change and underpins our global economy. But right now, we are witnessing an unprecedented crisis: Habitats are vanishing, and up to a million species face extinction, threatening the lives and livelihoods of the billions of people who depend on them. That’s why in late October, governments, Indigenous leaders, the business community and other stakeholders from around the world will meet at COP16: the United Nations Biodiversity Conference. The two-week session will focus on the challenges facing the species and habitats that provide so much to people and to nature, as well as how to create solutions for the future.  

It’s also a timely opportunity to teach students about the multitude of plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms that have evolved over billions of years, and how their interactions power all life on Earth. The Nature Lab resources listed below use Utah’s Great Salt Lake, an extreme ecosystem that’s saltier than the ocean, as a springboard to show how different habitats and species rely on each other to survive. They also introduce the environmental threats facing the Great Salt Lake—and nature at large—and help students connect them to the issues facing biodiversity across the planet. 

Take a Virtual Field Trip

In nature's most extreme places, wild and wonderful species thrive. This virtual field trip available on Share My Lesson transports students to the Great Salt Lake to see how habitat conditions influence the biodiversity found there, from the tiniest brine shrimp to thousands of migratory birds. Students will learn why the Great Salt Lake is in danger, and how they can help protect it no matter where they live.