Biodiversity roles in Alberta ecosystems become concrete for Grade 6 Science students through a learning stations activity built around ecosystem stories. Students examine how organisms contribute to healthy ecosystems and consider what can happen when one species or ecological role changes.

Explore Interdependence Through Ecosystem Stories

This resource focuses on the relationships that connect organisms, habitats, food webs, and ecosystem processes. As students rotate through the station cards, they identify ecological roles, explain interactions among species, and trace how a change in one part of an ecosystem can affect other parts.

The station format gives students a structured way to compare examples while recording their thinking independently. A station recording sheet keeps observations organized, while the wrap-up supports comparison across the ecosystem stories after the rotation is complete.

What Students Practice

• Identifying roles organisms play in maintaining healthy ecosystems
• Explaining how interactions among species affect habitats
• Connecting species interactions to food webs and ecosystem processes
• Comparing the wider effects of changes to a species or ecological role

What You Receive

• Station cards for the Alberta ecosystem stories
• Student station recording sheet
• Station wrap-up activity
• Teacher guide included in the Answer Key PDF
• Learning objectives, teaching tips, discussion questions, and common mistakes in the teacher guide

Designed for Classroom Discussion and Comparison

Use the activity as a Grade 6 biodiversity learning stations lesson when students are studying trees, forests, organism roles, and ecosystem interdependence. Small groups can rotate through the ecosystem cases, record key information, and then bring their observations together for a whole-class comparison.

The teacher guide supports instruction before, during, and after the rotations. Teaching tips can help frame the activity, discussion questions provide prompts for class conversation, and the common-mistakes section can help teachers address misunderstandings about how species and ecological roles influence an ecosystem.

Rather than treating biodiversity as a list of organisms, this Alberta Science activity asks students to focus on what organisms do within ecosystems and how those roles connect. That emphasis makes the resource useful for developing explanations about ecosystem relationships, food-web effects, and the consequences of ecological change.