Biodiversity Shock Simulator

What you will learn

• Definition of Biodiversity: The variety of different species of organisms in a given ecosystem.
• Difference between high and low biodiversity: High biodiversity has many different species and complex feeding relationships, while low biodiversity relies on few species.
• Ecosystem Stability: How alternative feeding links prevent secondary extinction cascades, making the ecosystem resilient when one species is lost.

How to use it in a lesson

1. Enable Predict First mode in the header to check student understanding before triggering a change.
2. Click a disturbance button (e.g. Grass Disease) to run the step-by-step cascade animation.
3. Observe the impact: watch how energy flow links turn off and species fade to gray as their food sources vanish.
4. Compare the final statistics: note the stability status and affected species ratios between the two food webs.
5. Click Reveal Explanation to present core curriculum review questions and key science concepts to the class.

Whiteboard Features

This applet is designed specifically for classroom projection and interactive whiteboards. It features large text, high contrast nodes, and a sliding drawer on the right side containing suggested scripts and questions for teachers during a 20-minute interview lesson.