MS-LS2-5 lessons
Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services. (One coastal case, scored against criteria students weigh themselves.)
The Next Generation Science Standards code MS-LS2-5 asks students to: “Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services. (One coastal case, scored against criteria students weigh themselves.)” These Fieldbook lesson teaches it hands-on, with everyday materials, a printable teacher guide and a student sheet.
Ecosystems and Biomes: Who Depends on Whom Grades 6–8 · partly supports this standard
- How can we protect an ecosystem's services? 55–60 min
Teams weigh the real, still-debated evidence from Yellowstone's wolves to see how one change spreads through an ecosystem. Then they act as a town's planning team and score three ways to protect a flooding coast, a sea wall, a restored salt marsh and a mix of both, for protection, cost and the services nature gives for free.
NGSS is used as written in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming, so the code MS-LS2-5 matches there. Other states word and number their own versions: see curriculum alignment for your state's codes.
More NGSS standards for middle school
All standards we teach · Curriculum alignment by state and province
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