SEC: SEC 2 Biology students

Secondary 2 Biology students

In the last two weeks, biology students have presented their research on human interactions and impact on the environment. Students have talked about a wide array of topics including building greenways in Paris to cultivating urban forests in Singapore to clearing the skies of Linfen, China, once known as one of the most polluted cities on the Earth. Topics also included the impact of urban nighttime lights on migratory birds along the Mississippi flyway in the central US and of resort lights on the beaches of Florida on the nesting of loggerhead turtles and the nighttime navigation of their young towards the ocean. Students were able to draw on previous units to explain top-down control of an ecosystem by sharks and the role of grazing sheep in promoting meadow wildflower diversity. Students also shared their research on the sometimes intentional and disastrous introduction of invasive species such as the Burmese python in the Everglades of Florida, the cane toad to Australia, and the small Indian mongoose to tropical islands around the world and how these animals disrupted the native ecosystems. In their research, they focused on identifying possible solutions and challenges to problems created by humans in a complex, interconnected world.