What Is Biodiversity? Analyzing Data to Compare and Conserve Spider Communities

In this exercise, students will classify and analyze data on spider communities to explore the concept of biological diversity and experience its application to decision-making in biological conservation. This exercise was adapted to further develop data analysis skills. Specifically, this exercise asks students to 1) create an appropriate and informative graph, 2) interpret trends and patterns in the graph, 3) understand and correctly solve equations, and 4) make well-reasoned conclusions from data.