This activity enables students to understand the importance of ecological services the natural environment provides and the need to preserve it.

Introduction

This activity is suitable for children of ages 14 - 16 years old.

A wide range of ecological goods and services are provided by the steppe ecosystems. These include:

• clean water
• soil erosion control
• fresh air
• grazing land
• biodiversity
• provision of sinks for wastes and residues

Although goods and services have no market price, they have economic benefits which can be quantified by looking at the costs of replacing them with artificial alternatives, representing expenditures saved by their existence, which can be used as estimates of their economic value.

Objective

• To be familiar with the term ecological services.
• To name/identify essential ecological services on the steppe.
• To identify natural/physical resources providing ecological services.
• To explore advantages and disadvantages of the impacts our actions have on our natural resources.

Group Activity

1. What are ecological services? Name some ecological services provided by the natural environment on the steppe.

• Discuss how these ecological services benefit you.
• Discuss how excess use of natural resources can eventually cause the loss of biodiversity in our environment and the failure to provide related ecological services.

2. Visit places where there are natural resources providing ecological services (eg the marsh/wetland area on the steppe).

• Discuss the ecological services that this natural resource is providing us free of charge.
• Discuss what would happen if we damaged the natural resource so much that it could no longer provide that ecological service.

3. Write stories, poems or role-plays to make other children in the school aware about our natural resources and the ecological services they provide us free of charge.

4. What can you do to help protect our natural resources?

• Design word searches, word scrambles or jumble names using the natural resources and ecological services.
• Use songs to understand the concept of natural resources through questions and identifying the natural resources listed in the songs.
• Make a poster illustrating good practices to sustain our needs from natural resources.