Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification Reading Comprehension This science reading comprehension article explains the concerning process of bioaccumulation, where chemicals accumulate in organisms, and biomagnification, which concentrates those chemicals up the food chain. Suitable for grades 8 and up, this resource tackles literacy and environmental science by having students read an article on these topics and answer knowledge, thinking, connecting, application, and open-ended questions. Fully editable and great for distance learning, this engaging 50-75 minute reading activity with answer key can introduce a lesson, provide an extension for gifted students, leave quality substitute plans to keep students on task, and measure literacy skills. Aligned to NGSS, TEKS, and Common Core, this is an effective tool to build scientific literacy without preparation time.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Define bioaccumulation and biomagnification and explain the difference between them.
Calculate a chemical's concentration at a given food-chain level using the article's roughly tenfold-increase pattern.
Use the DDT case study to explain how a chemical's effect on one population can disrupt an entire ecosystem.
Diagram the pathway pollutants take from the environment into an organism and up the food chain.

Teaching tips

Have students attempt the concentration-calculation question (question 7) before checking the answer key, since it requires applying the tenfold-increase concept rather than just recalling a definition.
Assign extension question 11 as a short written response, since the answer key expects at least three sentences connecting DDT's effect on birds to the wider ecosystem.
Use the editable Word file to adjust question wording or add a local-ecosystem example, since the article ships in both .docx and PDF.

Skills covered

Scientific vocabulary application — students define and use bioaccumulation and biomagnification correctly after reading the article.
Quantitative reasoning — question 7 asks students to calculate a concentration increase across three food-chain levels using a tenfold multiplier.
Cause-and-effect ecosystem reasoning — the DDT case study and extension question 11 ask students to trace how one chemical's effect on one species disrupted an entire ecosystem.
Scientific diagramming — extension question 10 asks students to create a labeled diagram showing how bioaccumulation and biomagnification work.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

Does the article include a real-world example, or just the general process?

Both — after explaining the general process, a dedicated case study applies it to DDT, the pesticide banned in 1972 after it caused predatory-bird eggshells to thin and populations to collapse.

Is any question quantitative rather than pure recall?

Yes — question 7 asks students to calculate the concentration of a chemical after three levels of a food chain using the tenfold-increase pattern described in the article.

No reviews yet

Downloaded this resource? Tell other teachers how it went.

Curriculum

Standards, concepts & topics

Standards

CCSS.RI.8.1 — Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.RI.8.3 — Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).

Core concepts

bioaccumulation
biomagnification
food chain concentration
DDT case study

Topics

ecosystems reading comprehension science pollution

Explore more

Categories this resource belongs to

Biology Worksheets Science Worksheets 12Th Grade Worksheets High School Worksheets 10th Grade Worksheets 9th Grade Worksheets

Explore related searches

More to explore

Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification - Science Reading Article - Grade 8 and…

What's inside this resource