Illustrating Biodiversity: An Arts and Science Lesson Plan for Third Graders

In the spring of 2025 I had the privilege of serving as the Artist in Residence at Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary through the Arts Are Elementary program. In the interest of teaching more kids about science, art, and the beauty of biodiversity, I'm freely sharing the materials I developed to teach this program.

The students I taught just blew me away with their creativity and enthusiasm. One of my favorite moments was handing a student a sheet of reference photos and hearing him yell, "LET’S GOOOOOO!" Now that’s the energy I want to bring to my work every day.

I hope that sharing this curricula helps get more students excited about art and nature! If you use these materials with students in the classroom, please share how it went in the comments!

Illustrating a Rainbow of Biodiversity

• Target Age: Third Grade (but adaptable for grades 2–5)

• Material list: pencils, erasers, watercolor paper, watercolor pencils, brushes, black brush pens

• Slideshow: linked here and includes step-by-step examples for how to draw animals, as well as final student art projects!

Introduction: What Is Biodiversity?

We began by learning about biodiversity—a big word with a simple, beautiful meaning. In nature, biodiversity means having lots of different animals, plants, and insects living together in one place, like a pond, forest, or meadow. All of these living things are connected and help each other survive.

For this project, we’ll learn about all the colorful different plants and animals that live in the ponds and lakes of Maine (but of course, feel free to adapt it to your own ecosystem!) and create colorful scientific illustrations. At the end, these illustrations can all be displayed together in a rainbow-colored web of life.

Project Overview

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Day 1: Sketching Our Species

Each student received a freshwater species to illustrate, covering every color of the rainbow. Here are some of the colorful species I included:

1. Beaver

2. Loon

3. Arctic Char

4. Alewife

5. Azure Bluet damselfly

6. Wood duck

7. Blueberry

8. Water lily

9. Purple pitcher plant

10. Northern Leopard Frog

11. Eastern Painted Turtle

12. Yellow perch

13. Marsh marigold

14. Common Merganser duck

15. Cardinal flower

16. belted kingfisher

17. Pumpkinseed fish

18. Blue spotted salamander

19. Dragonfly (Eastern Pondhawk)

20. Great Blue Heron

21. Common Snapping Turtle

22. Common garter snake

23. Mosquito (very important part of the food web!)

24. Pickerelweed

We started by sketching in pencil, focusing first on breaking the species down into simple shapes. Then, students gradually added details like scales, leaves, feathers, or flower petals.

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Day 2: Exploring Color in Nature

On our second day, we dove deeper into why plants and animals are different colors. We talked about three main reasons:

• Camouflage (to blend in)

• Attraction (to bring in pollinators or mates)

• Warning (to scare away predators)

We asked: Why do you think this plant or animal is the color that it is?

Then, students added color to their sketches using watercolor pencils. Watercolor pencils are fantastic for third graders—easy to use, vibrant, and a wonderful introduction to blending colors.

We encouraged students not to default to “one color per object” (green for leaves, blue for blueberries, etc.), but instead to blend and layer colors. For example, wild blueberries aren't just blue—they can be purple, pink, green, and even have reds and oranges in their leaves.

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Day 3: Final Details with Ink

Finally, we outlined and labeled our illustrations with ink pens. Students learned that scientific illustrators create art to help people understand science. Long ago, before cameras, scientists had to be artists too! They carefully observed plants and animals and made detailed drawings to share their discoveries.

We looked at the work of Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), one of the first naturalists to document insects and plants in their natural habitats through art. Her vibrant, careful studies showed students how scientific art can be both beautiful and educational.

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Possible Extension Activities

• Create a Rainbow Collage: Cut out each finished illustration and arrange them into a giant rainbow to display the beauty of biodiversity.

• Map a Food Web: Use yarn or draw lines to show food chain connections between the species students illustrated.

• Write Nature Fact Cards: Invite students to add a few sentences about their species’ habitat, diet, or special adaptations.

• Color Wheel Study: Arrange the finished artwork around a large circle to create a “Biodiversity Color Wheel” celebrating the full spectrum of life in Maine’s ecosystems.

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Final Thoughts

Art and science are powerful partners. Projects like Illustrating a Rainbow of Biodiversity help students observe the natural world more carefully, think more deeply about ecosystems, and express their discoveries creatively. Best of all, they show that biodiversity isn't just a scientific concept—it’s a living, colorful, and essential part of our world.