Week 5: Deforestation

Week Five: Deforestation
Global Warming
Weeks 4, 5, and 6 make up a three-week cycle on deforestation. Currently, you are in the Event Study week of the cycle.

This week you and your Event Team will build on the sphere to sphere interactions you identified last week to synthesize them into causal chains or causal matrices. You will use the resources listed under Readings, discuss your ideas in the Classroom Event Study Space, then submit your team’s work to the portfolio for a grade.

Assignments:

Team: (by midnight Sunday)

Read about deforestation.
Review the Event Study Goal and Rubric.
Serve as a "Sphere Expert" to your Event Team.
Read your teammates' summaries about the other individual sphere effects.
Identify intersecting and overlapping effects in your discussion in Event Space in the Classroom. Refer to the Week 3: An Example of an ESS Analysis reading if you would like to review causal relationships.

Need more detailed instructions? Click here

Submit to the Portfolio in the Classroom your team's most accurate analysis of the Earth Systems interactions with reasoning and support.

Suggested Activities for Your Students

Deforestation. Loss of Habitat on the Cutting Edge." NASA. http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_homepage/for_educators/cd_rom/supplement.php

National Geographics Lesson Plans. Human Impacts in the African Rain Forest. What Can We Do? http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/14/g912/fayhuman.html

You will want to locate other resources locally and on the Internet to supplement these. Post the resources you find in Resource Space in the Classroom.

Readings

You may want to review Brazilian deforestation before proceeding with this week's assignment.

The distinction between weather (local and short-term) and climate (long-term) is crucial. Hotter weather in the summer may be an indicator of cooler climate. For example, changes in air mass due to cooling climate may lead to warmer summers in certain parts of the country.

Deforestation in the Amazon. http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html

The Kyoto Protocol and Global Warming. Discussion of Canada's role in reducing greenhouse emissions. http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/environment/kyoto/

Web Sites

Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center. You will have access to data in the forms of data tables or graphs for use in the classroom.

National Climatic Data Center (NCDC): Global Warming Contains frequently asked questions about global warming and related topics.

In Tropics, forests are cool but croplands are hotter. NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2003/0715bolivia.html

Featured Data Connection

MY NASA DATA is an effort to develop microsets of Earth science data that are interesting and useful for, K-12 education. The datasets can be used with existing curriculum and enable students to practice math skills using real measurements of Earth system variables and processes.

MY NASA DATA microsets are created using data from NASA Earth science satellite missions and provide information on the atmosphere, ocean and land surface. Data is easily-accessible online along with lesson plans, computer tools and an Earth science glossary. You can link to the MY NASA DATA Live Access Server (LAS) where you can select items (microsets of data) from the menu (list of datasets) using descriptions (parameters and time frames) of the items.

The LAS software allows access to scientific data referenced by latitude, longitude, and time. This is referred to as geo-referenced data. LAS can:

show visualizations (color plots and graphs) of the data as requested
provide subsets of the specific parameters in a choice of file formats (e.g., as an excel file)
present the numerical data collected

Opportunity for teachers to publish - Have you developed an original lesson plan using MY NASA DATA that worked well in your classroom? Please submit these lessons for review and possible publication on the MY NASA DATA website. Submit your original lessons to: essea@strategies.org . Be sure to include your name, email and phone number.

Following is a suggested template for lesson plans using MY NASA DATA:

Lesson Title
Purpose
Grade Level
Estimated Time for Completing Activity:
Learning Outcomes
National Standards
State Standards (optional)
Pre-requisite knowledge or skills
Vocabulary
Lesson Links
Tools (what datasets, software, resources are needed)
Background Information
Procedure
Questions to be explored/answered
Extensions
Teachers Notes