Week Six: Deforestation
Human Impact on Biodiversity
Weeks 4, 5, and 6 make up a three-week cycle about on deforestation. Currently, you are in the Classroom Application week of the cycle.

This week you will develop cooperative activities that engage your students in understanding Earth as a system through analyzing the causes and effects of deforestation. You also have the option of choosing a Local Event to focus your lesson. As usual you will use the resources listed below to develop your ideas, then submit them for your teammates to rate and for your instructor to grade.

Assignments:

Submit to the Portfolio in the Classroom your classroom application with a description of its relevance to students, connection to the curriculum, instructional strategy and assessment methods. Include a reflection on what and how you have learned about Earth System Science and this event as a result of this module

Suggested Activities for Your Students
Readings
Web Sites
Featured Data Connection
Opportunity for teachers to Publish

Suggested Activities for Your Students

1. Earth as home "An Island Home." USGS. This activity helps students understand some of the effects people have on their natural environment. Students act as owners and developers of a lush, 14-square kilometer tropical island and create a plan of development. (This project is an excellent problem-based learning activity.) http://interactive2.usgs.gov/learningweb/teachers/globalchange_earth.htm

2. What is Deforestation? Some math and questions about deforestation.
http://kids.mongabay.com/lesson_plans/lisa_algee/deforestation.html

3. Some people do not believe that the loss of a few species or even a few hundred species can affect life on Earth. Have your students answer the following questions.

• Are species becoming extinct all the time?
• Why should people make such an effort to preserve a few endangered species?

4. Quantifying Land Cover Change with Landsat.   Students make land cover change maps using two Landsat satellite images taken at least a decade apart. They quantify the change of land cover from pervious to impervious surface and make predictive maps of land cover in the year 2025 and speculate about the ecological consequences of change.

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

Deforestation and Desertification. National Geographic.   http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/deforestation/effect.html

Causes of Deforestation.   World Rainforest Movement.   http://www.wrm.org.uy/deforestation/

End Of Deforestation In View? Experts Advance New Way To Size Up Global Forest Resources. Science Daily.    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061113180213.htm

Fragmentation Rapidly Erodes Amazonian Biodiversity.   Science Daily.   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061128084404.htm

The Landsat 7 Compositor
The L7 Compositor gives a visual explanation of color satellite images. This interactive site also provides information about the electromagnetic spectrum and the various wavelengths detected by the Landsat 7 satellite.
http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/education/compositor

Web Site

Deforestation and Biodiversity. Swarthmore College Environmental Studies .   http://fubini.swarthmore.edu/~ENVS2/S2003/ctrucks1/essay05.html

Managing for Biodiversity
Maintained by the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, this site explores the threats to the biodiversity of British Columbia's wide range of ecosystems.

Earth Observatory
From NASA's Earth Observatory, this site explores topics such as Why are Fires Important? and Evolving in the Presence of Fire

Additional readings from NASA's EOS Observatory web site:
Changing Our Weather One Smokestack at a Time
Every Cloud has a Filthy Lining

Climate Change Upped Earth's Vegetation, Study Finds   http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0605_030605_climatechange.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

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