McREL Standards Activity
One Forest, Many Opinions
| | Purpose: | As a result of this activity, students will be able to understand multi-faceted issues that arise in protected habitats (e.g., a national forest), the effects of these decisions on species diversity, tourism, maintenance of the natural food web, and other issues of concern, and the importance of proper management of protected areas. | | Related Standard & Benchmarks: | | Geography | | | Standard 8. | Understands the characteristics of ecosystems on Earth's surface | | | | | Level IV [Grade 9-12] | | | | | Benchmark 4. Knows the effects of both physical and human changes in ecosystems (e.g., the disruption of energy flows and chemical cycles and the reduction of species diversity, how acid rain resulting from air pollution affects water bodies and forests and how depletion of the atmosphere's ozone layer through the use of chemicals may affect the health of humans) |
| | Geography | | | Standard 14. | Understands how human actions modify the physical environment | | | | | Level IV [Grade 9-12] | | | | | Benchmark 4. Knows how people's changing attitudes toward the environment have led to landscape changes (e.g., pressure to replace farmlands with wetlands in flood plain areas, interest in preserving wilderness areas, support for the concept of historic preservation) |
| | Language Arts | | | Standard 1. | Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process | | | | | Level IV [Grade 9-12] | | | | | Benchmark 9. Writes compositions employing persuasion (e.g., uses rhetorical techniques, such as appeal to logic and emotion; relates personal anecdotes; cites commonly accepted beliefs or expert opinion; anticipates readers’ knowledge level, concerns, values, and potential biases) and argument (e.g., articulates a thesis statement or claim; establishes clear relationships among claim(s), opposing and counterclaims; reasons, and evidence; identifies strengths and limitations of own arguments and counterarguments; provides a concluding statement that follows from general argument) |
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| | Student Product: | Problem/solution group paper | | Material & Resources: | Reference materials | | Teacher's Note: | Examples in the activity are specific to Yellowstone National Park to provide a starting place. If, however, there is a national park, national forest, or other protected habitat within your region, feel free to modify the activity to that region. | | Activity | | The Yellowstone ecological system is the largest intact temperate ecosystem in the world, and is still relatively pristine. This is largely due to the preservation of the Yellowstone National Park and other national forests, national parks, and wildlife refuges which are a part of the Yellowstone ecological system (which is much bigger than the National Park which bears its name). Yet in the management of Yellowstone and other protected regions like it, there arise several complex issues that are driven by concerns for conservation, tourism, research, and even local political issues. Hence, management and protection of this park, and any other protected region, isn’t always easy, as there are no right answers. For this activity, groups of students will choose and research an issue (provided below - or develop your own to suit a local region). The students will concentrate on the different groups with an interest in the issue, potential effects on wildlife and ecosystems for different outcomes, and the status quo and current effects of the status quo. In a problem/solution paper, the students will present their gathered information, then outline a potential solution. As there is no right solution, emphasize that their solution should be the one that best conserves natural resources and protects wildlife, while addressing political, social, and tourism issues as well. Prior to their drafting of a problem/solution paper, the teacher should guide students in developing a rubric for evaluating the paper and/or provide students such a rubric. If you choose to use a local protected region, and visiting this region is possible, you may want to do that as part of the research process to allow students to more fully visualize the importance and nature of these problems. Issues in Yellowstone National Park (Change if desired to fit own protected region)
- Letting fires burn in Yellowstone
- Reintroduction of wolves
- Building snowmobile trails
- Killing bison who wander out of the park
- Introduction of exotic species (e.g., lake trout vs. cutthroat trout)
- Bioprospecting--harvesting bacteria from hotpots
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