Biology Block Wednesday Part 2

Students will learn about the causes and effects of deforestation and the role of humans in the process by analyzing and synthesizing information into a one pager and an illustrated story.

Questions:

1. What was your article about during part 1?
2. What stood out to you most in this article?
3. What do you think are possible solutions to deforestation?

1.Research (20-25 minutes)

Choose 1 Area:

Hotspot	Remaining habitat
1	Indo-Burma (southern Asia)	5%
2	New Caledonia (Pacific Islands)	5%
3	Sundaland (Indonesia/Malaysia)	7%
4	Philippines	7%
5	Atlantic Forest (South America)	8%
6	Mountains of Southwest China	8%
7	California Floristic Province (U.S. and Mexico)	10%
8	Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa	10%
9	Madagascar & Indian Ocean Islands	10%
10	Eastern Afromontane (Africa)	11%

Questions:

• What are the main causes of deforestation in this region? 

• Who benefits from this deforestation? How do they benefit? 

• What are the negative consequences of deforestation? For people? For animals? For the environment?

 • Are the trees being replanted? What types of trees? Is the forest being replanted as a diverse ecosystem, as mono-crop with very little diversity? Something else?

Links:
5 of the World's Most Endangered Forests
A Look at Some of the World's Most Endangered Forests
The World's 10 Most Threatened HotSpots
Top 10 Most Threatened Forests

2.Story Board (30-45 minutes)

Imagine a future scene, in 500 years, in which the world has lost most of its forests. Many ecosystems have been lost forever. What happened? How and why did the forests disappear? Write and illustrate (draw or paint) a 4 frame story board. Describe the landscape in the present tense. Describe what happened in the past tense.