High School Lesson Plans: Environmental Resources
From the Archives
Posted on September 8, 2006
Lesson Plans:
To return to the main Global Envision lesson plan page, please click here.
- Preserving Paradise:
Locating Endangered Ecosystems Around the World
In this lesson, students investigate artificially elevated regions or cities around the world to compare histories, cultures and strategies related to potential flooding disaster.
Time needed for lesson plan: 1-2 hours
To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit New York Times.
- Alien Invasions: Examining Invasive Plant Species in Your Community
In this lesson, students create an educational pamphlet on the origins, spread and impact of invasive plant species in their community.
Time needed for lesson plan: 1-2 hours
To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit New York Times.
- Seeing the Forests for the Trees: Exploring Tropical Forests as Natural Resources
In this lesson, students explore changing logging practices in the Congo Republic and research the many roles of tropical forests as a natural resource. To synthesize their understanding, students write letters to loggers in Africa, urging them to adopt responsible logging practices.
Time needed for lesson plan: 1-2 hours
To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit New York Times.
- The Nile in Crisis
High school students should be able to analyze the interrelationships between physical systems (such as rivers) and human settlements and activities. This activity asks them to examine the current water situation in the Nile River region, focusing on the Blue Nile and the Egyptian Nile, and to investigate ways in which the damming of the Nile has changed this river significantly from the way it was in ancient times.
Time needed for lesson plan: 3 hours
To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit National Geographic.
- Human Impacts in the African Rain Forest: What can we do?
High school students should be encouraged to think about possible solutions to the environmental degradation that humans can
cause, and to the ways in which people can work together to protect the environment from further negative human impacts. They also need to think about the root causes of tropical rain forest degradation (i.e. poverty, population growth, exploitation and debt) in addition to the more obvious, immediate causes (i.e. logging). This lesson asks students to examine the human impacts that conservationist Michael Fay noticed on his Congo Trek, and Africa MegaFlyover projects as well as the areas that are so far free from human impacts. Students will write recommendations to the region's governments and businesses, explaining what should be done about human impacts and considering some of the underlying causes for environmental threats.
Time needed for lesson plan: 3 hours
To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit National Geographic.
- Water Resources in Asia: Changes and Challenges
Water is an all-important resource for human and other life. On the vast Eurasian continent, access to water is of vital importance. In some inland areas, human and physical processes have further limited the quality and supply of water. This lesson plan uses China's water issues as case studies to examine the delicate balance between using resources to improve the standard of living for citizens and preserving resources to protect natural biodiversity and environment. Students will conduct their own case studies on important water resources, such as the Aral Sea in Central Asia, to see how those resources have influenced the life cycles of countless generations of people and the flow of people, commerce, crops and life in distinctly different regions in Asia.
This lesson is one in a series developed in collaboration with The Asia Society, with support from the Freeman Foundation, highlighting the geography and culture of Asia and its people.
Time needed for lesson plan: 3-5 hours
To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit National Geographic.
- Natural Resources Extraction
This lesson encourages students to think about where the natural resources we use come from and the processes by which these resources are extracted. Students will also consider the environmental, cultural and human rights issues that are frequently associated with the extraction of natural resources. They will conduct Internet research on specific resources and create presentations to showcase what they have learned.
Time needed for lesson plan: 3-5 hours
To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit National Geographic.
- Under the Sea: The Life and Work of Emerging Explorer Tierney Thys
People's perceptions of places and regions often influence what happens to those places. The creation and upkeep of the U.S. National Parks system emphasizes the importance that American citizens place on preserving the natural landscape, flora, and fauna of North America. Forest rangers, environmentalists, public policy specialists, and law enforcement agents all have influence over what happens to the lands and wildlife of these parks. Similarly, oceanographers, marine biologists, and many others are hoping through their work to have a profound influence over what happens to our oceans' ecosystems. This lesson will help students learn more about recent advances in the study of sea life and how the people who do it may ultimately affect the sea—its health and inhabitants.
Time needed for lesson plan: 2-3 hours
To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit National Geographic.
- Feeling Vulnerable: Examining the Connection Between Global Poverty and Natural Disasters
In this lesson, students learn about some of the ways the developing world is vulnerable to the impact and effects of natural disasters. They then investigate some "natural disaster hotspots" around the globe and assess how vulnerable these areas are.
Time needed for lesson plan: 2-3 hours
To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit New York Times.
- Alien Invasions: Examining Invasive Plant Species in Your Community
To return to the main Global Envision lesson plan page, please click here.
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Printer-friendly version
Recent comments