LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE Your Name: Robin Arnold Title of Lesson: A World Without Forests Grade: 5th

STANDARDS 5-ESS2-1 Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.

RI.5.7 Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently

LESSON SUMMARY/OVERVIEW This lesson explores the effects of deforestation on the geosphere and atmosphere. Students are asked to imagine the effects on humans and the biosphere at large given the effects on other aspects of the environment given in the lesson

OBJECTIVES Students will be able to see the stabilizing effect that forests currently have on many aspects of the environment. Students will be able to imagine a world without forests and develop a short story in groups describing what life might be like in those circumstances. ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION Students will develop and present a short story, the story should include information from all of the sources used in class.

PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE Students should know how the water cycle works, this connects to the carbon cycle because they both operate on similar principles. Students should have some knowledge of global warming or at least what a greenhouse gas is, this will make the explanation of a forest's role in the carbon cycle.

MATERIALS

Nat Geo video showing winds sweeping across desert phet greenhouse gas simulation online resources

VOCABULARY/KEY WORDS Greenhouse gas Desertification Climate destabilization Carbon cycle

TEACHING PROCEDURES Pre-lesson: divide class into groups of ~4 1. Teacher begins by showing a picture of the carbon cycle 2. Teacher asks what this reminds them of, and if it reminds them of the water cycle. 3. Take students on a quick journey through the cycle, focusing on the forests. 4. What is the difference between what forests take in and store and what they put out? 5. What might happen if forests disappear? 6. Demonstrate the Greenhouse Gas simulator. Remind, re-teach, or introduce that Carbon Dioxide is what trees take in and what we breathe out. What would happen to the level of CO2 in the atmosphere if there were no forests? What happens to the temperature if the level of CO2 rises? 7. Allow students to explore this simulation in groups for about 5 minutes. 8. Next, present the information on desertification. Give a quick overview, and then let students explore the multimedia and text. 9. Now have students use the information provided to develop a story about a world without forests. Stress that it doesn't have to be perfect, allow for 10~15 minutes of time spent working on them. Then ask the groups to choose students to present their story in whatever way they choose(reading, acting out, etc)

RESOURCES

Carbon cycle diagram [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.oregonwild.org/oregon_forests/old_growth_protection/forests-global-warming/globalwarming-report/Carbon_cycle_diagram.jpg/image_preview

Creeping sand. (1996). Retrieved from http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/deforestation/phenomena.html The greenhouse effect. (2011). Retrieved from http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/greenhouse

WAYS OF THINKING CONNECTION This lesson asks students to imagine the future under specific circumstances and what that might mean for human life, an example of futures thinking. This way of thinking is incorporated seamlessly by involving the resources presented in the lesson and thus connecting to the common core standard and while the connection to the next gen science standard is more implicit it still exists. The model is verbal and not concrete but students are developing connections between the biosphere(forests) and the geosphere(soil), forests and the atmosphere, and forests and the biosphere(humans).