Finding Common Ground

Abstract:

Finding common ground helps students make informed decisions to conserve temperate forests in the United States and central China, habitat of the endangered giant panda. Through classroom activities, on-line simulations, and field investigations students learn about the important role temperate forests play in local and global ecosystems. Action steps culminate in a Class Conservation Action Plan.
In the course of this curriculum students locate the biome in which they live, explore a local habitat, and conduct a biological inventory to assess habitat health and natural and human impacts to this habitat; explore the temperate forest biome through A Walk in the Forest, a virtual forest field study, and through hands-on field studies in a local forest or woodland; examine flora and fauna from the two most biodiverse temperate forest regions, central China and Appalachia, and monitor the impacts of habitat loss and degradation on forest organisms and biodiversity; design the optimal zoo habitat; put their knowledge into action by creating their own Class Conservation Action Plan, building on artifacts in their Habitat Journals and Action Plan Portfolios.

Subject:

Science and Technology, Social Sciences

Grade Level:

Primary

SubTopics:

Plants and Forests

Collection:

Smithsonian Institutions