Students make land-use decisions and classify human uses of forests. They lobby for a specific use of a forest. Groups conduct tests to compare the rate of soil erosion under different circumstances. Students make their own recycled paper and use problem-solving methods to design a plan to reduce their own paper use and to reuse and recycle paper. Students identify projects people are working on to restore or protect forests.
Students take a field trip to an ecosystem to observe the homes of animals in natural habitats.
They investigate air, water, and soil and compare their finding to similar investigations conducted on the school grounds. Cooperative groups complete an environmental assessment to identify how a construction project might affect an ecosystem. The class removes and categorizes human litter from the study area. Students observe nature as Henry David Thoreau might have observed it. They compare their uses and views of natural resources to those of Thoreau.