The Boreal Forest: A Global Legacy - Vol. 7 (K-5)

Description

The Boreal Forest – A Global Legacy explores the natural wealth of the Boreal forest, its biodiversity, economic value and social and cultural importance. The resource helps students of all ages learn about the Boreal forest by incorporating boreal information into a wide range of subject areas. Each lesson provides learning outcomes, an attention grabbing lesson opener as well as extension activities. The resource contains a series of eight lessons, for this review we take a look at lessons three, four, six and eight.

Lesson 3 – Boreal Superheroes

Students investigate two super adapted Boreal species, discovering the forest’s climate and geography at the same time. They discover how one plant and one animal thrive in the world’s most northern forest using their behavioural and physical adaptations. As an extension activity, students conduct research and make presentations about other species that have adapted to living in the Boreal forest.

Lesson 4 – B is for Boreal

Students become familiar with some common Boreal species by matching up names with images, and then answering questions. As an extension activity, students make a list of Boreal species and group them under many different categories, such as predator/prey, mammal, bird, insect, reptile, amphibian, plant and tree, or types of habitat preferred.

Lesson 6 – Boreal 101

In groups or pairs students learn about all the ways the Boreal forest is valued, from spirituality to economics to recreation. They cut out and match up descriptions under correct headings. Students discover biological, geographical, cultural, economic and global aspects of Canada’s Boreal forest.

Lesson 8 – Boreal Footprints

Students bring to life the interactions of various predators and prey of the Boreal forest. This lesson allows students the opportunity to make and interpret the footprints of common Boreal species. Students create paint stamps for the footprints of various Boreal animals. Using the stamps they create a painted Boreal scene, illustrating how their two Boreal animals interact. They write about the action that takes place in their painting.

General Assessment

Question	Response
What skills does this resource explicitly teach?	Visual communication
What important, related ideas/issues are not addressed in this resource?	Industrial activities like logging, mining and oil and gas development continue to eat away at our remaining wilderness areas. loss of habitat
What important ideas are implied by the resource, but not taught explicitly?	implementation of long term practices are needed to protect and conserve the Boreal forest
To enhance this resource the following changes are strongly recommended:	Include a significant action component where students can educate others in the school and community about the importance of the Boreal forest. Suggest some assessment strategies or provide some example of assessment tools or rubrics. Incorporate some cooperative learning strategies Suggest an on-site visit to a forest Include some hands-on experiences in a Boreal forest Include some of the extension activites as core lessons so students can discover and build knowledge for themselves.

Sustainability Education Principles

Principle	Rating	Explanation
Bias Minimization	Good	The resource presents many different points of view to fairly address the issue. The materials in the resource are drawn from many sources involved in forest-based education. The Canadian Forestry Association website provides more information on the organizations’ values, biases and assumptions.
Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions	Very Good	The resource explores the natural wealth of the boreal: its biodiversity, economic value and social and environmental importance.
Respects Complexity	Good
Action Experience	Poor/Not considered	No authentic action experiences are suggested in the main part of the lessons. The extension activities could be developed into action projects but these would need to be organized by the teacher.
Action Skills	Poor/Not considered	No action skills are explicitly taught.
Empathy & Respect for Humans	Poor/Not considered	Not considered in the lessons which were reviewed.
Personal Affinity with Earth	Satisfactory	The lessons do encourage a personal affinity with non-humans and the Boreal forest. Some outdoor experiences should be included in the lesson plans to help enhance the connection.
Locally-Focused	Good	The activities in the resource help the students better understand the value of forest resources and the importance of using them wisely. They learn what they can do to help protect and conserve the forests.
Past, Present & Future	Satisfactory

Pedagogical Approaches

Principle	Rating	Explanation
Open-Ended Instruction	Good	Students are encouraged to discover their own answers. The lessons include a variety of teacher-directed and independent learning opportunities. Discussion, brainstorming, and research activities are included in the resource.
Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Learning	Good	Science Social Studies Art
Discovery Learning	Satisfactory	The extension activities provide opportunities for students to discover and build knowledge for themselves.
Values Clarification	Satisfactory	Lesson six provides students with the opportunity to express their own beliefs about the boreal forest.
Differentiated Instruction	Satisfactory	The extension activities offer opportunities to address different learning styles. The main lessons are teacher directed.
Experiential Learning	Satisfactory	The direct experiences are through simulations.
Cooperative Learning	Satisfactory	Students work in groups.
Assessment & Evaluation	Poor/Not considered	No assessment tools are provided to evaluate student learning and performance.
Peer Teaching	Satisfactory	As students discover some information about the Boreal forest they present their findings to their peers.
Case Studies	Very Good	The resource provides many interesting facts, background information, Boreal maps and statistics to help deliver the lessons.
Locus of Control	Satisfactory	Some of the extension activities provide students with opportunities to further explore the issues.

Relevant Curriculum Units

The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.

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The Boreal Forest: A Global Legacy - Vol. 7 (K-5)

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Description

General Assessment

Sustainability Education Principles

Pedagogical Approaches

Relevant Curriculum Units

A project of

with support from

The Boreal Forest: A Global Legacy - Vol. 7 (K-5)

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Description

General Assessment

Sustainability Education Principles

Pedagogical Approaches

Relevant Curriculum Units

A project of

with support from