Introduction   Task    Resources    Process   Evaluation     Conclusion

You are riding with your Amazon Rain Forest guide.  You notice the road is made of dirt, bumpy and is still under construction as the loggers push their way deeper into the Rain Forest.

What you see is not a jungle at all but local Indians burning brush while they move from area to area to grow their crops and maintain cattle.  The crops and cattle are owned by rich people who rarely even visit this land.  Setting these fires clears the forests quickly and cheaply.

Now, you notice a change in the land.   What was once a dense ceiling of leaves with a canopy of different trees and plants -- that blocked out nearly all light and provided a habitat for plants and animals who can only exist here -- is no longer there.  You also learn the bio-density is greater here then anywhere else.  

You see loggers drive recklessly past you and these burning forests and the dust is blinding your eyes. Under the canopy this could never have happened.  Unfortunately, all of the open space from cutting and burning has changed the climate.  The rainfall now has been cut in half and erosion is evident.   More evident is change.  

Some people call it growth or progress.

This is our rain forest today.

Now you are a rain forest expert and you are going to argue  your position on issues of destruction to a United Nations representative, who will recommend what the U.N. should do concerning this issue.

1. Your final outcome is an oral presentation where you argue, with support facts, one of three positions:

1.  Halt all rain forest destruction
2.  Allow limited destruction
3.   Keep things the way they are

 Your teacher will assign you to one of these groups.

2. Justify your position. Obtain facts, trends, implications, make predictions and conclusions and formulate an organized presentation. Research by using the provided Internet links, search terms like "RAIN FOREST AND FIRES" and other materials you find in the library.

3.  Use the rubric as an self evaluation tool.

Resources

• Diversity and Destruction

• Rainforest Issues

• NASA Landset Pathfinder

• Deforesting

• Fires Devastate Amazon

• TIME for Kids -- Fires in the Rainforest

• Fire -- A Growing Threat to Rainforests

• NASA -- Rainforest Deforestation Images

• Vanishing Rainforests

• Rainforest Lose Fact Sheet

• Causes of Destruction

• National Geographic -- Deforestation

• Rainforest Links

Use the rubric and complete all finding facts sheets before formulating your oral presentation. Use books and other tools available in the classroom and library. Use Internet sites that are provided. You have 5 weeks to complete your work. Your group will be assigned one of the three positions. Teammates may want to work as partners to complete each fact sheet or work alone. Share the knowledge and information you gain with your group. Your research, additional materials and fact sheets are used to design your oral presentation into a persuasive argument to be given to the United Nations. Invite your principal, parents or faculty members to be the U.N. representative. Their decision is final. As an option, this lesson could be a contest between classes.

Your performance will be based on the rubric and the final decision will be made by the United Nations representative.

You have now determined the best possible arguments with justification for your position, based on the rubric. What other possible criteria do you believe could or should have been considered? Would the inclusion of these criteria affect your oral presentation? Are there any other web sites besides the given that you believe should have been considered? Why?