Unit - PopulationsLife ScienceLesson 5

What happens if?

Teacher Notes:

Purpose:

In this lesson students will watch a video about the Colorado forest and the effects of the beetles. This is a summary of everything they have learned and should recognize the information presented. Students will then be given a writing prompt that should be used to answer the question “What would happen if”. This lesson is to enable students to use critical thinking skills and expand upon what they know about the lodgepole pine and the mountain pine beetle.

Time: 1 class period

LESSON OVERVIEW:

Part 1 - Choose one-two or all of the videos below (depends on how much time you want to spend) ~ 30 min of video

Suggested Videos:

Youtube: Pine Beetle Project (Length 9:13 min)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C2WrOJJpDE&feature=related

Colorado forests and the pine beetle epidemic – (Length 9:23 min) http://player.vimeo.com/video/37083319?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&autoplay=1

Youtube: Beetlemania: an aerial tour of central Colorado forests infested by the Mountain Pine Beetle. (Length 6:22 min)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdK-B8N4SLc

Youtube: Mountian Pine Beetle Documentary. Grand County (Grand Lake Colorado) (Length 5:00 min)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXzX9l7vJXA&feature=related

Part 2 - Writing Activity: In this activity kids need to write about a prompt that asks them what happens if. Write “what happens if” on the board. Students are to think about what would happen to both populations that they have studied (lodgepole pine and the mountain pine beetle).

Pass out to each student a writing prompt from the list on the next page

What happens if? Promts.

Warmer temperatures continue

There is a long cold winter

Drought continues for more than a year

There is no drought for a long time

There is an intense wild fire that burns much of the forest

Every 3 years small fires burn the underbrush

Less nutrients are available to the forest

Precipitation remain below the average for a long period of time

Natural beetle predators increase in the forest

Natural beetle predators decrease in the forest

Forest rangers continue to conduct prescribed burns

The growing season becomes longer (mild winter – longer summers)