Geographic Alliance of Iowa

Putting Iowa in its place

Deforestation

This lesson, created by Becky Herman of Marion High School, asks ninth and tenth grade students to explore the causes and effects of deforestation all across the globe. Through a simulation, students must take on the role of an interest group either for or against deforestation in Brazil and research their stance to make a case.

Discipline/Subject

Physical Geography

Theme

Environmental

Region

United States

Latin America

Five Themes of Geography

Human-Environment Interaction

Common Core Standards

Reading Standards for Informational Text (RI)

National Geographic Standards

1. How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective

11. The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface

14. How human actions modify the physical environment

16. The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources

Iowa Core Social Studies Standards

GE 3. Understand how human factors and the distribution of resources affect the development of society and the movement of populations

GE 4. Understand how physical and human processes shape the Earth's surface and major ecosystems

GE 5. Understand how human actions modify the environment and how the environment affects humans