AK Forest Health Issues - Generate An Argument Activity

Climate related forest health problems linked to warmer and drier conditions have been well documented in Alaska. As a result, many species of trees have been in decline or under attack by various biological and non-biological agents. As a result of concerns about the future of Alaska’s forests, the State Department of Forestry has been allocated state and federal funding to address some of these issues. Your group’s task is to identify which tree species and it’s associated problem is most critical either economically, ecologically, or both to your group and then persuade the Department of Forestry to dedicate it’s research and funds to resolving the problems facing that species.

To Download Activity click here: AK Forest Health Issues

Reflection - Using online Data

I found the chapter 6 information on using online data sets to be a really good concise resource for ideas on utilizing online data. I have actually utilized this method of teaching for various topics for many years using an informal form of inquiry (I guess I didn't realize it was inquiry at the time), such as plotting tidal patterns in locations, plotting temperature and precipitation averages in different climate zones to infer the effects of large bodies of water and mountains on these variables. However, I don't think my use of them has reached it's full potential. I would like to more closely follow the inquiry method to get kids developing and writing their own questions and draing their own a conclusions based on the analysis of the data. With the "Generate an Argument" model developed by Sampson, I think this would be a great way to retool these labs that I have already utilized in the past. Having students working in cooperative groups to look at this data and then provide supporting evidence for their conclusions in the form a poster (a great way to utilize Glogster!) that can be shared, discussed, and evaluated to determine the validity of the group's conclusion is a more effective use of this information for doing inquiry based science. I like the listing of resources for data, but I know there are many more out there to be accessed. It's a good jumping off point though.
Here are a few other resources that I've used in the past.
Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), the CIA World Factbook, the Alaska Climate Research Center, to name a few.

I explored the I Teach STEM site on wetpaint, which had a lot of good resources for specific subject matter. However, the lack of an index to find the type of site I need for a specific topic would make it a more difficult resource to use.