Forests Under the Sea

FORESTS UNDER THE SEA: Lesson Four

Parallels Between Forest Ecosystems

Learning Goal: The goal of the fourth and final lesson is for students to make cognitive connections between the biologically diverse tropical terrestrial forests of the world with the similarly diverse giant kelp marine forests.  Students will make a Venn diagram and poster showing these similarities and differences.

Time:  3-5 class periods depending on instructional depth and expectations.

Materials/Resources:

Internet Resources:

Monterey Bay Aquarium Forests by Land and Sea site
Kelp & Tropical Forest model-building lesson plan site

Vocabulary:

ecology
biodiversity
zonation
life cycles
nutrient cycles
energy cycles
Venn diagram

Procedure:

  1. Distribute Kelp and Tropical Forests Venn Diagram worksheet.  Students may work individually or in small groups (i.e. instructor choice).  If students have not used a Venn diagram before, you may want to do a simple example first (e.g. school versus town, plant versus animal).  Students may use the Internet to search for information on tropical forests that may provide similarities and differences between kelp and tropical forests.    As an extension, you may want to create a large class version on a bulletin board, overhead, or white board using the best ideas from student work.
  2. The final project for the unit is the creation of a full-size poster (if paper is available) showing the similarities and differences arrived at in procedure #1 above visually.  Posters should be colorful and creative in the way they show the two ecosystems as parallel biological systems.
    1. Several of my students wrote extra credit essays comparing and contrasting kelp and tropical forests. Essay example #1 Essay example #2

Homework:

The Kelp and Tropical Forests Venn Diagram worksheet may be worked on at home.  Individual homework assignments may include listing 5-10 similarities one night, and 5-10 differences the next.  The poster may also be assigned at home, depending on the motivation of the students.

Assessment:

See Unit Homepage

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