This week you should refer to the resources listed under Readings & Recommendations, and you need to complete the assignment listed under Classroom Application Assignment & Rubric. This week’s assignment focuses on ...

• Creating or contributing activities to help your students develop the concepts you have explored in your studies of a volcanic eruption
• Contributing to Resource Space the location of Internet sites or print material you have discovered that can be used as content resources or activities for students
• Responding to other class member's contributions

You have the option of doing an extra credit Local Event Study.

Suggested Activities for Your Students

Earth as Home: An Island Home. This activity helps students understand some of the effects people have on their natural environment. Students act as owners and developers of a lush, 14-square kilometer tropical island and create a plan of development. (This project is an excellent problem-based learning activity.)

Optional: Have students begin to design a coral reef aquarium. Choose what plants and animals should be put in first. What other plants and animals will be necessary to maintain an ecological balance? Use the coral reef site given below as a reference or use books on maintaining aquariums.

See: Endangered species pamphlet.

Do: Some people do not believe that the loss of a few species or even a few hundred species can affect life on Earth. Have your students answer the following questions.

• Are species becoming extinct all the time?
• Why should people make such an effort to preserve a few endangered species?

Classroom Application Assignment & Rubric
This week you will develop cooperative activities that engage your students in understanding Earth as a system through analyzing the causes and effects of an event.

Click on Classroom Application Assignment & Rubric for directions.

Local Event Assignment & Rubric
You also have the option of doing a Local Event Assignment & Rubric this week.

Read: "Life and Climate Changes." Forecasting the Future. pp. 35-41

Read: "Human Beings and the Greenhouse Diet," Forecasting the Future. pp. 43-47.

Read: Ground Truth Studies Teacher Handbook, pp. 28-30 

Recommended Web Sites: Coral Reef Fishes

Managing for Biodiversity