Track That Product
Lesson Plans
Grades9, 10, 11, 12, APBiology, Geography, Career Skills
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Provided by Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education
What it is
- This lesson plan prompts learners to research and create a presentation to report on the life cycle of a product made from Wisconsin trees.
- Learners must consider the potential climate change impacts on their targeted tree species for their product and the geographic distribution of all of Wisconsin's important tree species.
- Before creating their presentation about a forest product, students study the economic value of the Wisconsin forest product industry, and learners examine different careers in Wisconsin forestry.
Teaching tips
Positives
- This activity allows students to consider the economic importance of a product from their local environment that may be affected by climate change.
- There are many resources to support students to complete their presentation, including note catchers, a rubric, optional related lessons, and many videos and readings.
- The teacher guide is thorough and contains every material needed to teach this lesson and many recommendations for other lessons to form a comprehensive learning experience.
Prerequisites
- Students should be familiar with conducting independent research and discerning reputable resources.
- It may be helpful to allow students to create poster presentations if they have not used computer software to complete visual presentations.
- Some links in the Teacher Guide aren't clickable or are incorrect, but all of these links are correct and clickable on the Slideshow.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Consider pairing students up to work on this project so that individuals with different strengths in presentations, research, and computer skills can work together.
- Some students may benefit from a modified research guide with additional scaffolds to help them address the prompts and visually organize their presentations.
- Show students how to navigate the Climate Change Tree Atlas website at the front of the class and discuss the different features together before having students use the site independently.
- An excellent follow-up activity would be teaching the Emerging Forest Products lesson from the LEAF website or requesting a Forest Products Kit (links to these resources are on the second slide in the teacher presentation).
- For additional lessons that demonstrate how Forest Products are a climate solution, check out the new Into the Outdoors - Forest Products and Wood Education Series. Teachers can find videos and related instructional materials to teach about Wisconsin forestry.
From the scientist review
The forestry climate change atlas included in this lesson is scientifically accurate. The methods used meet our standards for scientific integrity. Just note that the projections use the older CMIP5 models instead of the newer CMIP6, but the information is still good.
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