Programs

TEACHING THE LESSON

Activity 1 – Conserving our Planet’s Resources

Choose one of the Nature Conservancy images and explain that these are images that were selected for study by scientists because there are areas where people are concerned about changes to the environment, and are trying to protect it through changed policies and behaviors.  Discuss the image with the students. You can print them out and have students look at them in small groups.

Have one of the students write on the board students’ answers to the following questions.

Ask your students,

• What features do you see in the image? (i.e. signs of life, any evidence of water, mountains, valleys, cities, etc.)
  

Then ask,

• What do the features you observed tell you about this part of the planet?
  

Have the student at the board write down the name of the area and its location and have your students find this location on a world map, globe or in an atlas. 

Ask your students,

• What do you know about this part of the world? (which hemisphere, continent, types of languages, geography, people, culture, types of resources found in this part of the world, animals, rivers, types of plants, etc.)
  

Describe what actions the Nature Conservancy is taking to conserve and protect this particular location’s resources for future generations. You can share the information on the website and share links to the Nature Conservancy websites that have photographs of the area.

Ask students,

• Why do you think this area should be monitored from space for signs of change over time?
  

After your discussion, have students in groups or independently choose a different area from the list and complete the journal worksheet. They will need access to a computer and the internet. (It could be a homework or computer lab class activity).

After completing the worksheet, students should present their work, sharing their observations with the rest of the class.

Students should save their work on the computer and then visit www.challengerkids.org and use their user name and password for their account, or their team’s account (that you have made for or with them – see Lesson Preparation and Instructions).

At the forum students should post the images and their journal answers. If time, they can comment on other student’s posted journals.

• Lesson Overview

  • Lesson Summary

  • Objectives and Essential Questions

  • How do images from space taken over time show us change on the Earth?

• Teaching the Lesson

  • Lesson Preparation

  • Lesson Introduction

  • Activity 1 – Conserving our Planet’s Resources

  • Activity 2 –  Planetary Stewardship