Properties

Title: Circle of Knowledge

Type: Lesson Plan
Subject: Social Studies
Grade Range: 7
th
Grade- Africas deforestation
Description: Unit for 7
th
Grade Social Studies
Duration: 50 Minutes- 1 class period
Author(s): Nicole Westermann
Instructional Unit Content
Standard(s)/Element(s)
Content Area Standard

SS7G2 The student will discuss environmental issues across the continent of Africa.
b. Explain the relationship between poor soil and deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa.


TAG Standard

Advanced Communication Skills
8. The student participates in small group discussions to argue persuasively or reinforce others
good points.

Higher Order Critical Thinking Skills (HO/CTS)
5. The student predicts probable consequences of decisions.
7. The student examines an issue from more than one point of view.

Summary/Overview
The focus of this lesson is to give students an opportunity to explore the negative effects of
deforestation around the continent of Africa. While looking at the negative effects of theses
environmental issues, we will also look at how it is benefiting the local people with jobs, and higher
standard of living. Students will be required to learn what deforestation means, learn the causes and
effects, and form their own opinions on the positives and negatives. The overall unit project will be
for the students to create an action plan on how to decrease deforestation and still helping the local
people. This lesson will be instrumental in allowing the students to increase their background
knowledge
.
Enduring Understanding(s)
At the end of this lesson the student will understand that
Humans, their society, and the environment affect each other in both negative and
positive attributes
Essential Question(s)
How do humans impact their society and environment?

Concept(s) to Maintain
Evidence of Learning
What students should know:
a. The reasons for deforestation, including the need for more agricultural land, population
growth demand, and harvesting of trees for harvest
b. The short-term and long-term consequence of deforestation
c. Why the soil of deforested land is unusable for agriculture.
d. How unusable soil contributes to the cyclical nature of Africas deforestation problem
e. What deforestation is, its causes, and the resulting impact on the environment of Africa.
f. That 1/3 of Africa is threatened by desertification
g. Africa faces the possibility of not only multiple species; extinction but human population
loss in the near future.
h. Deforestation provides a monetary resource to many Africans.

What students should be able to do:
a. Explain the connection between humans and environmental issues that affect Africa
b. Debate, with evidence, on the issue in which they believe to be the most correct.
c. Examine the issue from multiple points of view
d. Identify that humans, their society, and the environment affect each other.

Suggested Vocabulary
Deforestation, desertification, Africa
Procedure(s)
Phase 1: Sparking the Discussion (Hook)
1. Call for volunteers to answer the following questions; Have you ever done something to
hurt something or someone else? Did you mean to hurt that person or item?
2. Pose the Question: When would be an appropriate time to cut down a forest? When
would it not be appropriate to cut down a forest?
3. Allow students time to jot down their thoughts and share responses with a partner or small
group of classmates before opening the discussion. Have the group elect a spokesperson to
voice their opinions to the class.
4. The parliamentarian for the week will write down what each group says so we can revisit
their answers at the end of the lesson. The parliamentarian is picked by the class sticks and
cannot be duplicated until everyone has served in this capacity.
Phase 2: Acquiring Content Needed to Participate in Discussion

1. Pose the essential (focus) questions: How does human interaction in Africa affect the natural
make-up of the continent?
2. Show Africas environmental Problems Power Point - slides 6-17 to introduce the basic
principles and problems of deforestation.
3. Activate prior knowledge by having students create sentences using at least three words from the
Word Splash/Wordle.
4. Students will review a physical map of Africa and read their portion of the causes of
deforestation.
5. While reading students will be asked to fill out the graphic organizer for their cause. When the
timer goes off, each sage will be asked to teach his group members the cause and effect they
read about.
Phase 3: Kindling the Discussion
6. Students will break into groups of 3-4. Using their notes and a questioning cube; they will
answer the questions and discuss answers within their group. I will also ask them to record their
answers on a blank template of the questioning cube

7. In a whole group, students will participate in a discussion driven by the following questions:
Why do you think that deforestation has become a bigger problem over the last couple of
decades? Do you think that the government of the different African Countries, the citizens of
those countries, and environmentalists see this issue differently? Why or why not? As a United
States citizen, were you aware of how detrimental deforestation has become? As you read
through the different causes and effects of deforestation did you opinion of whether
deforestation as good or bad change, stay the same, or go back and forth? Explain your answer.




Phase 4: Synthesis Activity
8. Students will be writing a peace agreement between the local citizens of Africa and a logging company
that is looking to destroy the last reaming rain forest in Africa. The students will be asked to use their
notes organizer, discussions, and their questioning cubes to create this peace agreement. At the end of the
class period students will share their actions plans with the class. This will lead into their performance
based assessment for the unit.
Summarizing Activity
3-2-1 Exit Ticket

Modifications
-Groups are selected according to academic ability and behavior.

-Extended time will be provided for those who need more time to process.
-Students who finish early will complete the Geography lesson on Study Island. This program
identifies students strengths and weaknesses and provides scaffolded activities according to the
students ability level. This program also includes games if students reach certain levels of mastery.
Students who are high achieving find this program to be motivating, yet educational.

Extension or Enrichment Activity
Student can create their own questioning cube.
Resource(s)
Anchor Text(s):

Deforestation Rate http://www.mongabay.com/rates_africa.htm

Technology:
Unit 5 SS7G2 ABC Power Point Linked below

Handouts:
Handout 1: Word Splash/Wordle
Handout 2: Physical Map of Africa
Handout 3: PowerPoint Slides for presentation
Handout 4: Africas Total Land Area vs. Deforestation
Handout 5: Deforestation in Africa Graphic Organizer?
Handout 6: Causes and Effects of Deforestation Readings
Handout 7: Ticket Out The Door 3-2-1



Handout 1: Word Splash





Handout 2: Physical Map of Africa

Handout 3: PowerPoint Slides The PowerPoint is linked here but I also included the slides just in
case it did not work.



The following are pictures included in the PowerPoint:


Handout 4: Africas Total Land Area vs. Deforestation


Handout 5: Deforestation in Africa Graphic Organizer
Deforestation in Africa (SS7G2)
Directions: You and your group members will be exploring the different causes of deforestation in
Africa. Each group member will be responsible for learning about 2 of the causes and then
reporting back to the rest of the group. By the time this activity is finished, your graphic organizer
will be completed.
Cause Effect
Logging





Mining






Cattle Raising and Overgrazing





Fires





War





Commercial Farming






Logging
Logging is a major issue in Africa. Most of it is done by large international
companies, and not by local lumberjacks. These big companies take advantage of
undeveloped countries; buy buying or renting huge tracts of land and deforesting it.
These undeveloped nations make all attempts necessary to pay of their debts, even
if it includes selling land and letting it be destroyed. In some cases however, the
government itself is corrupt and it makes corrupt deals with the major logging
companies, often times with no concern to the environment.. Some corporations
are a little more concerned about the environment than others are, but they are still
logging companies. A good logging company is one that is bankrupt. Most of these
corporations, cut down the trees in the least amount of time possible, destroy the
topsoil with their machinery and burn down the remainders. They do not even care
to replant new trees in the place of the cut down ones. Naturally, the logging
companies do not want you to know what exactly they are doing in the logging
areas, therefore they make sure that there is no access to these sites.
Almost all the time the large logging corporations make roads in an area they are
cutting down the trees. These logging roads make even greater damage to the forest
and most of all provide easy access to settlers. The places around these roads are
quickly inhabited right after the logging is done.








War
War is a curse for the environment. On one hand it can force people to concentrate
on other things and not on deforestation. But on the other hand it can force
resource-low countries to chop down even more trees and cause even more harm to
the environment. For example in1990 the former African state of Zaire,
experienced a major decrease in forested areas, most of its national forest reserves
were completely deforested. The cause of all this was rebels escaping from a
country in chaos, and setting up refugee camps in the woods. They had to survive
and heat their food, so they used just about every resource they could take from the
forest. The refugees killed many animals for food and chopped down millions of
acres of forests for personal and commercial purposes.
Sometimes in times of war, corrupt governments use a blanket of chaos to
commence their deeds. When no one is looking over the forests and the
environment in general, thats when the worst can happen. War is perfect to
distract people from the logging activities, and is often times very damaging












Cattle raising and Overgrazing
Often at a time of inflation in a country, it is more profitable to sell cleared land
than forested land. This makes it especially difficult to preserve the forests. The
cleared land is usually used for cattle grazing. Unfortunately, in most countries the
land used for grazing was the most fertile land that the country has had. One
hectare is required to sustain each animal; sadly, after between five to eight years
that number increases to five hectares per animal as the land becomes more and
more fallow each year that it has been grazed on. Naturally, farmers dont raise one
animal; they have hundreds, or perhaps thousands. It is easy to imagine how
clearing forests for cattle raising becomes a vicious cycle that intensifies the need
to clear even more land for cattle raising. This is especially true in undeveloped
nations where people choose cattle herding over land preservation, As more and
more farmers take this option, forests face even more peril.
One of many factors that contribute to deforestation is heavy overgrazing. Many
Africans depend on livestock to provide them with food. However since the
population is increasing more rapidly than the resources, Africa faces a major
problem. As the farmers gain more livestock, more fields and grasslands are
destroyed. Grass and tree roots in the fields are the only things that keep the soil
moist and fertile, and if herds of farm animals destroy them, then soil degradation
and erosion prevail. In some cases farmers run out of food for their animals, then
they go to harvest the forest products in turn increasing deforestation even more.









Commercial agriculture
Unlike small farmers, commercial farmers destroy much more land using the slash
and burn technique. Sometimes they dont even clear the land for valuable lumber
and just burn everything. If a small farmer burns 1-4 hectares of land, commercial
farmers burn tens even hundred thousands of hectares of land. Once the land is
cleared it supports a very large agricultural growth, mainly from the burnt top layer
of soil. When trees and vegetation are burnt, many nutrients and minerals are
released in the process, and the land therefore is able to support a very large
harvest for 3-4 years. After that commercial farmers have to use overwhelming
amounts of fertilizers to replenish the soil, in order for it to support at least a
minimum amount of crops. Too much fertilizer can cause runoff and even more
damage to the nearby wildlife and vegetation. If fore example, fertilizers get into
nearby waterways, they increase the growth of algae (algae bloom). The massive
amounts of algae use up all the oxygen in the water and in turn suffocate the fish
and other wildlife. The cash crop that is most popular in these cleared regions is
coca. Just for coca poppy alone, 600,000 hectares of forests are cleared annually.













Fires
Forest fires are most devastating of all factors for forest wildlife and vegetation.
Most of these accidental fires are set by tenant farmers to clear small patches of
land, but when they lose control, the fire spreads into larger areas and causes
enormous damage. Sometimes fire is used to clear a cut down forest, because it is
simply the fastest way to do that, without spending too much money. The small
forest fires that occur at the lowest canopy do not really hurt the forest too much,
but when a fire passes through again and there is no more lower canopy to stop it,
thats when it does the most damage. Forest fires do much more damage than just
killing wildlife or destroying the vegetation, millions of tons of carbon monoxide
are released into the air. Increased amounts of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere
are causing global warming. The only thing that can clear the atmosphere of the
excessive amounts of carbon and other harmful gases are trees and vegetation in
general. However, if more and more forests are destroyed every year, than how can
we expect to clean up our air?

Mining
Mining, believe it or not, is also a harmful process for the forests, wildlife and the
nearby inhabitants. It is evident that many of the earths rainforests hold many
useful resources and minerals underneath. Miners always try to take advantage of
these mineral rich spots, they create roads and cut down all the trees in the area. By
creating roads, they create easy access for other people to inhabit the region. As a
result of that, even more land has to be cleared. Mining practices themselves are
very harmful to the environment. To extract or purify certain precious minerals
from earth, miners use minerals like mercury and cyanide. These harmful toxins
are let into local waterways, and result in pollution. Other mining processes such as
demolition and the use of explosives erode the soil and remove the most fertile top
soil.



Handout 6: Ticket out the Door
Ticket Out The Door
3 2- 1

3 Important facts that you learned today.






2 - Possible solutions to deforestation.





1 Way we can increase awareness of deforestation in Africa.




What events led to logging
companies to begin
removing trees in various
African Countries?




Imagine that you are the
CEO of a major mining
corporation. What steps
could you take to decrease
deforestation but still make
money?

Which cause of
deforestation do you think
is the most detrimental to
Africa? Why?




How can someone educate
a corrupt government on
how their actions in a
specific country affect
everyone?



Where is the
majority of
deforestation
happening in
Africa?
Is there a way to rid
an area of trees
without burning them
down? Remember the
reason people burn
down trees is due to
the cost.

Why are trees important to
life not only in Africa but
around the world?





If you lived in a small
village in the Congo (where
most of the rain forest is
located) how would you
feel watching your home
literally being chopped
down?

What are the positive
outcomes or results of
deforestation?





Can you think of other
times in history where war
has changed the physical
make-up of a country or
region


How would the world
be different if there
were no trees left on
Earth?
What is
deforestation?