CURRICULUM

Students will begin the unit by working collectively to create a geographic definition of “local” by thinking about the community through their own personal lens and by digging deeper into family connections.  Through these lenses, students will explore the cultural dimension of what it means to be from a particular region, what challenges their communities face, and begin to explore potential resources that can help students on their journey toward understanding local forest use and its impacts on community.  They will then gain a firm understanding of impact from the context of economic, social, and environmental use.  This will be referenced throughout the entire project. Students will learn how to collect qualitative and quantitative data and create a strategy for doing so in their community.  From the qualitative and quantitative data, students will eventually create an ArcGIS map of local resources to help reflect on their own community and the challenges that the community faces.  The end product of this unit will be a poster titled “What’s the Story of Our Community?” which will be presented at the completion of Unit 1.