Paved Paradise
Deforestation and Urbanization
A Structural Academic Controversy Lesson
Developed by Christina Tillery
AP Human Geography
Context
Overview
The students will participate in a discussion about the pros and cons of deforestation and
urbanization. The students will have completed a reading about deforestation from the National
Geographic and filled out an exit ticket to participate in the lesson. The students that did not
complete the reading and exit ticket will have to take notes during the discussion about the
valuable points students brought into the discussion. The students will participate in a structured
discussion to understand the meaning of a verse from Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi. The
background knowledge from the article will assist the students to view the song lyrics critically,
and help them analyze the true meaning of the song.
Grade/Class: 10th Grade/ AP Human Geography
Length: 7:20 am to 8:40 am
Topic: Deforestation and Urbanization
Background Information:
The class would have read an article from the National Geographic that explains the
reasons behind deforestation, and the effects. Students will have substantial knowledge on
human migration and the need to build strong physical communities. The main goal of this
lesson is to allow students to discuss a controversial issue and have adequate information to
support their side of the discussion. The goal of the Structured Academic Lesson is to impel
students to think deeply about a text, argue both sides of an issue, and then come to a consensus
in an informal discussion with their classmates. The class discussion will not be long; it will be
the last fifteen minutes of class. This is the first discussion based activity, therefore it would be
best to not pressure the students but to encourage them to work together to present their sides.
Rationale:
This lesson was created for an AP Human Geography class of 10th graders. These
students may continue to take AP courses for the remainder of their high school career. This
lesson will begin to prepare them for open discussions and debates that they may experience in
future classes. Many curriculums require students to answer many recall questions, but this
lesson will have the students respond various texts and graphs to find information to support
their argument.
Instructional Model:
Structured Academic Controversy lessons are when “students work together to
understand a controversial issue.”1 A SAC lesson allows students to listen to each other ideas and
understand all viewpoints about an issue. Rather than trying to defeat an opponent in a
discussion, SAC lessons are valuable in showing students that controversial issues are complex
and that there are valid points on either argument/perspective.
Objectives:
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Students will be able to communicate their ideas adequately to their peers
Students will be able to analyze and decipher text for deeper meaning
Students will experience an educated structured discussion about a controversial issue
The lesson in regards to the NCSS themes:
 Time, Continuity, & Change: Students will use the information they know about
the effects of deforestation in the past and explain how it will affect the modern
world in the future.
 People, Places, & Environment: Evidently, deforestation affects the surrounding
communities, and especially the local ecosystem.
 Global Connections: Deforestation is a global issue; many forests and rainforests
have to deal with the depletion in trees and wildlife in the area.
Assessment:
The assessment for this lesson plan will be going around the class and ask each student
how did they feel the SAC lesson went, and about their feeling on their role. This is the best
assessment for the class because this will be the first discussion based activity they have done
with me as the instructor. Also many students may not have participated in a discussion similar
to the one of this lesson plan, and really may have to reflect what happened during the discussion
in order to grow in their skills in discussions. Reflection is a great way to learn.
Content and Instructional Strategies:
Perennial Issue: Deforestation as a means to urbanization
Case Issue for SAC: Is deforestation still necessary for advancement and development?
*The classroom setup will have the desks on groups of four.
I will ask to see the students exit ticket for the Deforestation article by the National geographic.
The exit ticket required students to write a summary of the article, and write down the key
points.
1
Larson and Keiper pg 242
Hook: The hook will be the playing of Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi. I will then pass
out a hand out with an important verse from the song:
They took all the trees
Put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see em
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
I will ask the students to write on the hand out what do they think is the meaning of the verse.
We will go over some of the students’ responses, and then I will state the question clearly: Is
deforestation still necessary for advancement and development? The students will already be in
groups of six due to the new arrangement of the classroom.
Round 1
I will explain to the students that the groups facing the boards are the “Yes” side and the
group facing away from the board are the “No” group. I will pass out the research for each group
for them to read to support their side. I will explain to the students that this is necessarily not a
debate, but rather that they are trying to present their side clearly.
I will give students these tips to present their side well:
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First state the side of the argument you are on
List a three examples from the evidence to support your side
Be more confident about the way you speak and how you express your opinions
I will let the class know that will have time to defend their side within a minute. In the next
minute the opposing side will have the opportunity to ask clarifying questions. I will explain to
the students that clarifying questions are any questions they need to ask to better understand the
other group’s main reasons/points. In order to help the class understand the idea behind the SAC
lesson, I will tell them that it like a structured formal conversation to convince someone of your
thoughts by providing strong support from the articles. The class will have ten minutes to read
over their information and create their arguments. The “Yes” group will go first and will have
one minute to present their argument. Then the “No” group will have the chance to ask their
clarifying questions. After this I will let the “No” group know that it is their turn to present their
arguments in a minute and that the “Yes” group will ask clarifying questions.
Round 2
After the clarifying questions moment is done. I will take up the previous information
sheets and distribute new support for each side. I want the students to have the chance to look at
new arguments, and present fresh information. The previous groups will be switch; the former
“Yes” group will be the “No” group and the former “No” group will be the “Yes” group. There
will be another ten minutes given to the groups to go over the sheets and talk amongst
themselves about their main points. The new “Yes” group will present their points with a followup of clarifying questions from the “No” group. The “No” group will take a minute to go over
their points and then with a minute of clarifying questions from the opposing group.
Group Discussion:
The students in the groups of six, after hearing and presenting all of the main arguments for both
sides will talk together to try to come to a consensus on the question: Is deforestation still
necessary for advancement and development?
Then the class will come together and converse to hear other students’ answers to the question
and their support behind their reasoning.
Resources:
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Printer/Copier
Overhead projector
Laptop with internet Service
Whiteboard
Markers
Timer
Round 1 Yes What are the Benefits of Deforestation? By Kevin Rose
(http://www.shylar.com/jenkins/2001/post1945/amazon/benefits.htm):
Today, the Amazon rainforest is being hacked, bulldozed, and burnt for farms, highways, cattle
ranches, and newly settlements.
Nevertheless, the deforestation has many benefits. The area around the Amazon rainforest has
widespread poverty, yet the Amazon is heavy in mineral resources for economic growth. It
could provide land to million of homeless peasants. It could provide employment for those who
harvest wood, or products of the environment. Ranchers, herbalists, rubber tappers, and hunters
are just a few that are able to use the Amazon's resources. Many economically valuable plants
live in the Amazon such as: Brazil nuts, cocoa, curare (an important drug), pineapples, and
rubber. Countries would benefit with the exportation of the rainforest goods.
The deforestation of the Amazon causes many fallen trees. This is, and can be, used as
lumber. There is possibly no other group of natural products important in economic growth as
lumber products. Logging rainforest timber is a large economic source, and in many cases, the
main source of revenues for servicing the national debt of developing countries. Numerous other
products of the Amazon like gum, dyes, nuts, and lianas have become solidly established
throughout the world. Currently, 121 prescription drugs currently sold worldwide come from
plant-derived sources, mainly from rainforests. Brazil sits on one of the world’s largest reserves
of iron ore and has ample gold, semiprecious and precious stones, natural gas and oil reserves as
well.
By putting people to work on rainforest projects, this creates an economic solution that
benefits all. The people benefit since they are being put to work, and would be paid. The
country would benefit since they would export the good the people are making. The benefits of
deforestation outweigh the costs.
Round 1 No
(http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTPRRS/EXT
TROPICALFOREST/0,,contentMDK:21095610~pagePK:64168098~piPK:64168032~theSitePK
:2463874,00.html):
The losses from deforestation can be local and/or global
Type of damage
Location of deforestation
Burden/location of impact
Global climate change
All deforesting locations; higher per hectare
damages come from dense humid forests.
Global
Imminent risk of globally
significant biodiversity loss
Specific areas in mosaiclands and non-remote
frontier forests
Global, but especially on high-income
populations and future generations
Long-term risk of globally
significant biodiversity loss
Frontier and transfrontier forests
Local and regional climate
change
Unclear, possibly widespread
Smoke and smog from forest
fires
Most areas of rapid deforestation
Global, but especially on high-income
populations and future generations
Unclear, possibly widespread
Populated areas downwind of large
rapid deforestation
Local flooding, erosion and
dimished dry season flows
Small, steep upper watersheds in mosaiclands,
non-remote frontier forests, and short littoral
watersheds
Small, steep lower watersheds in
mosaiclands; coral reefs
Reduced water quality for
drinking and irrigation
Small, steep watersheds near cities and
reservoirs
Downstream cities and reservoirs
Loss of pollination, pest
control, and other biological
services
Mosaiclands; high-density frontier forests
Fields near deforesting locations;
possible far-field effects
Round 2 Yes Benefits of Deforestation (http://edu.udym.com/benefits-of-deforestation/):
One of the most obvious benefits of deforestation is the supply of lumber and wood products in
the world. Almost everyone uses wood in some way every day, and selling lumber creates a great
deal of income. Lumber harvest and production and the creation of other wood products account
for a large portion of our economy, and without those wood products, the economy would suffer
serious consequences.
When forests cut for wood and wood products are replanted, a process known as reforestation,
the trees can grow back and the forest grow back to its previous state. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that many forests are completely destroyed not just for the wood and its
products, but to create arable land for farming and raising cattle. In fact, the creation of grazing
land for cattle is among the largest causes of deforestation.
Some forested areas also contain other natural resources, such as iron ore or mineral deposits.
Deforestation provides access to those resources.
Much rain forest land is deforested to create usable land, whether that is for raising cattle,
growing crops, or building living areas for people of the area. Much more is cleared to access
resources such as the wood itself or iron ore.
These projects create jobs, provide housing, and most importantly, provide income and allow
people to take care of their families. At the top of this chain, the corporations buying the lumber
or natural resources know about the impact their actions will have on the environment.
Unfortunately, most corporations operate with the bottom line firmly in mind, and the bottom
line dictates deforestation.
At the bottom of the chain, the individual farmers and workers who benefit by having land or a
job don’t care about the environment, either. The environment is not going to feed their children
or by medicine for their sick mothers. They don’t have the luxury of caring about the
environment; they’re spending their resources trying to survive.
As long as the benefits of deforestation, for the people involved, exceed the costs, for those same
people, the rain forests will continue to disappear. A solution must replace these benefits with
equal or greater benefits.
Round 2 No Deforesation costs to the World…Wow, Big Money By Jake Schmidt
Jake Schmidt is the international climate policy director at the Natural Resource Defense
Council. http://www.nrdc.org/default_t0.asp
(http://globalwarmingisreal.com/2008/10/15/deforestation-costs-to-theworld%E2%80%A6wow-big/):
The BBC is reporting on a new study which estimated that current deforestation is costing the
world $2-5 trillion per year. Wow…that is a lot of dollars, euros, yen, or whatever you are using
these days (don’t ask me to convert it to the equivalent value for a mortgage backed securities).
Of course, these kinds of estimates have always proven difficult to develop. Economists have
been trying to place a value on things that the market doesn’t currently value. How much value
do we place on clean air, avoiding the worst impacts of climate change, biodiversity, and pristine
forests? Zero dollars? Of course not, but it is hard to put an exact figure on it. This study, headed
by a Deutsche Bank economist, attempted to do just that. (Note: I won’t assess the merits of the
underlying study…I’ll let others assess it over the coming months).
So, the costs in this study attempt to account for the services that these forests provide, such as
clean water, flood prevention, food production, and absorption of carbon dioxide which causes
global warming. It estimates the costs of replacing these services, such as building reservoirs,
building facilities to sequester carbon dioxide, or farming foods that were once naturally
available.
The study points out that this is more than the current loss on the financial markets. As quoted by
the BBC, the author emphasized that:
“It’s not only greater but it’s also continuous, it’s been happening every year, year after year. So
whereas Wall Street by various calculations has to date lost, within the financial sector, $1-$1.5
trillion, the reality is that at today’s rate we are losing natural capital at least between $2-$5
trillion every year.”
So let me get this correct, deforestation which we know is bad for a lot of reasons (as Noble
Prize winners Gore and Maathai pointed out) is costing us more than the current financial crisis.
This puts the need for incentives to reduce deforestation loss in perspective. Here are a couple of
additional factoids that will put the $2-5 trillion annual cost of deforestation in perspective.
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More than the $104 billion the world currently provides as aid to developing countries.
This is all the money that is provided to help the less developed countries get out of
poverty and meet basic development goals established as a part of the Millennium
Development Goals. The worst irony is that many of the services that the world is trying
to meet with this aid are being lost through forest destruction (e.g., clean water, food,
etc.). Sort of like one step forward and 50 steps back.
Close to the combined $3.3 trillion gross domestic product (GDP) of all of the top 15
deforestation emitting countries. So, the total loss from forest destruction in the world is
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equivalent to almost the total GDP in the countries that account for the vast majority of
forest loss. Talk about an economic recession if these statistics showed up in GDP values.
More than the total exported value of wood products, meat products, and palm oil of the
top 15 deforestation emitting countries. These commodities are the main drivers of
deforestation in a number of these countries.
All this “adds up” to an additional reason to preserve the world’s intact tropical rainforests. And,
these costs are accumulating year-by-year adding an accumulated bill that will be difficult to pay
off. The bill is coming due and it looks like it could cost $2-5 trillion per year. Sounds like it is
time to stop adding to our debt and develop the necessary strategies to address the global
warming pollution from deforestation.
Round 2 No
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestationoverview/
Modern-Day Plague
Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the
quality of the land. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the world’s land area, but swaths the
size of Panama are lost each and every year.
The world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of
deforestation.
Forests are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to people’s
need to provide for their families.The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut
forests to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Often many small farmers
will each clear a few acres to feed their families by cutting down trees and burning them in a
process known as “slash and burn” agriculture.
Logging operations, which provide the world’s wood and paper products, also cut countless trees
each year. Loggers, some of them acting illegally, also build roads to access more and more
remote forests—which leads to further deforestation. Forests are also cut as a result of growing
urban sprawl.
Not all deforestation is intentional. Some is caused by a combination of human and natural
factors like wildfires and subsequent overgrazing, which may prevent the growth of young trees.
Deforestation has many negative effects on the environment. The most dramatic impact is a loss
of habitat for millions of species. Seventy percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in
forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes.
Deforestation also drives climate change. Forest soils are moist, but without protection from sunblocking tree cover they quickly dry out. Trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning
water vapor back into the atmosphere. Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands
can quickly become barren deserts.
Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during
the day and holds in heat at night. This disruption leads to more extreme temperatures swings
that can be harmful to plants and animals.
Trees also play a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming. Fewer
forests means larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere—and increased speed
and severity of global warming.
The quickest solution to deforestation would be to simply stop cutting down trees. Though
deforestation rates have slowed a bit in recent years, financial realities make this unlikely to
occur.
A more workable solution is to carefully manage forest resources by eliminating clear-cutting to
make sure that forest environments remain intact. The cutting that does occur should be balanced
by the planting of enough young trees to replace the older ones felled in any given forest. The
number of new tree plantations is growing each year, but their total still equals a tiny fraction of
the Earth’s forested land.
Differentiation:
For this lesson plan, students will be given sources that contain arguments, graphs, and
also a video clip. There is a variety of medium that is being used in this lesson to capture all
student learners’ interest. I believe the hook will capture the students because it’s a music video
with descriptive images of deforestation. This lesson represents differentiation for my overall
curriculum by giving students the information in different formats to keep them engaged in
learning the information.
Adaptations:
There are not any IEPs or 504 plans in this class, but modifications and accommodations
can be made. Instead of relying on students to have read the article at home, I can give each
student a copy of the National Geographic article to read in class and highlight the key points.
This may be best for students who struggle with reading articles and may need a teacher affirm
what was said in the article. Also if there some students who are absolutely not comfortable with
sharing their thoughts in the discussion then they can write them down and discuss them with
their group members. It is important that all students are able to have chance to participate
regardless the form of participation. The small group discussion is a great introduction into large
class discussions, moot courts, and debates. The SAC lesson will allow students with IEPs and
504 plans to become comfortable with public speaking and sharing ideas with evidence.
Reflection:
It is possible that not enough students will complete the exit ticket, and would leave an
uncomfortable number of students for a discussion. Students may also be uncomfortable
discussing the topic and expressing themselves to their classmates if this is their first time in a
class discussion, even on this small scale. The goal is to present a comfortable, respectful
environment, but some students just have an anxiety with public speaking. Since it is the first
discussion activity in the classroom, as the instructor I have to keep a constant watch over the
students to ensure that everyone is participating and engaged. There will be definite room to
grow and set up the class for a better discussion next time.