This video takes students on a virtual trip to five different locations around the world, depicting the changes happening to our world’s forests over time from satellite images.
The five locations are Nuflo de Chavez, Bolivia; Enright, Oregon, USA; Atsimo-Andrefana, Madagascar; Sara, Bolivia; and Mato Grosso, Brazil.
Students will see the extent of deforestation in those locations from 1984-2020.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The music and sound effects make the content more engaging.
It contains short facts and information about deforestation that make it powerful and informative.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should understand that satellite images are real pictures taken of the Earth from space.
Differentiation
Teachers could play this video before a discussion about deforestation, economic growth, population growth, per capita consumption growth, or biodiversity loss.
3rd-5th graders could observe the reduction in green cover from 1984-2020, while middle and high school math students could estimate the surface area of forest lost in the images.
The short facts that pop up could be used for social studies, biology, or ethics classes when discussing sustainability, the rights of other species to exist, how much we rely on natural ecosystems to survive, or how to design economies to support a sustainable future.
Click here for a similar resource from Google Earth on Changing Forests.
Scientist Notes
This resource spotlights the rate of deforestation and other land use changes from a variable time span (1984-2020) in selected countries. There is no contradiction in facts as presented in the resource. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.
Science
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-4. Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
