Succession and Forest Habitats Session 1
Session 1
Print version of "Succession and Forest Habitats": PDF • Word
Conduct this session in the classroom.
- Read aloud Lynne Cherry's book Flute's Journey. Stop periodically to discuss migration and the impact forest loss and fragmentation have on migratory birds like Flute. Impacts may include, for example, decreased food source, greater competition for less territory, increased vulnerability to predators, and the threat of lawn chemicals.
- Hand out copies of "Forests key to health of Chesapeake Bay," by Kathryn Reshetiloff (see Resources). Read the article aloud, or have students read it themselves—individually or with partners. If you think vocabulary may be a problem, discuss the challenging words and their meanings prior to reading.
- As students read, have them use crayons or highlighters to color-code the following:
- benefits of forests (in yellow, perhaps)
- animals in forest ecosystems (in orange, perhaps)
- plants in forest ecosystems (in green, perhaps)
- benefits of forests (in yellow, perhaps)
- Direct students to list forest benefits. Then have the students share their lists and discuss them.
- Next, discuss the layers of the forest, such as canopy, understory, and shrub.
- Compare the estimated historical maximum percentage of forested watershed land (90 percent) to the percentage of forested land that exists today (less than 60 percent). Explain to students that cent comes from a word meaning "hundred" and therefore percent means "per hundred." So "50 percent" is the same as the fraction 50/100. Have students write the two percentages from the article as fractions and compare them.
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