Addison Trail High School

Getting Back to Nature

A Guide to Local Forest Preserves and Nature Centers
For 9^th grade biology students at Addison Trail High School

This Web Quest will assist 9^th grade biology students to learn the history of local forest preserves and nature centers. It will be incorporated at the end of their ecology unit. Upon completion of the project, students will be visiting several local forest preserves and nature centers.

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Introduction
“I’m bored. There’s nothing to do around here. Addison stinks!” Does this sound familiar? Have you or your friends ever complained about this? Do you enjoy hiking, biking and outdoor activities? Do you enjoy learning about mother nature and all her creatures? Well do I have good news for you! All of these activities you can do right here in DuPage and Kane counties. This Web Quest will be your guide. It will enable you to discover local forest preserves and their histories. Do they have nature centers? What type of educational programs are offered at these centers? How have these programs changed over the past ten years? What types of native plants and animals are found there? What type of recreational activities do they offer? These are just a few of the questions you will answer throughout this Web Quest.

Topics that will be researched will include:

Historical development of local forest preserves and nature centers.
    -How local, state, or federal government has influenced these forest preserves?
    -Types of educational programs offered at local nature centers.
    -How the educational programs developed or changed over the past 10 years?
    -Volunteer programs offered at forest preserves.
    -Kinds of recreational activities offered.
    -Native plants and animals.
    -Costs for maintaining and managing a forest preserve and nature center.

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Task
Imagine you are a park ranger for the state of Illinois. You have been working in DuPage and Kane counties for ten years and have devoted much of your time to preserving the natural habitats found there. You have just been told that the state is planning on cutting much of your funding and is planning on using some of these areas to build strip malls. The state is going to begin destroying forest preserves unless you can prove to them the importance that they serve.

You will be working in teams of three gathering and organizing information. You will be expected to research at least one forest preserve from DuPage and Kane county and how they were developed. You will write a 3-4 page paper explaining the educational programs and how they have changed over the past ten years, recreational activities, and volunteer programs offered at the nature centers. You will conduct an interview with a staff member from one of the facilities and include exerpts from the interview within your paper. Finally, given a certain budget, you will design a forest preserve with a nature center. You will create a brochure to explain the type of environment, at least four educational programs that will be offered, two types of recreational activities that will be available, and include a map of your forest preserve. The culminating activity will be to present your information to the class.

You will use primary and secondary sources to help you gain access to a variety of information. By utilizing primary and secondary sources you will gain the knowledge and skills necessary for successfully completing the project. This will also help you for future research projects in other content areas throughout your academic career.

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Process
Starting with Activity 1, work your way through all 4 activities. Follow all instructions and guidelines. A rubric for how you will be graded can be found in the Evaluation section.

Activity 1: Research at least one forest preserve from DuPage and Kane county that has a nature center.
Write a 3 – 4 page paper that incorporates all of the following information:

1. How was each forest preserve developed? Who originally owned the land? When did it become a forest preserve?
2. How has the local, state, or federal government influenced these forest preserves?
3. What types of educational programs are offered there? How have these programs developed or changed over the past 10 years?
4. Are there any volunteer programs offered? If so, how does one get involved?
5. What kinds of recreational activities are offered?
6. Conduct an interview with a staff member from one of the facilities and include excerpts from the interview within the paper.

Activity 2: Create a key identifying at least five plants and five animals native to one of the forest preserves researched.

Activity 3: Design a forest preserve with a nature center.
Create a brochure for your forest preserve that includes all of the following:

1. Explain the type of environment found in your forest preserve. Identify at least five plants and five animals found there. These must be different from the one used in your key.

2. Explain four educational programs that will be offered through your nature center.

3. Explain two types of recreational activities that will be available at your forest preserve.

4. Include a map of the forest preserve.

5. Give an estimate of how much money your forest preserve and nature center requires to be managed and maintained for one year. Give an itemized breakdown of each expense required. (This does not need to be included in the brochure.)

Activity 4: Present all your information to the class in a formal 5- 10 minute presentation. Include brochures for your classmates.

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Resources

For this project you will be using primary and secondary sources. To understand what a primary and secondary source is go to the following websites:

http://www.graphic.org/resources.html.

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/psources/source.html

To conduct your research you can use the following list of books and resources to help you:

Chicago Wilderness a Regional Nature Reserve: An Atlas of Biodiversity
A Guide to Illinois Nature Centers & Interpretive Trails
Illinois Family Adventure Guide
Plants of the Chicago Region
Illinois Natural Areas Inventory
http://www.dupageforest.com
http://co.kane.il.us/forest
http://dnr.state.il.us
http://foxriverecosystem.org
http://www.eapl.org/ys/sites/habitats.htm
http://www.foxriverecosystem.org
http://www.willowbrookwildlife.org

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Evaluation
You will be evaluated on each part of the project as well as the group presentation. The following is the rubric that will be used to evaluate your project.

Getting Back to Nature Project Rubric

Group Members: ____________________________________________________________________

SEE = Substantially exceeds expectations.
ME = Meets expectations.
NY = Not yet meets expectations.

SEE (10-8)	ME (7-6)	NY (5-0)	COMMENTS
I. RESEARCH PAPER
Paper is well structured and contains all the necessary requirements. Research is thorough and accurate without extraneous information.	Paper is structured and contains most of the requirements. Most research is accurate with little extraneous information.	Paper is not structured and is missing major requirements. Research is not accurate and contains extraneous information.
Interview contains abundant questions that are clear, relevant, and with complete and well understood answers	Interview contains some questions that are relatively clear and relevant with answers easy to understand	Poorly worded interview questions and /or insufficient questions that lack clarity and/or relevance to the topic; may lack answers
Free of grammatical and/or mechanical errors	Minor grammatical and/or mechanical errors that do not distract reader	Major grammatical and/or mechanical errors distract reader
Works cited page contains abundant sources in correct format.	Works cited page contains some sources that are generally in the correct format.	Little or no sources are listed and/or not in correct format.
II. KEY
More than five plants and five animals are properly identified.	Five plants and five animals are properly identified.	Less than five plants and five animals are identified. Plants and animals are not correctly identified.
The key is readily understandable with no clarification needed.	The key is understandable with little clarification needed.	The key is not readily understandable and needs much clarification.
III. DESIGN AND BROCHURE
Brochure is well structured and creative. All the necessary requirements are contained within the brochure.	Brochure is structured and contains most of the requirements.	Brochure is not structured and is missing major requirements.
Map is creative and contains all the elements of a good map.	Map contains most elements of a good map.	Map is missing several elements of a good map.
Expenses are accurately itemized and realistic.	Most expenses are itemized and fairly realistic.	Expenses are not itemized and are unrealistic.
IV. PRESENTATION
The information is readily understandable as presented, with little or no clarification needed.	The presenters must be asked to clarify their information and thinking to be understood.	The information is not readily understandable, and the presenters are unable to adequately clarify their thinking.
Each group member appears knowledgeable about all aspects of the project.	Each group member appears knowledgeable about his/her own part of the project.	One or more group members appear to lack basic knowledge about the project.
Presenters speak powerfully, articulately and loudly enough to be heard. Speakers make good eye contact with the audience.	The presenters are articulate, but need to be asked once to speak up. Speakers make some eye contact and rely on notes.	The presenters need to be asked more than once to speak up and/or do not make eye contact with the audience while reading notes.
All group members share speaking responsibilities evenly.	One or more group members do most of the speaking, while the other(s) do less.	One or more group members have little or no speaking responsibilities.

Overall points awarded based upon your evaluation above: (130 points possible)

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Conclusion
You should now have a better understanding of how local forest preserves were developed and how they have changed over the past decade. You should have a basic knowledge of where local forest preserves are located and what native plants and animals can be found there. You should have an understanding of what it takes to manage and maintain a forest preserve and nature center. Finally, you should also have a general knowledge in the use of primary and secondary sources as well.

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Teacher Page
Getting Back to Nature
Freshman biology is part of an integrated, interdisciplinary program. The course is team taught with English and world history. We spend one quarter studying the concept of ecology and how the environment has affected various cultures. We also study how humans have affected their environment and look at many ethical issues. This Web Quest will help students learn about their local forest preserves and their environments.

Topics that will be researched will include the history of local forest preserves and nature centers, government influence on local forest preserves, educational programs offered, how the educational programs have changed, native plants and animals, recreational activities offered, and volunteer programs available. Students will research these topics by using primary and secondary sources including: websites, on-line subscriptions and databases, libraries, and personal interviews. The culminating activity will be to design a forest preserve with a nature center and present their information to the class.

Lesson Title: Getting Back to Nature: A Guide to Local Forest Preserves and Nature Centers

Curricular areas: Biology

Interdisciplinary connections: English / History / Speech / Math

Grade Level: 9

Length of lesson: About 2 weeks, depending on how much class time you give to work on the project.

Materials: Computers with internet access, library access

Objectives as related to the Illinois State Learning Standards:
Students will be able to:

Identify forest preserves, nature centers, and native species. (Goal 11 A: Know and apply the concepts, principles and processes of scientific inquiry)

Identify how the government has influenced forest preserves. (Goal 16 E: Understand Illinois, United States and world environmental history)

Identify types of educational programs offered at local forest preserves and how these programs have developed or changed over the past decade. (Goal 16 E: Understand Illinois, United States and world environmental history.)

Identify native species. Identify recreational activities. (Goal 12 B: Know and apply concepts that describe how living things interact with each other and with their environment.)

Design a forest preserve and nature center. (Goal 13 B: Know and apply concepts that describe the interaction between science, technology and society.)

Estimate cost of managing and maintaining a forest preserve and nature center. (Goal 6 C: Compute and estimate using mental mathematics, paper-and-pencil methods, calculators and computers.)

Create a brochure. (Goal 3 B: Compose well-organized and coherent writing for specific purposes and audiences.)

Conduct an interview. (Goal 4 A: Listen effectively in formal and informal situation)

Present information to a group. (Goal 4 B: Speak effectively using language appropriate to the situation and audience.)

Gather information using a variety of resources. (Goal 5 A: Locate, organize, and use information from various sources to answer questions, solve problems and communicate ideas.)

Bibliography

Websites:

Ela’s Kids’ Page. Ela Area Public Library. 17 Oct. 2003 <http://www.eapl.org/ys/sites/habitats.htm>.

Forest Preserve District of Dupage County. DuPage County Forest Preserve District. 24 Nov. 2003 <http://www.dupageforest.com>

Forest Preserve District of Kane County. Kane County Forest Preserve District. 24 Nov. 2003 <http://www.co.kane.il.us/forest>

Fox River Ecosystem Partnership. Wildlife Foundation Max McGraw and Illinois Department of Natural Resources. 20 Oct. 2003 <http://www.foxriverecosystem.org>.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Illinois Department of Natural Resources. 24 Nov. 2003 <http://dnr.state.il.us>

Lampa, Wayne, and Linda Masters. Report on the Status of Restoration Efforts in Oak‑Dominated Communities in DuPage County. Forest Preserve District DuPage County. 18 Oct. 2003 <http://www.dupageforest.com>.

Outdoor Adventures. Lansing Public Library. 22 Oct. 2003 <http://www.lansing.lib.il.us>.

Reference Staff Links. Crystal Lake Public Library. 4 Oct. 2003 <http://www.crystallakenet.org/reference.html>.

Willowbrook Wildlife Center. DuPage Forest Preserve District. 18 Oct. 2003 <http://www.willowbrookwildlife.org>.

Books:

Fuller, G. D. 1935. "Post glacial vegetation of the Lake Michigan region."

Ecology, 16, 473-487.

Illinois Natural Areas Inventory. n.d. Morton Arboretum, Area #506, Ref. 21.

Reed, P. B. 1988. "National list of plant species that occur in wetlands: national

summary." U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biological Report, 88 (24).

Schuldt, L. M. (1996). Southern Illinois. In Illinois Family Adventure Guide (pp. 147‑168). Connecticut: The Globe Pequot Press, Inc.

Sullivan, Jerry. (2003). Chicago Wilderness A Regional Nature Reserve An Atlas of Biodiversity. Illinois Conservation Foundation.

Swink, F. and G. S. Wilhelm. 1979. Plants of the Chicago Region (3rd edition).

Lisle, IL: Morton Arboretum.

Swink, F. and G. S. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region (4th edition).

Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Academy of Science.

Zyznieuski, W. G., & Zyznieuski, G. S. (2002). A Guide to Illinois Nature Centers & Interpretive Trails. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.

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IV. PRESENTATION