1. ENGAGE:
   There are several ways to engage students in this activity. You could start by showing Hidden Treasures: Landscape Archeology, which can be streamed from the the Apple Learning Interchange or the South Carolina Educational TV website to show your students how math is important in the study of forests. This could be followed by the hands-on activity in the Educators Guide. Start the GIS Challenge web activity with a story. It could take place on Norbania where Norbert and Zot are receiving their mission instructions. Ask how they might go about measuring deforestation. Ask you students to give an example of a Geographical Information System (GIS). Squeak, an engaging multimedia authoring environment, will grab the attention of young learners.
2. EXPLORE:
   In the GIS Challenge, your students should first explore the activity to see what happens. There are directions in the book in the activity when they get to the more serious business of taking data and plotting their results. Have them work in groups on the challenges. Each member should be contributing ideas. By comparing their ideas, they can check each other and come up with the best answers.
3. EXPLAIN:
   To prepare students for an oral presentation, assign as homework the task to write out a presentation of their observations and analysis for the mission director. Encourage them to accompany their words with pictures they draw. Have your students describe, discuss and explain their data and discuss their conclusions and predictions on deforestation in Guatemala. They should explain what they observe clearly and note any mathematical patterns they see in their data.
4. EXTEND:
   Close this window and follow the link in the Teacher Information area for a list of other extensions. Choose the challenges you have your students do to fit the class time you have available and based on the knowledge level of your students.
5. EVALUATE:
   Have your students evaluate how reliable they believe their data to be and how well they can predict from their measurements. Have your students check the Internet to find more information on deforestation. Go to the NASA CONNECT web site to have your students submit their Squeak projects from the challenges and final presentations. We will post them if they are good examples and give feedback. They can save their Squeak projects using the publish button on the navigator flap.