• In this activity, students will work in groups to debate one of three climate change issues in Brazil: niobium mining, creating natural preserves, or using deforested land for agriculture.

Positives

• The handout links to several credible resources for students to use in preparation for the debate.
• The teacher's guide and the handout can be downloaded and used offline.

Additional Prerequisites

• The resource recommends using credible resources for research and provides some examples. It's important to reiterate this with the students.
• The teacher's guide presents this as a single debate; however, there are three debate topics. Teachers can choose different topics for different groups or the same topic for the whole class.

Differentiation

• Teachers could invite other students or faculty to judge the debates.
• Geography or social studies classes could discuss how the Amazon rainforest plays a vital role in the environmental health of the whole planet. 

• Other resources include this ClimateScience debate activity on climate change issues in Israel, this article on the importance of forests in Brazil, and this video about how the Amazon rainforest plays a vital role in the water cycle. 

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.