This interactive map of Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique shows natural features, vegetation types and biomes, conservation strategies, and community and tourism resources.
This park is undergoing a long-term restoration project to conserve its wildlife and habitats.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The map is simple and easy to navigate.
It includes a past, present, and future view so students can analyze conservation efforts over time.
Additional Prerequisites
Students will need access to a device with internet connection.
There is an activity to accompany this lesson called "Exploring Biomes in Gorongosa National Park." It is linked in the right sidebar.
Differentiation
The resource site includes a video of a teacher sharing how she has used this activity in her classroom.
Students can further research the conservation strategies being used in Gorongosa National Park and their plan for a sustainable future.
Students can use this as inspiration to propose a conservation plan for a National Park near them.
Other helpful resources include this activity about biomes, this video about conservation, and this article about ecological succession and primary forests.
Scientist Notes
There is no contradiction in this resource, map visualizes changes in parks, biodiversity over time as a result of climate change and human activities. This resources is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-4 Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-6 Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
HS-LS2-7 Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.3.9-12 Use geographic data to analyze variations in the spatial patterns of cultural and environmental characteristics at multiple scales.
D2.Geo.9.9-12 Evaluate the influence of long-term climate variability on human migration and settlement patterns, resource use, and land uses at local-to-global scales.
