EXPLORING BIODIVERSITY: A Guide for Educators Around the World

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Tips for Interviewing
• Carefully prepare your questions in
advance. Limit the number of questions to
about ten.
• Before you begin asking questions, explain
how you will use the information.
• Ask your questions clearly and give the
interviewee time to think and respond.
• Before you end the interview, thank the
interviewee for taking the time to help
you with your project.
5. Map the past.
In the next class period, students should return to
their previous groups. After sharing the results of
their interviews, they will create new maps––this
time portraying what their community was like
in the past. After they have finished, each group
should again share their new maps with the class.
6. Make a list of environmental problems.
Explain to the students that they now have maps
of their community as it is today and as it was in
the past. Ask them if they can think of any
changes they have seen since they were younger.
What about changes their parents or grandparents
mentioned? Were there any changes
observed that indicate that the environment in
and around their communities has gotten worse?
Better? Discuss those changes as a group.
FINISHING UP
Talk with students about what has changed in
their communities. As humans try to improve
quality of life, sometimes nature is harmed. How
do we depend on healthy natural systems to live
well? (We need clean water to drink, healthy soil
to produce food, and wildlife for balanced ecosystems.)
What happens to human quality of life if
we don’t conserve the life around us?
Ask students how they would like their community
to look when they are grown and have
children. As a homework assignment, or in class,
students can draw a personal map of their vision
for the future. If your community has a central
place to display the children’s work, such as the
post office, health clinic, or church, you could
create an exhibit with the best maps–-past,
present, and future.
Indonesia’s Gunung Gede National Park has primary rain forest with over 200
species of birds. Since it is very close to the capital city of Jakarta, both tourists
and students visit the Bodogol Conservation Education Centre. Youth from
communities around the park have been trained as guides to the park, and they
help visitors learn about Indonesia’s unique forests and wildlife.
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