Authentic Performance Activities facilitate a student's understanding of a lesson's usefulness in real life. They are also an Understanding by Design (UbD) assessment tool. Focus questions act as pre- and post-assessment indicators of the activity's effectiveness.
Focus Questions:
1. Why do we learn about forest succession?
2. Can you think of any other jobs where knowing about forest succession would be helpful?
3. Can you think of any ways where knowing about forest succession could affect your home and property?
Authentic Performance
You are a forester in the Northeastern US. A land owner hires you to help manage their forests. They want to keep one large field open as grass so they can build a house there when they retire in 30 years. You recommend that they have it mowed at least once a year, but they don’t want to pay for that. They don’t know about forest succession. Using the forest succession diagram below as a guide, explain below what will happen to that field if it is not mowed for 5 years, 10 years, and then 30 years.
