Assessment 3: Reflective Exercise

Teacher Instructions

Pre-Discussion:

How are we affected by forest research today? We just finished learning about forest research and forest research discoveries. Many of the things we learned about had a great impact on society at the time of the discoveries but does this still impact our lives today? Let’s take a look at one example, naval stores.

• What impact do you think the naval stores technological improvements have on us today?

• Were the new chipping methods and addition of sulfuric acid to prolong gum flow really such a major discovery? Why or why not?

• Do you think these technological advances in naval stores techniques impact us today?

Pass out Assessment 3 (student page). Have the students read over the list of uses of Rosin and Turpentine today. Tell the students they are going to conduct a survey about rosin and turpentine use. Introduce the concept of a survey by discussing:

• What are some of the ways in which we get information from people about a specific subject? (Interviews, surveys, questionnaires, Internet search, etc)

• What is a survey? (A method of gathering information about a specific topic)

• What are some of the reasons for conducting a survey? (Answers will vary but may include learning more about what people like to do, places they like to visit, things they like to eat, things they use, number of people in their family, etc)

Explain to students that they will be conducting a survey to learn how people use rosin and/or turpentine in their daily lives. Students must ask at least 10 people the survey questions and then compile their data into a Histogram. Go over the assessment directions with the students. Explain that a Histogram is a bar graph in which the length of the bar illustrates the number of observations or the frequency of each item.

On the turn day:

When the students turn in this assessment, once again discuss the questions you asked initially.

• What impact do you think the naval stores technological improvements have on us today?

• Were the new chipping methods and addition of sulfuric acid to prolong gum flow really such a major discovery? Why or why not?

• Do you think these technological advances in naval stores techniques impact us today?

• Were the students surprised to learn about all of the products containing turpentine and rosin?