- View more resources from this publisherOpen Air Laboratories (OPAL)
Mapping for Climate Change
This field study encourages students to investigate the vegetation in a lowland heathland habitat and to use a GPS unit to map habitat fragments. Students could also make management decisions, deciding where to place habitat corridors to help prepare for the possible effects of climate change.
Four activities are suggested depending on the time available and suitability of the site:
• Orienteering with a GPS unit.
• Investigating heathland vegetation using quadrats to compare the relative abundance of heather and grass species.
• Mapping a heathland fragment using a GPS unit.
• Deciding where to locate a habitat corridor to connect two heathland fragments.
Curriculum links include:
[b]Science:[/b] ecology, quadrats/sampling, how science works, climate change, interdependence, biodiversity.
[b]Geography:[/b] ecosystems, human impact on the environment, climate change, GPS, GIS, mapping, managing change/land use, sustainability, biodiversity.
This resource pack was written by Edward Tripp, Dr Amy Rogers and Dr Lauren Gough (OPAL East Midlands, University of Nottingham).
Show health and safety information
Please be aware that resources have been published on the website in the form that they were originally supplied. This means that procedures reflect general practice and standards applicable at the time resources were produced and cannot be assumed to be acceptable today. Website users are fully responsible for ensuring that any activity, including practical work, which they carry out is in accordance with current regulations related to health and safety and that an appropriate risk assessment has been carried out.
Downloads
-
Mapping for climate change 3.78 MB
-
Student workbook 7.53 MB
-
Introducing the GPS unit 466.5 KB
-
Mapping tracks in Google Earth 2.04 MB
-
Heathland map 115.41 KB
-
Sample field trip risk assessment 410.5 KB
-
Teachers' notes 531.5 KB