Forest of Pakistan

Topic: Forest of Pakistan
Level: Lower Secondary classes (VI-VIII)
Time: 40-45 minutes (three classes)
Subject: Social studies, Science
Resources: Black board, chalks, books, magazines, leaflets, pamphlets, Internet,
Visits: Visit to the local Forest Department

Objectives:

At the end of the lesson the students will be able to achieve the following objectives:

Knowing:

• Know the different types of forests of Pakistan
• Discuss the benefits from these forest
• Identify agents causing harm to these forests.
• Know and understand the working of different organisations working for Forest rehabilitation

Doing:

• Find information about the forest of Pakistan through different sources such as library research (books, magazines, pamphlets, internet), visits to different institutions such as the Forest Department
• Make and deliver presentations about the different forests of Pakistan
• Use products of Forests (paper, glue, pencils) in a conscious way

Feeling:

• Appreciate the creation of God and the benefits extended to human beings
• Become sensitive to the impacts of exploiting forests
• Realise the importance of recycling and reusing the forest products.
• Feel concern about the species depending on these forests.

Presentation of the Lesson:

Motivation:

Teacher can start the lesson by brain storming about "forest" and encouraging students to express their thoughts and feelings about them. This motivation can help the students to ask question about forests, their types, uses and threats.

Development of the lesson:

Teacher can ask students about the Forest of Pakistan. Here teacher can also encourage students to share their experiences if they have been to any forests of Pakistan. If the students find it difficult to identify or name the forest of Pakistan the teacher can help the students to do that. The forests of Pakistan include:

• Coniferous Forests
• Scrub forests
• Coastal/ Mangrove forests
• Riverine forest
• Irrigated plantations
• Farm forestry

Now teacher can make six groups of the students according to the above mentioned forest and ask each group to find out more about these forests from libraries and Internet. Following guidelines can be beneficial for students in their research work. (These guidelines should be used as direction rather than a strict structure for students to follow)

• Area & location of forest
• Type of trees and other flora
• Wild life in these forests
• Benefits obtained from these forests
• Threats to these forests
• Local and government initiatives

After collection of information on these forests from the local library and Internet the teacher can arrange a visit to the local Forest Department. This visit will enable the students to get a broader view about these forests, their uses, wild life living in these forests and the threats to these forests as they would have done a survey about these forests and would be able to ask questions and raise queries about them. After the visit teacher can provide time to the students to incorporated the feedback and information and prepare presentations accordingly.

Now teacher will ask each group to present their work. These presentations can be based on the same guidelines, which were provided for collection of material on the forests of Pakistan. The audience (class or other sections) should be encouraged to ask questions and the groups should be motivated to give answers in order to develop a discourse on the issues pertaining to forests in Pakistan.

Conclusion:

After the presentations teacher can discuss the summary of the lesson with the students. Here teacher can ask the students to think and come up with solutions to the problems faced by these forests. The students can be encouraged to think of their roles for these problems.

Home fun/assignments:

Teacher can ask the students to talk about their presentations and the class discussions with their family members. Students can also be encouraged to share feedback and additional information provided by their families with the class.

Brief information about the forests of Pakistan:

• Coniferous
• Irrigated plantations
• Riverine forests
• Scrub
• Coastal/ mangroves forest
• Farm forestry