Summer 2013

ENVIRONMENT

RESEARCH AND REVIEW 3

Biodiversity and Education| a2bitnickel

1

Research and Review

Before you start each story do some research.
Where should you look?
The title helps you find the ideas. In this title we find three (3) words
that will help us.
The url is ~http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/simcity-the-greenestever-sims-is-here-8527077.html?origin=internalSearch

Gadgets ~ Games ~ Education

Now go find some information to answer these three questions
Find some ideas like ~
What are three education strategies?
1. ___________________________________
2. ___________________________________
3. ___________________________________
Why are they effective strategies?
1. ___________________________________
2. ___________________________________
3. ___________________________________
What solutions can you find to help educate people about the
environment?
1. ___________________________________
2. ___________________________________
3. ___________________________________
Discuss this when you get to class.
~2~

Topic ~ Biodiversity and Education

5x5

Step 1 ~~ Think about 5 different ideas that biodiversity. Look

at your research to help you.
1.___Gadgets ____
2._________________
3._________________
4._________________
5._________________
Step 2 ~~ Make 5 questions about each idea. One is done for you.
1.___ Gadgets ________
i)
What is the biggest concern about gadgets?
ii) Which gadgets are the most effective?
iii) Why can humans learn from gadgets?
iv) Who gains the most from better education?
v)
What advantages are there to using gadgets in education?
2._________________
i)
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
ii) _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
iii) _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
iv) _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
v)
_______________________________________________

~3~

3._________________
i)
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
ii) _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
iii) _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
iv) _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
v)
_______________________________________________
4._________________
i)
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
ii) _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
iii) _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
iv) _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
v)
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
5._________________
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)

_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
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_______________________________________________
~4~

Step 3 ~~ Make longer one sentence answers for each question.

1.___ Gadgets ________
i)
What is the biggest concern about gadgets?
___________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
ii)

Which gadgets are the most effective?

___________________________________________________
_________________________________________________

iii) Why can humans learn from gadgets?

___________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
iv)

Who gains the most from better education?

___________________________________________________
_________________________________________________

v)

What advantages are there to using gadgets in education?

___________________________________________________
_________________________________________________

2._________________
i) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
ii) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

~5~

iii) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
iv) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
v) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
3._________________
i) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
ii) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
iii) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
iv) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
v) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
~6~

4._________________
i) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
ii) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
iii) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
iv) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
v) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
5._________________
i) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
ii) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

~7~

iii) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
iv) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
v) ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

Read the story

SimCity: The greenest ever Sims is here
The cult urban planning strategy game is back after ten years and could be the
most environmentally friendly game ever.
While some people use computer games to play out their fantasies of killing Nazis, winning the
World Cup or, yes, stealing a Ford Mustang and running over a granny, for others theres
nothing more compelling than sitting down for a few daring hours of urban planning.
The thrilling, competitive and sometimes taboo-breaking appeals of games like Call of Duty,
Fifa and Grand Theft Auto are obvious, if not everyones cup of computer-generated tea. Yet the
millions of sales garnered by SimCity during the mid 90s proved that the ostensibly dull
prospect of designing imaginary logistics and infrastructure can be gripping too.
Now the cult strategy game is back after ten years, launching in the UK today with a typically
dry-sounding tag: it could well be the most environmentally friendly game ever. Despite
sounding like a game reserved for the modest demographic of computer geeks whose wallets
contain Greenpeace membership cards, it is poised to prove once again that seeing mayoral
opinion polls rise by opting for clean hydroelectric dams over dirty fossil fuels and avoiding
drought by building too big a city in too dry an area can be just as satisfying as seeing your
pixelated alter-ego blow up Hitler.

~8~

So just as books and films have inspired artists and world leaders, can green games help
change the world?
For better or for worse, yes, says the new versions creative director, Ocean Quigley. I know
a lot of people who say they became city planners, architects or civil engineers because of
SimCity... Its the game that takes the environment most seriously. A green city is something
youre striving for, and the consequences of not having an environmentally clean city are made
obvious. Just as city planning cannot always go to plan, so too with game launches.
The new SimCity requires a constant internet connection, but many users in the US have been
unable to access the system some websites had to postpone their verdicts because their
reviewers could not play it. Todays launch in the UK seems to have gone more smoothly, but
there are still reports of some British fans being disappointed.
For those who can get online, the enhanced environmental aspect of the game might fox some
players. Asked to step away from his newts for a few hours to try his hand at running a virtual
metropolis on SimCity for a Granada TV show hosted by Tony Wilson back in the mid 90s,
former London mayor Ken Livingstone immediately opted to power his town by coal to ensure,
predictably, strong trade unions. Were he to play the new game with that kind of attitude, its
likely a virtual Boris Johnson would come along and stamp on his electoral prospects.
It could hardly be more different to role-playing shoot em ups, not only in genre, but to a large
extent in morality building something good rather than destroying it which is how Mr.
Quigley prefers things. You are the god of this landscape, making decisions that dramatically
impact the wellbeing of an entire population. So youre not a thug going through the city trying
to steal cars, you are the one making decisions that affect hundreds of thousands of your little
Sims going about their lives.
He adds: The subject matter of a game like Grand Theft Auto doesnt appeal to me personally,
though I have immense respect for its designers Grand Theft Auto is the inverse of SimCity.
Youre the authorities trying to make the city work, but there are these bad actors in your city. If
you dont educate your city, you have these criminals going through creating mayhem, burning
down houses and robbing shops, and they become a pox on your city.
Part of the fun, of course, comes from seeing the bad effects of bad choices. Indeed, for the
sadistic municipal overlords, you can let the citizens sicken or die and watch what happens.
Youre going to have a bunch of people who arent going to work and arent going shopping,
the economics of your city will suffer, and as the people who remain will be miserably unhappy
and abandon your city as environmentally refugees, youll end up with large swathes of decrepit
abandoned city as a result, says the designer.
There are still more silly risks involved in being a SimCity mayor of course, ranging from a
small-scale raid by UFOs to a giant lizard that comes and stomps through your city. However,
Mr. Quigley insists these have a more serious purpose. Zombies start coming out and they

~9~

infect other people, and thats an epidemic simulation of the flu or ibola. Its doing it with a
comical, absurd skin, but in terms of its impact on the city theyre a proxy for infectious diseases.
So what is the fascination with creating a make-belief city, even if it does mean spending hours
planning a water and electricity system? Theres a fascination of creating a little model version
of the world that you lord it over, that youre the creator of and the god of, Mr Quigley tells The
Independent.
It is about the mundane realities of the world around us, youre not commanding a squad of
space marines with laser guns to shoot at the bug aliens youre dealing with commuter
congestion. You project your own experience into the game, in a way that I think is deeper and
resonates more.
The graphics in SimCity resemble American cities. But in terms of realism, of course, most of the
biggest new cities in the world are in China places that barely anyone in the West has heard of
but which contain millions of residents, their high rises apartment blocks eating up vast tracts of
land and changing the global balance of power.
SimCity is much more like a new city built by the Chinese Communists over the course of three
years out in the middle of nowhere, and has all the pros and cons: a rational design but all the
pollution and congestion and healthcare issues.
China is hardly known for any care for the environment in its urban landscape the pollution
readings for some of its cities regularly top the maximum reading on the scientific scale. Perhaps
Beijing would be a better place if the countrys new president, Xi Jinping, took a bit of time off
to play the game.

Vocabulary check
Find the colored words and look them up in the dictionary. There
are ten (10) of them.
__________
1. ______________________________________________________
__________
2. ______________________________________________________
__________
3. ______________________________________________________
~ 10 ~

__________
4. ______________________________________________________
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5. ______________________________________________________
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6. ______________________________________________________
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7. ______________________________________________________
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8. ______________________________________________________
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9. ______________________________________________________
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10. ______________________________________________________
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11. ______________________________________________________
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12. ______________________________________________________
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13. ______________________________________________________
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14. ______________________________________________________
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~ 11 ~

15. ______________________________________________________
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16. ______________________________________________________
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17. ______________________________________________________
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18. ______________________________________________________
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19. ______________________________________________________
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20. ______________________________________________________
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21. ______________________________________________________
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22. ______________________________________________________
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23. ______________________________________________________
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24. ______________________________________________________
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25. ______________________________________________________
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26. ______________________________________________________
~ 12 ~

__________
27. ______________________________________________________
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28. ______________________________________________________
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29. ______________________________________________________
__________
30. ______________________________________________________

Step 4
Step 4 is to put all the answers into paragraphs. Each of the five (5)
in section one (1) is a paragraph. You will have a 5 paragraph essay
now.
1. Extinction
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_______________________________________________________

~ 13 ~

2.______________
_______________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________
3.______________
_______________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________
4.______________
_______________________________________________________
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~ 14 ~

5.______________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Step 5 is to add an introduction and a conclusion. Do this for your
essay homework.

~ 15 ~

Graphic Organization ~
Main topic = 5 Paragraph Topics

paragraph 1
____________
____________
____________
____________
paragraph 5
____________
____________
____________
____________

Main
topic

paragraph 4
____________
____________
____________
____________

paragraph 2
____________
____________
____________
____________

paragraph 3
____________
____________
____________
____________

~ 16 ~

Discussion Graphic ~ How is education linked to habitats?

Answer ~ I think education (are / are not) is linked to habitats because

Problem /
Habitats and Education

Education costs too much

money.

Respond

Respond

Habitats make nice science

classes, but with internet
video we do not need to
worry about them.

Respond

Respond

~ 17 ~

Human needs are more

important than exotic
species.

Respond

Respond

graphic ~ choose one statement from the

list above.

Write it here _____________________________________________

________________________________________________________

To make your argument you should understand that they are connected.
In the next two charts (1) list your argument facts and ideas, (2) show how your argument
connects to both the center point and the other points.

Facts
For

Against

~ 18 ~

graphic ~ choose one statement from the

list above.

If this -- then
If this -- then

Write your statement position here.

__________________________________
__________________________________
If this -- then

__________________________________

If this -- then

__________________________________
______________

If this -- then

Now start the

As a team choose which points they will speak about.

Each person will listen for the opposite point and create a new response to what the
other person has said.
A: point 1
B: responds to the point and give a new point.
C: responds to B and give a new point.
After all persons have spoken each person can respond to any point given by the opposite team,
or add more points from their team which will need responding to from the opposite team.

~ 19 ~