Just for fun sometime, ask your kids, grandkids, or another child what they know about forests. What you will find – and this observation is supported by surveys of many young people over a fifteen year period – is a pervasive pessimism about not only forests, but about the environment in general. Moreover, if you ask questions that have verifiable answers (for instance, trends in forest land area, trends in forest growth and harvest, percent of paper collected for recycling) you will encounter answers that are consistently and significantly to the pessimistic side of wrong.

Narrowing the gap between perception and reality requires that students be engaged in thinking and discussion about forests – where they are, how forests in various regions differ, how forests change through time, forest trends, the basics of forest succession, the types and uses of products that come from forests. What is needed is more than a presentation, a video, or a book. Ideally, at least a portion of learning can occur within a forest, but in any event  the opportunity must be provided for discussion, questioning, informal responses to questions, and more questions. An environmental quiz that has been found useful in initiating such discussion and exploration is available.

Update: 2010 Update of Environmental Quiz Released

The latest quiz is now available with updated questions and the most current data.  Also - for the first time - the quiz can be taken online - providing instant results and feedback!  Teachers and others who wish to arrange for classes or groups to take the quiz can request a personalized online tool that will provide individual and averaged results (to view an example, click here).  Contact Dovetail Partners for more information about using the Environmental Quiz with your group (612-333-0430; info@dovetailinc.org).

To take the Environmental Quiz online, click here:

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=environmental-quiz_3

To download the Quiz and other information, please see the following linked documents: