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Lesson Plans Use these lesson plans to help your students understand more about the history, people, and ecosystems of Madagascar. Each lesson is related to information contained within this Web site. Watch for regular dispatches from the expedition that will contain additional related information. Encourage students to send their questions to expedition members. About the author Reen Gibb currently teachers at Brookline High School in Massachusetts, where she has worked for 20 years. Her teaching experience includes secondary and middle school biology, secondary school physics, and college and secondary school chemistry. Ms. Gibb also teaches in the Education Department at Wellesley College and works as an investigator for a Boston University Science Foundation grant that focuses on using the computer as a virtual laboratory in the chemistry classroom. Madagascar—The Eighth Continent: Students use a world map to locate Madagascar, learn about its features, and compare this diverse mini-continent to their own state. The King of Carnivores: Students compare one of Madagascar's few predators, the fossa, with top predators from other environments to understand what makes the fossa a successful carnivore. Students also study the mouth structures of several carnivores to understand their adaptations. Transect Investigation: Students subdivide an area into transects and perform a scientific study, determining the N/S and E/W directions in the transect and recording the transect's biotic and abiotic information. Students combine their data and as a class make general conclusions and predictions about the site. Population Dynamics: Students compare and contrast the population dynamics of Madagascar to those in the United States, predict some consequences of the youthful age distribution in Madagascar, calculate percentages of given population numbers, and represent population age data in pie-chart and bar-graph form. The Expedition | Surviving The Wilds | Explore Madagascar Dispatches | Classroom Resources | E-Mail | Resources Site Map | The Wilds of Madagascar Home Editor's Picks | Previous Sites | Join Us/E-mail | TV/Web Schedule About NOVA | Teachers | Site Map | Shop | Jobs | Search | To print PBS Online | NOVA Online | WGBH © | Updated November 2000 |