Article:

Out of the Penalty Box: Protecting the Environment Through Policies

This article is from Issue Northern States Edition - Vol. 1 No. 1.

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Meet the scientists that contributed to this article:

"Science Topics" covered in this article:

Life Science
People and Science

"Environmental Topics" covered in this article:

Forest and Grassland Use (Educators)
Growing and Using Trees and Other Plants (Students)
Importance of Forest to People (Students)
Protecting Trees and Other Plants (Students)
The Value of Forests and Grasslands (Educators)
Using Forests (Students)

Regions covered in this article:

Alaska
Forest Products Lab
Intermountain
International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Northern
Pacific Northwest
Pacific Southwest
Rocky Mountain
Southern

"Thinking About Science Themes" covered in this article:
Scientists learn as much as possible about their topic. They research the Internet, libraries, and other sources (figure 1). They do this to discover what other scientists have found out. Once they have found the information, they have to understand it. To do this, scientists compare and contrast what they have found. Then they summarize the information in one document. You do this very thing when you prepare a paper for class. When scientists do this, it tells them two things. These things are: 1) what information is already known about a topic, and 2) what information is not known. Once they have learned as much as possible, they move forward with their own research.

Specific "Thinking About Science" Themes:
Characteristics of Scientists
The Scientific Process

"Thinking About Environmental Themes" covered in this article:
The United States population is increasing. This increase causes changes in the environment. As a society, we pass laws and make policies (päl uh ses) to manage these changes. Many of the policies and laws help to keep the environment healthy. Policies are like rules we must follow. Environmental policies can do two things to reduce unwanted changes in the environment. Policies can either manage urban growth (ür bun groth) or protect open space (figures 2 and 3). Urban growth is the growth of a city. This growth is caused by an increasing population.

Specific "Thinking About the Environment" Themes:
Human impact on natural resources and other living things

Forest Service Stations covered in this article:

Northern Research Station

NSE Standards covered in this article:

Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry (A)
Understandings about scientific inquiry (A)