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 Article:
Wild and Free! The Quality of Wildness in Wilderness in the United StatesThis article is from Issue Wilderness Benefits - Vol. 7 No. 1.
* Note: All editions of the Natural Inquirer starting with Volume 5 and including future editions require the newest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 in order to be downloaded. We have upgraded in order to ensure greater accessibility to PDF files. Please click on the following link if you need to upgrade your Adobe Acrobat reader: Upgrade now to Adobe Reader 6.0. It is a free upgrade. According to the scientists in this study, wildness is one of the central qualities of wilderness. To say that an area is wild in this sense, the scientists believed that it must have two qualities: (1) It must have the quality of naturalness, and (2) it must be free from the control of humans. In this study, the scientists wanted to find out whether their belief that wilderness is more natural and freer from human control than other lands is really true.
Welcome to the Wilderness Benefits editionNote to EducatorsWilderness Benefits Lesson PlanReflection Section Answer GuideEducation Standards CorrelationsMeet the scientists that contributed to this article: "Science Topics" covered in this article:
"Environmental Topics" covered in this article:
Regions covered in this article:
"Thinking About Science Themes" covered in this article: Scientists are always learning about and using the latest technology that can help them to do a better job of discovering new information. In this study, the scientists used technology in the form of a computer-based mapping system, called a Geographic Information System (GIS). In a GIS, layers of information about a specific place are combined. The result is information about that place that includes the relationship of a number of features. In this study, the scientists combined six types of information for each of 16 million square kilometers of land and water in the United States (figure 1). Specific "Thinking About Science" Themes:"Thinking About Environmental Themes" covered in this article: Imagine a small piece of land, about one-half kilometer square (or a little less than one-third of a mile on each side). That piece of land can have many characteristics that may be identified and measured. For example, you could measure the amount of ground within the square that is covered by trees. You could measure the length of any road within the square, or identify that there are no roads within the square. You could measure the length of any stream or river within the square. You could count the number of people living within the square. You could even count the number of middle school students living within the square! The land has many characteristics, which include natural characteristics and human-related characteristics. Think about the land on which your school is located. Identify four natural characteristics that can be measured and four human-related characteristics that can be measured. You can see that a lot of information can be attached to a specific piece of land. Specific "Thinking About the Environment" Themes:NSE Standards covered in this article:
Science Benchmarks covered in this article:
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