Integrated forest management comes to life in this Grade 6 Science learning stations activity focused on how forest managers balance ecological, economic, social, and cultural objectives. Designed within an Alberta Trees and Forests context, students examine management decisions through station-based learning rather than treating forest management as a single-goal process.

Explore Forest Management in Action

Students rotate through station cards and record key information on their own station recording sheet. The activity develops their ability to compare landscape-scale forest management tools and consider how different priorities can be addressed together.

Throughout the stations, students work with important forest management concepts, including:

• Balancing ecological, economic, social, and cultural objectives
• Comparing tools used to manage forests at a landscape scale
• Recognizing the role of monitoring in management decisions
• Explaining how collaboration supports integrated management
• Connecting adaptation with long-term forest resilience

What Teachers Receive

• Station cards for the integrated management activity
• Student station recording sheet
• Station wrap-up activity
• Teacher guide included in the Answer Key PDF

The teacher guide provides learning objectives, teaching tips, discussion questions, and common mistakes, giving teachers support for introducing the activity, guiding student thinking, and discussing the cases afterward.

Built for Collaborative Science Learning

This forest management activity works naturally as a classroom rotation. Small groups can move between stations, record information independently, and then use the wrap-up to bring ideas together. The structure supports comparison across cases while keeping students focused on the broader question of how multiple forest values can be considered in management.

Use the resource during a Trees and Forests unit, as collaborative practice after instruction, or as a way to deepen discussion of sustainable forest management and landscape-scale decision-making. Instead of focusing only on vocabulary recall, students consider how monitoring, collaboration, management tools, and adaptation contribute to resilient forests over time.

For teachers covering Alberta Grade 6 Science forest topics, this learning stations format provides a focused way to connect forest management concepts with structured group analysis and whole-class discussion.