Category Building
Consider the list of features on the handout. There are two geographical categories in large
font: North Pacific islands and tropical islands. As a group, the class will create bubble
maps relating the features listed to each other and to one (or both) of the geographical
categories. Some features are meant to be used more than once. As a driving question, can
you trace how ideas of environmental consciousness developed from human experiences in
specific locations? What events, actors and contemporary intellectual influences shaped ideas
of speciation, conservation, erosion, etc.?
North Pacific Islands
Tropical Islands

Russia

German Naturalists

Local

United States of

Aleutians

Life history traits
America

Pietism

Evolution

Britain

Cameralism

Speciation

France

Desiccation

Fur seals

Spain

Aridity

Forestry

Steller’s sea cow

Erosion

Sea otters

Keystone species

Aleutian Islands

Little Ice Age

Mauritius

Fur trade

Assimilation

St. Helena

Migration

Diversity

The Philippines

Food source

18th Century

New Zealand

Kamchadals

19th Century

Extinction

Upwelling

Deforestation

Taxonomy

Nationalism

Global
management

Utilitarian
conservation