After visiting the National Geographic magazine feature Africa MegaFlyover, students will imagine that they are going to travel along with National Geographic conservation fellow Michael Fay. They will think about questions they'd like to answer regarding human-nature interactions, and list the equipment they would take to study one of these questions. Students will conclude by drawing pictures of themselves using this equipment to study the topic they've selected.

Geography

Standard 4: "The physical and human characteristics of places"
Standard 18: "How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future"

One to two hours

• Computer with Internet access
• Drawing materials

Students will

• view photographs of African animals and discuss the equipment they'd use to study these animals in the wild;
• listen to the teacher paraphrase an article about the MegaFlyover project;
• discuss how an airplane might help them learn about Africa's animals, plants, and people;
• view some aerial photographs to see what the earth looks like from a low-flying plane;
• list "research questions" they might have if they were to go along on the MegaFlyover journey;
• list equipment they would take to help answer one of these questions; and
• draw pictures of themselves researching this question.

Have students look at some pictures of African animals at National Geographic's Creature Feature archive. The African animals on this site include cheetahs, chimpanzees, crocodiles, elephants, giraffes, gorillas, hippopotamuses, lemurs, lions, rhinoceroses, and warthogs.

After students have viewed a few of the animal photographs, ask them to imagine that they can go to Africa to watch and study these animals. What things might help them observe and learn about the animals? What would they take on their journey?

Students might mention binoculars, a camera, a pen and paper, or any number of other things they'd take. Discuss their ideas, and list them on the board.

Have students visit the National Geographic magazine feature Africa MegaFlyover and then look at the picture at the National Geographic News article, Africa Explorer Takes Off on Yearlong Aerial Survey. Explain that the man in the yellow sweater, Michael Fay, is about to leave for this yearlong trip in the red airplane to study Africa from the air. The other man is the plane's pilot.

Paraphrase the article's content to the class by telling them the following main points:

• Michael Fay plans to take pictures from the air to help him learn more about Africa's animals, plants, and people.
• He wants to find out how the animals and plants are doing, especially in places where many people live. He wants to see how people's activities, such as building homes, driving, and farming, are affecting the animals and plants.
• He'll look for roads, trails, huts, and other human-made things, and he may sometimes count the animals he sees in a place.
• He hopes to figure out which places in Africa might make good national parks or other natural areas.

Ask students to imagine that they're going with Michael Fay in the airplane. How do they think the airplane will help them learn about Africa and its animals, plants, and people? What things might they expect to see from the plane?

Show students the aerial photographs at the Aerials Only Gallery. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen, and select one of the locations. This will give students an idea of what the Earth looks like from a low-flying plane. After they've looked at a few aerial photos, ask them to describe some of the things they can learn from these pictures, such as how many buildings there are, whether there are a lot of trees, etc.

Explain that Africa looks different in some ways from these pictures (all taken over the United States), but that Michael Fay will still see trees, buildings, and many of the same types of things students have looked at here.

Ask the class to think about things they'd like to learn on their imaginary trip to Africa. Specifically, what would they like to know about the relationships between animals and people? They may need some help thinking of ideas; some sample questions include:

• Do lions capture and eat people? If so, what do people do about this problem?
• Do people kill elephants? If so, why?
• Do animals seem to mind living close to villages?
• How do animals behave near roads?
• Is there enough forest left for the chimpanzees and gorillas, or have people cut the forest too much?

These are not necessarily questions that Michael Fay will be attempting to answer on his journey, but they are questions that students should be able to easily understand.

List students' "research questions" on the board.

Have the class choose one of the questions they've listed. Make a second class list of the equipment students would take to help them find answers to this question.

Have students draw pictures of themselves working with Michael Fay to answer the question the class has selected. They may draw themselves on the ground as well as in the air—after all, the plan has to land once in a while!

• Have older students write paragraphs describing the pictures they've drawn.
  
  
• Have each student choose an African animal he or she would like to learn more about. They can find suitable animals at National Geographic's Creature Feature archive. Ask students to draw pictures of their animals and to make two lists: one list of questions they have about this animal, and another list of things they'd take on a trip to find out the answer to these questions. Younger students can simply draw pictures of themselves observing the animal or can share their questions with the class without actually listing them.

Africa Focus
National Geographic Magazine: Africa MegaFlyover—Charting the Last Wild Places on Earth
National Geographic News: Africa Explorer Takes Off on Yearlong Aerial Survey
National Geographic: Creature Feature