THE AGA KHAN ACADEMY HYDERABAD

GRADE: MYP 5 IDU Summative Assessment

Global context: Globalization and sustainability (Human impact on the environment &
Consumption, conservation, natural resources and public goods)

Interdisciplinary subjects: Integrated sciences and Individuals and societies

IDU Assessment

With reference to the given sources, write an argumentative essay [500 -600 words] responding
to the question below. Support your ideas with appropriate evidence and examples from your
MYP knowledge and the given sources.
How does increasing exploitation of natural resources impact Biodiversity?
You will be assessed based on below Criteria (e-assessment marks distribution are stated
for your reference).

Criteria for IDU IB MYP e-assessment model

Task Assessment criteria Points

Disciplinary Assesses relevant knowledge and skills from 8

grounding the perspective of MYP language and literature, individuals
and societies and English(Criterion A)
Synthesis Assesses students’ ability to synthesize disciplinary B-8
and knowledge in order to address a Real-world challenge C-8
communication (Criterion B), using effective strategies to communicate Total-16
of interdisciplinary understanding. (Criterion C)
interdisciplinary
understanding

Reflecting Assesses students’ ability to evaluate the 8

benefits and limitations of disciplinary and
interdisciplinary knowledge, as well as their
own strengths and weaknesses as interdisciplinary learners.
(Criterion D)
Criterion A: Disciplinary grounding For Year-5
Achievement Level descriptors
level
0 The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors below.
1-2 The student: demonstrates limited relevant disciplinary grounding.
3-4 The student: demonstrates some relevant disciplinary grounding.
5-6 The student: demonstrates most necessary disciplinary grounding.
7-8 The student: demonstrates extensive necessary disciplinary grounding for
Biology and Geography.

Criterion B: Synthesizing For Year-5

Achievement Level descriptors
level
0 The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors below.

1–2 The student: establishes few and/or superficial connections between

disciplinary knowledge by critically examining the various human
interventions and its impacts on Biomes.
3–4 The student: connects disciplinary knowledge to achieve adequate
understanding by critically examining the various human interventions and its
impacts on Biomes.
5–6 The student: synthesizes disciplinary knowledge to demonstrate consistent,
thorough interdisciplinary understanding by critically examining the various
human interventions and its impacts on Biomes.
7–8 The student: synthesizes disciplinary knowledge to demonstrate consistent,
thorough and insightful interdisciplinary understanding by critically examining
the various human interventions and its impacts on Biomes.

Criterion C: Communicating For Year-5

Achievement Level descriptors
level Year 1
0 The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors
below.
1–2 The student: communicates interdisciplinary understanding in a limited way.

3–4 The student: communicates interdisciplinary understanding with some

organization and coherence, recognizing appropriate forms or media lists
sources.
 5–6 The student: communicates interdisciplinary understanding that is generally
organized, clear and coherent, beginning to use selected forms or media
effectively documents relevant sources using a recognized convention.

7-8 The student: communicates interdisciplinary understanding that is

consistently well structured, clear and coherent, using selected forms or
media effectively consistently documents well-chosen sources using a
recognized convention.

Criterion D: Reflecting For Year-5

Achievement Level descriptors
level Year 1
0 The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors
below.
1–2 The student: demonstrates limited reflection on his or her development of
interdisciplinary understanding the various human interventions and its
impacts on Biomes. describes superficially the limitations or benefits of
disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge in specific situations.
3–4 The student: demonstrates adequate reflection on his or her development of
interdisciplinary understanding the various human interventions and its
impacts on Biomes. describes some benefits and limitations of disciplinary
and interdisciplinary knowledge in specific situations.

5–6 The student: demonstrates significant reflection on his or her development of

interdisciplinary understanding related to the sources and critically examine
the various human interventions and its impacts on Biomes, explains the
limitations and benefits of disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge in
specific situations.

7–8 The student:

demonstrates thorough and nuanced reflection on his or her development of
interdisciplinary understanding the various human interventions and its
impacts on Biomes.
evaluates thoroughly and with sophistication the limitations and benefits of
disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and ways of knowing in specific
situations.
 Study closely the sources below to integrate well-chosen evidence in support of your response:
Source 1:

Source 2
CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF DEFORESTATION IN THE RAINFOREST
Slash and burn
Most clearances are still by the local people and tribes needing land on which to grow crops. They
clear the forest by ‘slash and burn’. Vegetation is cut down and then burned. The ash acts as a
fertiliser adder nutrients to the soil. When the soil begins to turn infertile (usually after 3-5 years) the
people move on. This is called shifting cultivation. It is a sustainable method of farming in the
rainforest. It ensures the forest will recover.

Road Building
The Transamazon Highway has allowed increased access to the Amazon Rainforest.

Logging
Commercial logging is the major cause of primary rainforest destruction in South East Asia and
Africa. Worldwide, it is responsible for the destruction of 5 million ha. per year. Logging roads
enable landless people to enter the forest. In Africa, 75% of land being cleared by peasant farmers
has been previously logged.
Cattle Ranching
Ranching is a major cause of deforestation, particularly in Central and South America. In Central
America, two-thirds of lowland tropical forests have been turned into pasture since 1950.

Hydroelectric Power
An unlimited supply of water and ideal river conditions have led to the development of hydroelectric
power stations (HEP Stations).

Farming
There are nearly 3 million landless people in Brazil alone. The government has cleared large areas of
the Amazon Rainforest and encouraged people to move there. The scheme has not been successful.
Farmers stay on the same land and attempt to farm it year after year. Nutrients in the soil are quickly
exhausted as there is no longer a humus layer to provide nutrients. The soil becomes infertile and
nothing will grow.

Mining
The mining of iron ore, bauxite, gold, oil and other minerals have benefited many LEDCs. However,
it has also devastated large areas of rainforest e.g. The Amazon.

Deforestation is causing many problems at a range of scales:

Local: Ecosystem
About 80% of the rainforests nutrients comes from trees and plants. That leaves 20% of the nutrients
in the soil. The nutrients from the leaves that fall are instantly recycled back up into the plants and
trees. When a rainforest is clear-cut, conditions change very quickly. The soil dries up in the sun.
When it rains, it washes the soil away. The rainforest never fully recovers. Wildlife and plant life is
reduced.

Elimination of Indian groups and their way of lifeEstimates suggest that 80% of forest Indians
have died since the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century. Most have died from western
diseases such as malaria to which they have no immunity. Those remaining have been forced away
by the construction of roads, ranches, mines and reservoirs

Soil Erosion: When vegetation is removed soil is left exposed to the heavy equatorial rainfall. It is
rapidly eroded. The removal of topsoil means little vegetation will grow. Also, soil erosion leads to
flooding as the soil is deposited on river beds.

National: Deforestation can consume a country’s only natural resource. If deforestation is not
managed in a sustainable manner a country’s only natural resource could be lost forever.

Global
Global Warming
Rainforest canopies absorb carbon dioxide which is a gas in the atmosphere. When the rainforests are
burned and cleared, the carbon is released. Also, when trees are cut down they can no longer absorb
carbon dioxide. This means more carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide allows heat
through the atmosphere (suns rays). However, it will not allow reflected energy to escape from the
atmosphere. This is called the greenhouse effect and causes global warming.
 Source 3
The Importance and Conservation of Biomes

Because we share the world with many other species of plants and animals, we must consider the
consequences of our actions. Over the past several decades, increasing human activity has rapidly
destroyed or polluted many ecological habitats throughout the world. It is important to preserve all
types of biomes as each houses many unique forms of life. However, the continued heavy
exploitation of certain biomes, such as the forest and aquatic, may have more severe implications.

Forests are important as they are home to the most diverse biotic communties in the world. Hidden
within these biomes are potential medicines and many thousands of unseen and undiscovered species.
Also, forests have a global climate-buffering capacity, so their destruction may cause large-scale
changes in global climate.

Logging has depleted many old-growth temperate forests. The increased demand for homes, paper,
and other wood products have not allowed for much conservation. More recently, people have begun
to realize that logging has cleared much of these forests. Wiser use of the forests and efforts to
replant trees have helped to slow down the depletion of these communities.

Tropical forests have fallen victim to timber exploitation, slash and burn farming, and clearfelling for
industrial use or cattle ranching, particularly in Latin America. Our increasing demand for meat
products has spurred these events. For years, this destruction was occuring at a rapid rate. Over half
of the world’s original tropical forests are already gone. Public attention to this exploitation have
helped to alleviate the problem somewhat, though many challenges are still to be faced.

Aquatic biomes are probably the most important of all the biomes. Their medium, water, is a major
natural resource. Water is the basis of life, it supports life, and countless species live in it for all or
part of their lives. Freshwater biomes supply us with our drinking water and water for crop irrigation.
The world’s oceans have an even greater effect on global climate than forests do. Water has a high
capacity for heat, and because the Earth is mostly covered with water, the temperature of the
atmosphere is kept fairly constant and able to support life. In addition to this climate-buffering
capacity, the oceans contain several billion photosynthetic plankton which account for most of the
photosynthesis occuring on Earth. Without these, there might not be enough oxygen to support such a
large world population and complex animal life.

Freshwater biomes have suffered mainly from pollution. Runoff containing fertilizer and other
wastes and industrial dumpings enter into rivers, ponds, and lakes and tend to promote abnormally
rapid algae growth. When these algae die, dead organic matter accumulates in the water. This makes
the water unusable and it kills many of the organisms living in the habitat. Stricter laws have helped
to slow down this thoughtless pollution.

Overfishing and pollution have threatened to make oceans into ecological disaster areas. Industrial
pollutants that are dumped upstream of estuaries have rendered many marine habitats unsuitable for
life. Again, tighter regulations have been used to prevent further destruction of the ocean biomes.
By educating people about the consequences of our actions, we can all gain a better understanding of
how to preserve the earth’s natural biomes. The areas that have been destroyed the most will never
regain their original forms, but conservation will help to keep them from getting
worse.http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss5/biome/importan.html

Source 4
DEFORESTATION IN THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST
62 countries have tropical rainforest within their borders. The graph below shows the top 19
countries. There are no early records of the extent of tropical rainforest, however, the UN Food and
Agriculture Organisation estimates that around half of the world’s tropical rainforest has been
cleared. The scale and rate of acceleration are of great concern.

The graph below shows that rates of deforestation increased in all three continents containing
tropical rainforest. These were Asia (Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia), Africa (Mali and
Madagascar) and South America (Bolivia, Guatemala and Peru). The rate of deforestation in
Indonesia and Peru is alarming. The rate of deforestation in Indonesia was twice as great between
2005 and 2010 compared to 2000 and 2005. In Peru, it nearly doubled.

The rate of deforestation declined in seven countries. Deforestation in Brazil has fallen to a record
low. Over half of the remaining rainforest in Brazil is in some way protected. However, an area
three times the size of the UK has been cleared since 1970. This accounts for 20% of the original
forest.
The rate of reductions in other countries reflects that other countries have already put measures in
place to protect their rainforests. In some cases, for example in Mexico, considerable efforts are
being made to save what little rainforest is left. But it is only the rate that has decreased.
Deforestation continues in all the countries shown in the graph above. Indeed, it is still happening
in all 62 countries.
Today, global Rates of deforestation are:
2.47 acres (1 hectare) per second: equivalent to two U.S. football fields
150 acres (60 hectares) per minute
214,000 acres (86,000 hectares) per day: an area larger than New York City
78 million acres (31 million hectares) per year: an area larger than Poland
Source 5

Source 6
Introduction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIy0ZlyPPDg

Source 7
Threats to environment: https://slideplayer.com/slide/10728955/