TO: Missouri Regional Envirothon Teams

Date: September 15, 2008

Subject: Regional Oral Presentation Problem

Greetings:

Here is the Oral Presentation Component of the 2009 Missouri Regional Envirothon.

The "Biodiversity in a Changing World" oral component will account for 16.6% of the total score for the 2009 event. It is required that all teams participate in the oral component.

A reminder: Oral presentation materials will be turned in at the Registration area and will be taken to the oral presentation area for the teams.

We're looking forward to seeing you at the regional competition and wish your team great luck!

Missouri Envirothon 2009

Oral presentation guidelines

• Each team has seven (7) minutes to present their "solution" to the problem statement.
• The judging panel has three (3) minutes to question the team on aspects of their presentation.
• All team members must participate in the presentation and verbally deliver some portion of the discourse.
• Teams are limited to: Two (2) separate pieces of poster board 22"x28" (maximum size allowed; no foam board; text with graphics, photos, charts, etc., may be included) to supplement their presentation.
• Each team is allowed the option to include a one page written summary to complement their presentation (one side of 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper; single spaced; 12 pt. type or larger).

Regional Oral Presentation Problem

Certain ecosystems around the world harbor especially large numbers of species. Many scientists use the term “hotspots” when referring to those areas of the world that are not only rich in biodiversity, but also unique and threatened. The most familiar are tropical rainforests.

However, Missouri is home to many thousands of native animals and more than 2000 native plants. Our state’s amazing species diversity arises from its equally diverse types of habitat – prairies, woodlands, glades, savannas, streams, caves, wetlands and forests.

One of the greatest challenges we face in protecting biodiversity is how to balance the needs of the present without jeopardizing those of the future. Ensuring the survival of species, genes and ecosystems will require a combination of many approaches, as well as collective thinking of people from all disciplines and backgrounds.

Conserving biodiversity and finding solutions to the intricately connected problems of environmental degradation, social decline, and economic instability will mean feeling, thinking about, and doing things different from the ways we have before. It will mean fostering more compassion for other species and a kind of reverence for living systems that are too complex for us ever to understand fully. It will mean educating ourselves about the connections among all elements of biodiversity and between a healthy natural environment and a healthy human society.

Your task: Your team is made up of experts in different natural resources disciplines and you are tasked with developing a brief (7 minutes) radio informational program to educate the general public about biodiversity and persuade them of its importance.

Be sure and include the following information as a minimum:

1. How biodiversity affects soils, forestry, wildlife and aquatics.

2. Causes of biodiversity loss in Missouri and possible solutions to solving these losses.

3. Benefits of biodiversity.

4. How natural changes in our world affect biodiversity.