The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests to raise awareness on sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests.  Forests are vital to the survival and well-being of people everywhere. They provide shelter for people, animal habitat and biodiversity. They are a source of food, medicine, and clean water, and have a vital role in maintaining a stable global climate and environment. This is a wonderful and current topic to start next year’s classes in a variety of subject matter and grade levels that also include developing 21^st century skills.  For example, if you teach young learners, DLESE has the Forest Features lesson plan in which students learn about different types of forests. For upper elementary students, you can use the Temperate Rain Forest audiovisual about forests in Alaska from DragonFly TV or the Rain Forest in Your Room resource from our SMILE partners that includes five hands-on activities with learning objectives and assessment questions. Middle schoolers could see satellite images from Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Montana in visible light and IR in the ES1707 Observe Forest Fires as Seen from Space, from our MSP2 partners to also learn about light. More advanced students in Earth science and math could conduct quantitative research using The World Bank databases Forest Area (% of Forest Land), available via our TeachingWithData partners. High school students could also use computer software to explore the Seeing the Forest for the Trees: What’s in Your Woods? which is a chapter from the Earth Exploration Toolbook that includes Maine forest biodiversity, statistical analysis using Microsoft Excel and comparative analysis using My World geographic information system (GIS). Also visit our iTunesU resources where you will find a wealth of really nice movies about forests.