"Children in the Woods," Barry Lopez

Create a Blueprint for a Web Site on Temperate Rain Forests

The forest that Lopez describes in "Children in the Woods" is a temperate rain forest. Many people do not know that there are temperate rain forests as well as tropical rain forests. A temperate rain forest has a mild coastal climate—it rarely freezes or goes above 80°. Many of the most lush temperate forests are located in the northwestern parts of the United States, such as Olympic National Park in Washington State and the Alaskan rain forest.

In order to educate more people about rain forests in the United States, design a Web site loaded with geographical and scientific information. To gather information about temperate rain forests visit The Rain Forests of Home: Profile of a North American Bioregion, Temperate Rain Forests, and Alaska Rain Forest: The Land and Its People.

Using links to the information and photographs you have gathered, create a blueprint of your Web site. A Web site is quite different from a research report. Although you might use the same information for both, a Web site provides information through interactive text and visuals. First, work out the structure of your Web site. Ask yourself:

• How many pages will be linked off of your home page?
• How many pages will be linked off of these pages?

Use your blueprint to help you decide how much information can be placed on each screen, how it should be arranged, and how visuals should be incorporated. When marking factual information to link to additional texts or images, underline it and then place a bracketed number next to the text. Use that same number to identify the text or photo to which it will link. Keep any directions or instructions to a Web designer in brackets []. Brackets indicate that the material enclosed should not appear on the finished site.