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Concept Bananas, cocoa, coffee, wood and many more products originate in the rainforests of Latin America. As demand for products from the rainforest increases, more pressure is exerted on these precious ecosystems. With 90% of the world’s forests outside of protected areas, the Rainforest Alliance works to protect ecosystems and the people and wildlife that depend on them by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. For instance, companies and communities in Brazil work with the Rainforest Alliance and their partners to harvest wood while ensuring the forest will remain healthy and productive for generations to come.
Essential Question Is this table someone’s old climbing tree?
Additional Resources: • Slideshow – Click below for a slideshow and script about Brazil that includes background information about the animals, people and landscape of this region. The slideshow can be downloaded for viewing in the classroom, printed out and read as a story, or viewed online with the students.
• Unit-Specific Story - The Rainforest Alliance has developed an original story for use with this unit. The story is available to download and print or can be viewed on-screen.
• Species Profiles – Profiles include: photos, habitat, foraging behavior, group relationships, threats, etc.
• Rainforest Poster: A colorful two-page poster is available for you to use in explaining the layers of the rainforest, its products and the environmental threats facing many rainforests around the world.
• Rainforest Products – Click here for a summary of products found in our homes and supermarkets that either originated in tropical forests or are currently produced there.
• IMAFLORA - Check out the Adopt-A-Rainforest pages for more information about the Rainforest Alliance’s partner group in Brazil.
• Profiles in Sustainability – Click here for case studies on companies who work closely with the Rainforest Alliance to ensure that their practices protect wildlife, workers and communities.
• Venn Diagram Template – Click here for a photocopy-ready Venn diagram for use in this unit.
• Certificate of Accomplishment – Click here to download colorful rainforest certificates you can print out for your students to commemorate their completion of these units. • Great Resources – Check out this page for easy access to additional supplemental materials that complement these dynamic units.
Informational Introduction for the Teacher In nature, diversity is the total amount of different living things in a place. Diversity is a result of the environmental conditions present in the rainforest areas. The rainforest has particularly extraordinary amounts of diversity. Rainforests are complex.
There is a fantastic variety of rainforest plant life. A typical 10km square area contains 1,500 kinds of flowering plants and 750 tree species. These plants form a system of layers in the rainforest called the forest floor, understory, canopy and emergent layer.
The rainforest is an ideal place for many types of animals to live. There is plenty of water, shelter and food, and it is warm all year. These conditions mostly benefit the insects that can grow and reproduce the year round, unlike the annual cycle in colder climates. Some insects grow very large. "Walking sticks" reach lengths of over 12 inches. Beetles can be as large as your hand and some moths are the size of small birds. But the really amazing thing about them is their variety. One tree in the Amazon can house 200 different types of insects; not 200 insects but 200 different types! Scientists believe many insect types have yet to be named and catalogued.
It is important to understand that the rainforest animals play a vital role in maintaining their habitat. Because there is no wind in the lower layers to carry pollen from one flower to another, many plants depend on insects for pollination. The 900 varieties of fig tree is a good example of this process as there are 900 different kinds of wasps that pollinate them. Spreading plant seeds is necessary for their survival, and fruit-eating birds, mammals and even fish help to accomplish this task.
Informational Introduction for the Students Tall, mighty trees, millions of insects, constant sounds, monkeys climbing overhead and more birds than you’ve ever seen in one place --Tropical rainforests are places of tremendous amounts of life. How can so many things share such little space? Rainforests are complex systems. Our exploration of how they work will involve understanding the weather, the structure of the forest, the way that each plant and animal depends on another…basically how complex and fragile a rainforest is.
STEP 1 CONNECT – (The concept to Prior Knowledge)
Challenge Students identify the countries of origin for many products they currently use everyday.
Materials- Rainforest items/food (12 items per small group) - Click here for examples. - Internet or encyclopedia access - Paper/pencils Procedure1. Students are divided into small groups. 2. Each group has 12 items that are common to everyday life including but not exclusively, balsa, bamboo, raffia, coconut, plantains, tangerine, sesame seeds, vanilla, chocolate, chewing gum and rubber balls. These items are mixed with locally (United States) grown foods and products. 3. Students sort the items into ‘local’ or ‘exotic’ foods. 4. Students search the Internet for the countries that produce these items. 5. Once the country of origin is found, a chart of where the items originate is made.
STEP 2 - LITERATURE/DISCUSS (Give Expert Information Book; Ask Questions)ChallengeStudents begin to understand how many items they use individually come from the rainforest and how the amount of resources may impact the integrity of a landscape.
Materials- Book: Rain Forest Plants, by Pamela Dell - Internet or encyclopedia access - Paper/pencils
Procedure1. Read Rain Forest Plants, by Pamela Dell. There is a section in this book that describes products we commonly use that come from rainforests. This book demonstrates our reliance on rainforests. Use this book to introduce how indigenous people live in the rainforest and how they depend on its healthy existence. This text will open the opportunity to discuss the importance of conservation of these resources and how we still may be able to harvest products while keeping the rainforest safe.
2. Students take two items from their ‘exotic’ column that are from the rainforest. Using the Web sites below, students find out where their items are from and how they are harvested or farmed.
3. Students write a story of the journey one item must make to get to their home and some of the experiences they might have along the way. This should be role-modeled by the teacher so that each different type of transportation and their possible routes is talked about with children.
STEP 3A - PRACTICE (Math and Learning Arts)Challenge Students take the product from their story and follow its journey on a map from point of origin to their home.
Materials- Maps of North and South America with roads and rivers - Colored stickers or markers (to chart distances on the map)
Procedure1. Using maps of South America and North America that show major riverways, oceans and some major roads, help students trace the route that their product might take to get to their home. 2. Have students research the distances ‘as the crow flies’ in a straight line from Brazil to their home. 3. Challenge the students to chart how it might have moved across land or over waterways to get to their home in the US. These might be marked in different colors on the maps. Does this journey take more time? Is it a longer distance to go over water or land routes?
STEP 3B – CREATE (Performance Tasks Related to Standard Indicators)Challenge Students recognize that the product they have in their home comes from a place where another person their age may live.
Materials- Story: Brothers of the Rainforest, from the Rainforest Alliance - Paper, pencils Procedure 1. Read Brothers of the Rainforest, an original Rainforest Alliance story, to students. 2. Discuss how the resources from their products may have come from the home of an Amazon villager.
3. Discuss how the Rainforest Alliance and their partners are working to protect the forest while harvesting the products we all use daily. In addition to protecting the endangered ecosystems, these sustainable enterprises also help the local people earn money to support their livelihoods.
4. Have the students write a letter to the Rainforest Alliance thanking them for giving us the opportunity to protect the rainforest and boost the income of local people by buying Rainforest Alliance-certified products. 5. Additional References: Adventures of Riley -- Amazon River Rescue by Amanda Lumry and Laura Hurwitz
STEP 4 – PRESENT (Edit Work/Students Orally Present Projects)
Students either read their story of the journey that the item took from the rainforest to their home or read the letter to the Rainforest Alliance.
LESSON 3 ASSESSMENT RESULTS: Teacher observations of tasks with rubrics as listed below, as well as collected work samples.
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