June 2004

Thank you for a wonderful year and have a relaxing summer!

• Thanks for a Successful Year
• And Just Wait Until Next School Year!
• Connect Your Class With a Real School in the Rainforest
• Don't Let Your Students Miss This Opportunity to Take Action
• Happy Summer

The dedication of teachers and students made this year a great success

As the school year draws to a close, we would like to thank everyone who used the Rainforest Alliance curriculum. Due to generous funding and the energy and enthusiasm of educators across the country, the first year for the Learning Site has been a great success, with over 49,000 downloads from the site, more than 600 subscribers to Eco-Education Matters, successful school-wide curriculum implementation at Ann Street and Rafael Cordero Schools in New Jersey and many more schools tapping into the resources of our online curriculum.

Visit the Learning Site next year for more ways to connect your kids to conservation

Be sure to visit the Learning Site this fall to access our newly revised and improved curriculum. Our current third/fourth and fifth/sixth units will each be expanded into separate components, allowing teachers to more closely adapt the information to specific grade levels. With the help of Antioch New England Graduate School's Environmental Education program, this fall the Rainforest Alliance curriculum will feature new activities, opportunities for action and improved lesson plans. In addition, we are expanding our curriculum to 7th and 8th grade, with all the resources of our current curriculum available to junior high students and teachers.

In an exciting collaboration with the Rainforest Alliance, Creative Connections, the international cultural exchange organization, is looking for partner classes to be paired with classes in the rainforests of Latin America. Partner classes exchange scrapbooks that include pen pal letter, photographs, drawings and other illustrative materials that allow students to get to know one another and share their stories depicting how the environment effects day-to-day life in their communities. Technology permitting, classes will interact with one another by telephone, the Internet and/or email.

Thanks to generous funding support, you can participate in this program for a nominal fee. For more information or to enroll, call or email Miguel Barreto at (203) 431-4707, email: mbarreto@creativeconnections.org or visit www.creativeconnections.org.

Do your students want to be a part of rainforest conservation?

Through their Action Grant program, 3D Life Adventures is

offering financial and consulting support for student-led

Help your students to make a difference

initiatives related to natural or cultural diversity. Each student can receive as much as $500 to help design and implement his or her project, which can be a individually developed or as part of an existing school or community group. Students may use the money to start an environmental club at school or to create a community-based rainforest conservation awareness campaign, for example.

All submitted projects should be student-led and related to natural or cultural diversity. If your students have a project that meets these broad guidelines, we encourage you to apply. Contact Laura Jackson, Action Grant Manager, at (703) 312-0541 or lauraj@3dzone.org for more information and an application form or visit 3dzone.org/html/programs/grants.asp.

Enjoy your summer and your travels

We hope you all have a relaxing and enjoyable summer. As you plan your vacations, be sure to read about ways to tread lightly on the Earth during your travels. We'll send you one update from Eco-Education Matters mid-summer and return in September better than ever!

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