SHRINKING RAINFORESTS

L. Jeanne Douglas

Preview of Main Ideas

This unit explores the characteristics and biodiversity of the Earth’s rainforests uses geography and critical problem solving skills to plan for the future of rainforests.

Connection with the Curriculum

These activities can be used in geography, social studies, science, and reading classes.

Teaching Level: Grades 5-8

Objectives Classification Outline (Also see objectives classification matrix below.)

Objective #1: The student will gain a working knowledge of the interdependent characteristics of a rainforest.

Essential Element: Physical Systems.

Standard #8: The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on Earth’s surface.

Knowledge Statement #2: How ecosystems work.

Skill Set #1: Asking geographic questions.

Skill #1: identify geographic issues, define geographic problems, and pose geographic questions.

Skill Set #2: Acquiring geographic information.

Skill #1: Use a variety of research skills to locate and collect geographic data.

Skill #2: Use maps to collect and/or compile geographic information.

Theme: Regions

Objective #2: The student will locate rainforests on climate, precipitation, temperature, and vegetation world maps.

Essential Element: Physical Systems.

Standard #8: The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on Earth’s surface.

Knowledge Statement #1: The local and global patterns of ecosystems.

Skill Set #3: Organize geographic information.

Skill #1: Prepare various forms of maps as a means of organizing geographic information.

Theme: Regions.

Objective #3: The student will use critical thinking skills to plan solutions for rainforest problems.

Essential Element: The uses of geography

Standard #18: How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future.

Knowledge Statement #3: How to apply the geographic point of view to solve social and environmental problems by making geographically informed decision.

Skill Set #4: Analyzing geographic information.

Skill Set #3: Interpret and synthesize information obtained from a variety of sources such as graphs, charts, tables, diagrams, texts, photographs, documents, interviews.

Skill Set #5: Answering geographic questions.

Skill #2: Make generalizations and assess their validity.

Theme: Human-Environmental Interaction.

Materials

1. National Geographic World Map, Endangered Earth, or another world map on which rainforests are marked.

2. Books, magazines, photographs, video, and audiotapes about rainforests.

3. 3-4 cardboard tubes from carpet stores (for making trees).

4. Netting from hardware or gardening store (for making canopy).

5. Construction and tissue paper, paper from large rolls of bulletin board paper, cellophane, tape, glue, staples, paper clips.

6. Student journals.

7. Black line masters of world maps for students.

Suggestions for Teaching the Lesson

Opening the Lesson

1. Have students close their eyes, listen to a rainforest audiotape and relax as you read the visualization below.

You are deep with in a cool, damp tropical rainforest. Majestic trees tower above you. The air is thick and humid, filling with the buzzing of insects. Birds chirp and chatter and occasionally screech in the tree canopy high above. Water is trickling into a shallow stream nearby. Somewhere in the distance, a large, rotting branch falls from a tree and crashes through the vegetation below.

Damp moss and decaying leaves carpet the forest floor, creating a rich and earthy smell. Tree ferns and vines brush past your face as you carefully make your way through the forest. Your hair and clothes catch the moisture, and a small water drop trickles down your arm. The vegetation is so thick you can only see a few meters ahead. Dim sunlight scatters through the trees, creating a patchwork of green and gold. Elsewhere, it is dark and still. Resting your arm against a wide, mossy trunk, you watch as a perfectly camouflaged lizard darts up a branch to snatch a beetle. You peer up into the leaves beyond, wary that a snake may be dangling nearby. At your feet, an army of ants troops past, carrying bits of leaves to a nearby nest.

A soft rain begins to fall. You can hear the raindrops falling overhead, but the trees protect you and you stay dry. You watch the water trickle down the massive tree trunks and listen to the sound of water dripping from the shiny leaves and thick vines around you.

Suddenly, the clamor of angry monkeys fills the air, and you turn to catch glimpses of feet and tails disappearing into the trees. Brilliant yellow and blue birds, startled by the monkeys, dart below the canopy. A small orange tree frog peeks out from behind a leaf, and then ducks into hiding again. There are many more creatures nearby, invisible in the dense forest. You were once told that tropical rainforests are ancient and wondrous worlds, filled with a greater variety of life than on any other place on earth. Here. Within the immense, dark caverns of green and gold, you understand.

2. Discuss students’ reactions to a visualization. Students may use their journals to draw what they visualized and write what they currently know about rainforests and pose questions about what they want to learn.

To spur their thinking you might ask:

            What does it feel like to be in a rainforest?

            What are some plants and animals in a rainforest?

            What products come from a rainforest?

            Where are rainforests located?

            Why are they endangered?

Developing the Lesson

1. Locate rainforests on the world map. Ask what they have geographically in common.

2. Discuss characteristics of a rainforest. Using photographs and other media (rainforest video, rainforest audio tape), identify the flora and fauna of a rainforest ecosystem and tell how they are linked and interdependent.

* Rainforests are the wettest areas of land in the world.

* As much as 10 meters (over 32 feet) of rain may fall during a single year in some places.

* Temperatures usually hover between 70 and 85 degrees F.

* High temperatures and abundant rainfall contribute to high humidity. In the rainforests of South America, scientists estimate that as much as 250 billion tons of water vapor can be suspended in the air at any one time. The humidity in a rainforest is about 70% during the day and 95% at night.

* Tropical rainforest occupy between 7%-8% of the Earth’s land surfaces but may house more than 50% of all plants and animals on Earth. Discuss the term ‘biodiversity.’

* Tropical rainforest soils support an incredible variety of plants, but the soil itself is often not very fertile. Heavy rainfall leaches the nutrients from the soil. Most of the nutrients that are used by plants are stored in the plants themselves and come from the interaction of water, decayed plants and animals, and the sun. In temperate rainforests, soils are often much more nutrient rich.

* Roots of most rainforest trees are concentrated near the surface of the soil.

* Trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, and other plants that grow in rainforests for a complex system of layers (emergent, canopy, understory, forest floor).

3. Measure a square in the classroom about 6 feet by 6 feet and mark a space with a long length of yarn or rope. Place one small student chair or an overturned waste paper basket in the center of this space. Give out cards with the labels EMERGENT LAYER, CANOPY, UNDERSTORY, FOREST  FLOOR. Students should assume their correct positions with in the square with the emergent layer standing on the chair or wastebasket.

* Take a photograph of the human rainforest. Use the photograph as a stimulus for creative writing at a later time.

* Discuss how it felt to be in the rainforest. Draw out the idea that cooperation is needed to be successful.

* Add observations to the rainforest journal.

4. The next activity is designed to help students identify factors that influence the depletion of rainforests and issues that create environmental problems. Using the same space from activity #3 (above), have students stand inside the square. Tell students that the activity they will participate in will demonstrate the “squeeze” that is occurring as human interactions deplete the rainforest. As each of the following statements are read, squeeze the group together by reducing the rope square by one foot.

* A construction company builds a dam to create inexpensive hydroelectric power for the region. It floods 600 square miles of rainforest.

* A lumber company cuts 1,000 acres of forest trees.

* Several cattle ranchers put 4,000 head of cattle on cleared land. 6,000 acres are lost.

* A road built for access to a mining operation takes away 500 acres.

* A coffee plantation expands and takes 1,500 acres.

* Land is cleared for a rubber tree farm and 5,000 acres are lost.

* Slash and burn activities take 10,000 acres.

* Wood cut for fuel takes 100 acres.

* Housing for farm workers takes 50 acres.

* Children in a foreign country buy acres of land in a Save the Rainforest Club. (Slightly expand the square size.)

As the activity progresses, students have to crowd together and compete for space. By the sixth or seventh statement, several students will have been forced out. The teacher states that these people have been forced to migrate to the cities. Play the game again with each student representing a species of wildlife that would disappear as the habitat is destroyed. Compare human/plant/animal relocation or depletion problems.

Concluding the Lesson

1. Give students copies of blank black line masters of world maps and student atlases. Have each student color maps showing rainforest of the world.

2. Discuss the locations of world rainforests and what they have geographically in common (most are located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn with many clustered at the Equator).

Extending the Lesson

1. Have students build a rainforest in the classroom. First, have students research and list plants and animals of the type of rainforest they want to create (temperate, tropical). The begin construction of classroom rainforest. Materials needed are: paper from the large bulletin board paper rolls, colored cellophane, cylinders from carpet packaging (available free from large carpet stores), construction and tissue paper, wire setting from hardware or gardening store, tape, glue, staples, and paper clips. Drape wire netting loosely from the ceiling (a handy parent with a staple gun can be helpful here). Cut carpet tubes to fit from floor to ceiling. Save extra pieces of tube for making bushes. Then cover the carpet tubes with colored bulletin board paper (brown or green) which has been twisted, wrinkled, or layered for texture. Add large leaves and tissue paper flowers to the tops of trees and bushes. Attach large leaves to the canopy netting with paper clips.

Note: rainforest trees have leaves with moisture drip points. Show photographs or drawings of leaf shapes that students may copy. Arrange trees and bushes around the classroom. Vines can be added to complete the layers of the rainforest. Vines are made by twisting paper scraps from the bulletin board paper. Students can bring in toy animals to represent rainforest creatures.

2. Discuss the reasons for tropical rainforests being cut so rapidly in recent years. Then divide the class into two research teams. Assign one team to identify the direct and indirect causes of deforestation. Assign the other team to identify the effects of deforestation, immediate and long term. Have each group prepare visual aides such as vegetation rainforest maps and posters of key ideas. When the teams have completed their research, have them share their findings in a United Nations type panel commentary. Discuss the tradeoffs involved. Ask students to discuss why we should be concerned about deforestation in distant places. Students should consider the interests of the countries involved, and the interests of the world community.

3. Divide the class into an even number of small groups. Half of the groups will be “developers” and the other half will be “environmentalists.” Assign each pair of groups a developing country with rainforests. First, have students assess their assigned country. Using atlases, almanacs, and other reference materials, ask students to research population growth rate and distribution, labor force statistics, exports, per capita income, and the percentage of the country that is forested. Have each group work up a plan for economic development that provides for growth. Include such considerations as road building for access to mineral deposits and cutting timber for export. The have the developers and environmentalists from each country work together to form a plan that is agreeable to both parties. Information and plans can be presented on poster boards for visual aids and display.

Teachers may wish to give students the option of using an imaginary country for this activity. After diving the class into groups, explain that members of each group have been appointed to act as ministers for economic and environmental planning for a medium-size developing country situated near the equator. The country is eligible for financial assistance from an international development organization, but the ministers must prepare and defend a proposal to receive that assistance. Students may make assumptions concerning the country as long as they are consistent with location and the conditions given. Have students prepare graphs and maps to illustrate major points.

Students will likely discover that it is not easy to achieve a balance between economic growth and environmental conservation. They will realize that solutions to one problem often can cause other problems. Explain that this is a challenge of development.

4. To end this unit, students might stage a television show from the rainforest in which reporters’ interview rainforest environmentalists, geographers, and land developers for videotaping. Students might perform a rainforest play, read poems and sing rainforest songs. Following the “show” treats from rainforest products could be served.

Sometimes students want to raise money for helping to save rainforests. My students have organized rainforest bake sales. Money from the bake sales was donated to Save the Rainforest, Inc. (See address below) to buy acres of rainforest land in the Children’s Rainforests of the World.

Assessing Student Learning

Learning can be assessed through evaluation of student participation, research, map and graph creations, problem solving and journal writing.

Additional Reading

Select grade appropriate rainforest books, magazines, audio and video media from your school’s learning center and the public library for use in the classroom.

Acknowledgements

American Forest Foundation, Project Learning Tree, 1250 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. Fall, 1990.

Baker, Lucy. Life in the Rainforests, Scholastic Inc., 730 Broadway, New York, New York 20003, 1993.

Calhoun, Bruce. Save the Rainforest Inc. 604 Jamie Street, Dodgeville, Wisconsin 53533

National Geographic Society. “Tropical Rainforests: An Endangered Resource?” Update, Fall, 1989.

Ranger Rick’s Nature Scope. Rainforests: Tropical Treasures. National Wildlife Federation, 1400 16^th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036-2266, 1989.

Sandmeier, Kay. “Geography in the News Activity,” Perspective, National Council for Geographic Education, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Pennsylvania. December, 1991, Volume 20, #2.

GEOGRAPHY STANDARDS CLASSIFICATION MATRIX – GRADES           5-8   

Title:          Shrinking Rainforests          Author:     L. Jeanne Douglas

Note:  See also Objectives Classification Outline in the lesson.

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