.....

Vanishing Rainforests: How can We Save Them?

Download PDF Version

Instructor: Elisa Beachy

Workshop:  “Conservation with Rural Communities in the Brazilian Amazon Region”

Targeted Grade Level(s): Elementary/Middle

Content Area(s) Covered: Science/Geography

Anticipated Duration: One Week Unit – 50-Minute Periods

Rationale: Many resources that we use today come from rainforests.  If our rainforests vanished, our every day resources would be depleted.  Our focus will pertain to the Amazon Rainforest.

Objectives:  

1. Students will learn about various plants and animals that exist in our rainforests.
2. Students will develop an understanding of resources that come from our rainforests.
3. Students will gain an understanding of cause and effect of rainforest destruction.
4. Students will develop ideas to save the rainforests and what they personally can do to help.
5. Students will learn about the geography and people of the Amazon Rainforest.

Sunshine State Standards:

Science

• SC D.2.3.1 – The student understands that quality of life is relevant to personal experiences.
• SC D.2.3.2 – The student knows the positive and negative consequences of human action on the Earth’s systems.
• SC G.2.3.3 – The students knows that a brief change in the limited resources of an ecosystem may alter the size of a population or the average size of individual organisms and that long-term change may result in the elimination of animal and plant life populations inhabiting the Earth.
• SC G.2.3.4 – The student understands that humans are a part of the ecosystem and their activities may deliberately or inadvertently alter the equilibrium in ecosystems.

Social Studies

• SS B.2.3.6 – The student extends and refines understanding of environmental consequences of people changing the physical environment in selected world regions.
• SS B.2.3.2 – The student extends and refines knowledge of ways physical and human characteristics of selected regions have changed over time.

Resources/Materials Needed: 

1. Index cards with stickers of endangered species or animals of the rainforest on each for setting up groups of four.
2. List of articles for group reading on Amazon Rainforest
3. Chart Paper
4. Notes on Amazon Rainforest
5. Oak tag paper 11x14 for each group
6. Magazines for cutting out pictures of plants and animals

Procedures: 

Day 1 – Students will be placed in groups of four based on the sticker on their card. Each group will be given a selected reading to read and a piece of chart paper.  They will then be asked write information about their article in short notes and to share what they learned from their article with the class.  These chart notes will be placed around the room.

Day 2 – Notes will be given to students and discussed about the geography and people of the Amazon Rainforest.  Students will highlight pertinent information for future testing.

Day 3/4 – Students in groups will be given 1 piece of oak tag, magazines and asked to design a poster for the Amazon Rainforest of the plants and animals that are endangered or  contained within it.

Day 5 – Students will individually search from the chart paper items for ideas or ways to conserve and save the rainforest.  Then they are to write an essay, or letter to a state agency or conservation organization.

Informal/Formal Assessments:  
Students were graded on their posters, their letters, or essays and a later test on South America with test questions that included the notes on the Amazon Rainforest. View student samples here.

Evaluation/Reflection:

With five class periods, it was difficult to continue to find many magazines for the posters that were created.  I was constantly trying to re-supply magazines from the library and other sources.  Many parents did volunteer to give me many National Geographic magazines that contained a lot of pictures that were used for the posters.  Examples of the posters that were created are included.