Cyber Rainforest

Description of Unit:

Cyber Rainforest is a science-mathematics project which will allow younger students to explore tropical rainforests from their school computer lab as well as from other resources. The major objective will be to enhance math and science instruction by using the internet. In addition, this unit is interdisciplinary; involving reading, language arts, social studies, art, music and technology.

Standards Addressed

Project Outcome:

By the end of the unit the children will:

1. Become familiar with the internet.
2. Conduct an experiment counting the number of insects found within a grid.
   Check out our results! Join the fun!
   
3. Record and graph data from their experiment.
4. Compare their results to an experiment seen on the video, You Can't Grow Home Again. (Children's Television Workshop for 3-2-1 Contact)
5. Share the results of their study with scientists working in the rainforest and keypals involved in rainforest projects.
6. Make a display of rainforest plants and animals discovered on virtual field trips.
7. Read books, both fact and fiction; poll the class as to the favorite book; graph results; write a class book review; and post it on the WWW.
8. Research individual plants and animals from tropical rainforest and create a Rainforest Coloring Book.
9. Observe on a world map the locations of tropical rainforest, the home-base of scientists responding to class inquiries, and the locals of keypals.
10. Write and illustrate original rainforest books.

Computer Activities:

• Internet-based Activities:
  1. Take electronic field trips to various rainforest sites.
     
     A Journey through the Rainforest (Costa Rica) http://swissnet.ai.mit.edu/cr/rara/index.html
     
     Tropical Rainforest in Surname http://www.euronet.nl/users/mbleeker/suriname/suri-eng.html
     
     Rainforest Action Network http://www.ran.org/ran/
     
     An Amazon Adventure http://168.216.210.13/amazon/

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     Print an assortment of pictures available at above sites. Students, working in small groups will write captions for these pictures. A bulletin board display entitled An Internet Trip to the Rainforests will be posted in the school library.

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     Pairs of students will research one rainforest plant or animal. They will draw a black line picture and write a caption for their subjects. These will be compiled into a class Rainforest Coloring Book.
     
     

     See our completed Cyber Rainforest Coloring Book!!!

     These pages can be printed for your students to color.

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     The class will seek keypals to share their rainforest projects .

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     The children, as a class, will communicate with scientists in the field, reading the scientists' home page and e-mailing specific questions. (The Wild Ones http://www.thewildones.org/ has a list of scientists in many fields)

     A list of internet sites will be sent home to parents encouraging them to revisit the rainforest with their second graders from their home computers.
     Note:When searching the world wide web for rainforest sites, enter both rainforest as a single word and rain forest as two words since the subject might have been posted under either entry.

     Other Computer Activities:

     The children will use CD-Roms:

     The Rainforest: ZooGuides, REMedia, Inc.

     The San Diego Zoo Presents THE ANIMALS 2.0, ArnowitzStudios

     Zurk's Rainforest Lab, Soleil

     The children will compose captions using the program KidWorks2.

Curriculum Connections:

Mathematics:
In addition to the math activities outlined above, the children will also collect pennies in order to purchase an acre of rainforest from the Children's Rainforest in Costa Rico. The children will learn how big 100 is by counting and rolling pennies. They will learn that 100 pennies make one dollar.


Science:
In addition to the science activities outlined above, the students will learn about the concepts of habitat and climate. They will compare and contrast what they discover about tropical rainforests to their own environment.


Literacy - Reading:
The children will read and share a number of books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the rainforest to provide a general background about the topic. They will discuss the importance of the world's rainforests to the global ecology and the efforts to preserve the dwindling forests. A poll will be taken to determine the class' favorite book. The results of this poll will be used in other activities such as communicating the results with keypals, creating a graph, and writing a class book review to post to an on-line site which publishes students' work.


Suggested Bibliography:
Non-fiction:
Dunphy, Madeleine. Here is the Tropical Rainforest.
Hyperion Books for Children, 1994.
Dorros, Arthur. Rainforest Secrets. Scholastic, 1990
George, Jean Craighead. One Day in the Tropical Rain Forest. HarperCollins 1990
Riggs, Jennifer (translator). The Rain Forest.Scholastic, 1992
Willow, Diane. At Home in the Rain Forest.Charlesbridge, 1991
Fiction:
Baker, Jeannie. Where the Forest Meets the Sea. William Morrow and Co., 1987
Cherry, Lynne. The Great Kapok Tree. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanich, 1990
Cowcher, Helen. Rain Forest. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1988
Jordan, Martin and Tanis. Journey of the Red-Eyed Tree Frog.Simon and Schuster, 1991
Weir, Bob and Wendy. Panther Dream: a Story of the African Rainforest. Hyperion Books, 1991 (book and audio tape)


Literacy - Writing:
The children will have many writing experiences in this project working as a class (to compose the book review),in small groups (to write captions), and individually (to write and illustrate original rainforest books).


Literacy - Speaking:
This project offers many opportunities for the students to share orally with the class. For example: each small group will explain its drawing and individuals will read their original books to the class.


Social Studies:
Map skills will be stressed throughout the project by marking sites visited. In addition, the concepts of equator, North Pole, and South Pole will be learned. Through the purchase of rainforest property, primary concepts of economics will be introduced.


Music:
The children will compose a song to the tune of Old Macdonald Had a Farm called Costa Rica has a Rainforest. Rainforest animals will be substituted for farm animals.
The class will listen to a tape of rainforest sounds. (Nature's Music: Tropical Rain Forest. Silver Bells Music, 1991). They will try to identify different elements such as the rain, monkeys, birds, etc. The children will select a sound to imitate, and the class will participate in a rainforest symphony.


Art:
In addition to the art projects already mentioned, the art teacher will be involved by helping the class create a mural of the different layers of a tropical rainforest. The children will add the plants and animals that they discovered during this project in the appropriate layers.

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Assessment:

1. Small group activities - use a teacher-made rubric.
2. Individual rainforest books - use a teacher-made rubric.

Project Authors:

• Ginger Bazin smart027@ride.ri.net
• Doreen Murphy smart028@ride.ri.net
  Glen Hills Elementary School
  Cranston, Rhode Island

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