A Walk in the Tropical Rainforest Creating and leading a multi-sensory rainforest tour
by Glenn Gustafson A fun way to do this is to work with a group of students Grade levels: 4-6 to prepare a multi-sensory Subject areas: science, social Walk in the Tropical Rainfor- studies, arts est that can be offered as a guided tour to other classes Key concepts: tropical ecology, or to the community. In resource conservation, preparing and presenting the ethnobotany walk, students become rain- Skills: critical and creative forest experts, absorbing a thinking, research, wealth of information about communication this ecosystem. The following Location: indoors in gym, suggestions for creating a hallway, or large classroom tropical rainforest walk are Time: several weeks for based on research for an preparation, one day/evening interpretive trail brochure for presentation that I developed as a volun- teer in a park in Costa Rica in 1999. It is a learning adven- tep off the ture that I want to share with boat into the as many people as possible in blue surf and order that places like these wade to shore continue to exist. S under the watchful eyes and noisy calls of a pair of scarlet macaws Learning objectives feeding in an almond tree. The objectives of the rainfor- Watch and listen for signs est walk are that students will: of the deadly fer-de-lance, Glenn Gustafson experience aspects of the the most dangerous snake in rainforest in a multi- Central America. It’s raining, it’s hot, you’re dirty, sensory way and you feel more alive then you’ve ever felt before. You have arrived in the rainforest! understand the global importance of rainforests It’s not easy to convey in the classroom the wealth understand some of the ecological relationships in of sensory impressions that greets visitors to a tropical rainforests rainforest. But as it is unlikely that we can take our learn what they can do to help preserve rainforests students on an adventure to the tropics, we must try other ways of bringing the rainforest to life here at home. With a little ingenuity, a teacher can recreate Introductory activity the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and atmosphere of This activity helps to generate interest in the rainforest this unique ecosystem and, in so doing, help children by raising students’ awareness of the importance of understand its importance and recognize their own rainforest products in their daily lives. connections to it.
81 Teaching Green: The Elementary Years Procedure: pioneer species will germinate and 1. Begin by presenting a variety of grow quickly. For example, Cecropia everyday items and common foods trees, often seen in light gaps, can that originate in tropical rainforests. grow up to 2.4 meters (8 feet) per Do not tell students where they came year; but they live for only about 30 from; instead challenge students to years and are eventually replaced by guess what these items have in com- shade-loving species that can grow mon. Items could include potatoes, beneath the forest canopy. Forests cinnamon, vanilla, brazil nuts, chew- are dynamic, constantly undergoing ing gum, a rubber bicycle tire, a succession in this way. Research tropical plant, chocolate, coffee, and shows that the average square meter bananas. of forest lies within a light gap every 2. When students have guessed the rainforest origin of 100 years. the items, show where they come from by pointing out Materials: heat lamp; several tall potted tropical plants; on a map or globe where tropical rainforests are lo- piece of a decomposing log in an airtight container; cated. tape or CD recording of rainforest sounds; and materi- 3. Ask students how their lives would be affected if they als for making a model of a Cecropia tree: a cardboard did not have any of the items provided by rainforests. carpet tube mounted upright on wooden base, heavy green construction paper, tempera paint, sponge, wire 4. Show a video such as Bosque Eterno De Los Niños or coat hangers, scissors, tape, Cecropia leaf pattern tem- read a book such as Lynne Cherry’s The Great Kapok plate. Tree (see Resources list, pages 85-86) as a general introduction to rainforests. Discuss the disappearance Procedure: of rainforests and the consequent loss of many useful 1. Have students research to learn about rainforest light and beautiful things. gaps, rainforest succession, and pioneer species such as the Cecropia tree. Preparing the rainforest tour 2. Work with students to create a model of a Cecropia Over several sessions, have students research and de- tree (or other pioneer tree) based on photos or illustra- velop the script, props, and other materials necessary to tions they have found during their research. Create a “produce” several interpretive leaf template that can be traced and cut out of con- stops on a tropical rainforest struction paper. Use a carpet walk. Each stop should present a tube for the trunk of the tree theme or illustrate an important (you might paint it a mottled aspect of the ecology of the brown/green using a sponge) rainforest (see suggestions in and attach the leaves to it with discussion below). Set up the coat hangers inserted into holes walk in a large area such as a punched in the tube. school gym, hallway, or class- 3. To set up the tour stop, create room, and invite other classes a forest clearing by surrounding and/or community members to Glenn Gustafson Cecropia tree. an area with tropical plants. Set be guest “explorers.” Set the the Cecropia tree in the clearing, mood by dimming the lights, playing a recording of shine the heat lamp down from above, and dim all rainforest sounds, running a humidifier, and, if possi- other lights in the room. ble, turning up the heat. To add drama and keep 4. During the tour, lead small groups of guest explorers groups together during the walk, link the stops with a to the “light gap” while they are blindfolded and hold- guide rope and have the guest explorers wear blindfolds ing onto the rope. Ask the explorers to describe what as they follow the rope from stop to stop. Encourage they feel (heat from the sun lamp), what they hear the student guides to dress for the jungle in long (rainforest sounds from the recording), and what they sleeves, long pants, rubber boots, and sun hats. smell and touch (pass around the container of decom- posing wood). Then have them remove their blindfolds Stop 1: Light gaps and pioneers while the guides explain how a light gap forms, the An undisturbed primary rainforest has very sparse concept of succession, and interesting things they have growth near the ground because very little light pen- learned about Cecropia trees and other pioneer species. etrates the canopy. When a tree falls, causing what is called a “light gap,” the seeds of many light-loving or
82 Plants and Animals Stop 2: Things are looking up include some creatures whose camouflage enables them A rainforest has diverse and abundant vegetation that to blend almost invisibly into the background. provides many places for jungle creatures to live. From 4. During the tour, have the guides use flashlights to the top of the tallest trees down to the forest floor, illuminate different features of the diorama as they these habitats are stratified into several identifiable explain the various layers and habitats of the forest. layers: Challenge the visitors to find camouflaged creatures Emergent Layer: The tallest trees form the emergent in the scene, or invite them to return to discover these layer, which receives the most light, heat, and rain. creatures after the flashlight tour is over. Canopy: Beneath the giant trees of the emergent layer is a second, more uniform layer of tall trees called the Stop 3: Water, water everywhere canopy. Because of the wet conditions, canopy trees Rainforests receive as much as 3,000 millimeters (118 support an abundance of plant growth such as mosses, inches) of rainfall per year. This high level of precipita- orchids, and bromeliads. These plants are called epi- tion, in combination with typically nutrient-poor, high- phytes, or air plants, as they clay soils, means that when- obtain nutrients and moisture ever forest cover is removed from the air and rain, not serious soil erosion occurs. from the trees. Under normal conditions, as rain falls in the forest some of Understory: Under the canopy the moisture is used by epi- trees are a variety of smaller or phytic plants, but much of it younger trees, as well as many gently percolates through the vines, lianas, and the infamous canopy to the forest floor, strangler fig (Ficus spp.). The where it is absorbed. Even in strangler fig begins life as an times of high rainfall, rainfor- epiphyte, but grows down- est streams tend to be rela- wards from the canopy to take tively gently flowing streams root in the ground, eventually Glenn Gustafson of clean, clear water. If the strangling the host tree with Where dense canopies of rain forest vegetation intercept the force of rainfall, soils are protected from erosion and tree cover is removed, how- its interconnecting tendrils. streams are clear and gently flowing. ever, stream flow increases Forest Floor: Whenever light is dramatically and red soil available, an abundance of ferns, palms, and tropical washes away in the water, looking almost like a stream plants cover the ground of the rainforest. of blood. Materials: Rolls of craft paper, scissors, tempera paints, Materials: Two clear shallow basins, sand, garden brushes, flashlights, reference books that show rainfor- tools, tropical plants, sticks and twigs, two spray mis- est levels and a variety of rainforest plants and animals ters. (e.g., Destination: Rainforest or Up a Rainforest Tree, Procedure: see Resources, pages 85-86). 1. Read a book or watch a video that depicts what Procedure: happens when a tropical rainforests are logged (e.g., 1. Have students work in groups to research the levels The Great Kapok Tree or the video Bosque Eterno De Los in the rainforest, the plants and animals that are found Niños). at each, and the ways in which these organisms interact. 2. As a reference, find pictures of healthy, intact rainfor- 2. Use craft paper and tempera paints to create a large ests and of rainforests after they have been cleared. diorama that depicts all of the rainforest levels and the Have two groups of students prepare two mini-ecosys- plants and animals at each level. Each group can be tems in shallow plastic basins as follows: responsible for depicting the level of the forest that Healthy ecosystem: Create a landscape from sand (red they researched, while the groups can all work together sand if possible) that has a river valley in the center and to make the components that pass through several hills on either side. Plant the hillsides with tropical levels (such as canopy trees and emergent trees). plants right up to the bottom of the valley. 3. Mount the rainforest trees, with the associated vines, Logged ecosystem: Create the same landscape with sand, animals, and other organisms, on the gym wall. Birds but instead of tropical plants, use sticks and twigs to and insects might be made three-dimensional and represent the stumps and fallen wood left over after suspended by fishing line from the ceiling. Be sure to logging.
83 Teaching Green: The Elementary Years 3. During the tour, have the guides explain what has walk, the student servers can explain what is in the happened on both sites. Then have volunteers take rainforest treats they are serving and the importance turns being the “rainstorm,” that is, using the spray of using rainforest products. bottles to heavily mist both ecosystems. Observe and discuss what happens to the soil in both situations as Stop 5: Disturbing behavior the rains continue. When an area of rainforest is cleared, it can regrow relatively quickly if allowed to. For example, at the Stop 4: Rainforest restaurant Campanario Biological Reserve in Costa Rica, a large The rainforest is an abundant source of food crops, and field that had been cultivated was allowed to regenerate some its plants could even save our lives! One of the naturally, with some additional planting by staff. After rather unusual plants in the rainforest is a ladder-like only nine years the field became an area of dense vine called a monkey ladder — yes, monkeys do climb growth, providing an abundance of hiding places and it! Indigenous people food sources that attract have traditionally ingested a variety of animals, from an infusion of the vine to hummingbirds to spider treat diabetes, and re- monkeys. search has proven it to be Materials: large ball of equivalent to insulin. Sap heavy string or yarn. from a somewhat similar vine, the common liana, Procedure: is used to make an infu- 1. Have students research sion to treat fever in the various life forms that children. So far, only can be found in a regener- about 5,000 of the ating rainforest, noting world’s 250,000 plant the order in which plants species have been investi- and animals return follow- gated for medicinal use. Glenn Gustafson ing a disturbance, as well Think what we may be The common liana has its roots in the ground and its leaves high in as “who eats whom” in missing! the canopy. the food web of the re- generating forest. Materials: plants, stuffed tropical birds, tropical music, rainforest treats prepared by students, and, if desired, 2. At this last stop on their walk, have a large rectangle rainforest products displayed in a “corner store” atmos- marked on the floor and ask visitors to sit around the phere. edges of it. This represents the edges of an imaginary field that has been cleared in the rainforest. Have the Procedure: student guides review the life forms that return to the 1. Research the various rainforest items that we use in clearing (based on “who eats whom”) and have visitors our lives: for example, food items such as brazil nuts, step forward to represent these various plants and and medicines such as quinine used to combat malaria. animals. Connect them with string as the story unfolds (Suggested resources: Jungles and Earth Child 2000). to show “who eats whom.” For example, the first plant 2. Have students set up a “Rainforest Restaurant” that to start growing many be a Heliconia (the student serves treats from the rainforest, such as rainforest representing the plant steps forward and takes the end cookies made with cashews and brazil nuts. Students of the string). The Heliconia quickly blooms and is may wish to make a menu (and perhaps translate it into visited by a hummingbird (the student representing Spanish) detailing what is being served and where it the hummingbird now steps forward and picks up the comes from. string). The hummingbird is then connected to some- 3. Students can also create a small “corner store” with thing else that it may eat or be eaten by. This continues rainforest products such as rubber tires, medicines, until all the visitors have become part of the web of life chewing gum, fruit, and Panama hats. in the newly established rainforest. The Rainforest Restaurant is the refreshment stop 3. To demonstrate how interconnected this new ecosys- on the rainforest tour. It can be decorated as elabo- tem is, have someone leave the web, tugging on the rately as the class would like, with everything from string as they go (perhaps a parrot is captured by a tropical plants to toy parrots. Music from a tropical smuggler for resale in North America). Have everyone country adds a nice touch. As visitors stop on their who feels the tug likewise pull on the string. This ripple effect will eventually pass through the entire web,
84 Plants and Animals demonstrating that harming one Through creating and host- part of the ecosystem will affect ing a Walk in the Rainforest, everything in the rainforest. students can develop a sense of the amazingly intricate and Summary activities complex world of tropical As visitors complete the tour, rainforests and help to educate ask them to share what they have others about it as well. It is only learned about the rainforest and talk through awareness of this marve- about things they can do to help lous resource that we can generate preserve it. A before-and-after the will to preserve it. It is my hope that every child Jungle Explorer quiz on the plants, who experiences the rainforest through activities such animals, products, and ecology of the rainforest will as these will one day step off a boat along a sandy shore help to focus attention and discussion. and walk through warm surf under the watchful eye of scarlet macaws to discover first-hand the marvelous Plan an action stage of the project, such as fundrais- world that they once only imagined. ing for the purchase of rainforest land through organi- zations such as the Rainforest Action Network or Glenn Gustafson is an environmental educator with Bosque Eterno de los Niños/Children’s Eternal Rain- Alberta Environment and an enthusiastic traveler to the forest. If this is planned beforehand, funds can be rainforest regions of South and Central America. raised by charging admission for the rainforest tour and for treats in the rainforest restaurant. As a follow-up, all Resources of the classes involved in the tour may participate in a Books for younger students rainforest bake sale for the community at large. Cherry, Lynne. The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest. Have students make a rainforest scrapbook based on Harcourt Brace, 1990. In this beautifully illustrated children’s book, many different animals that live in a great kapok tree in the Brazilian the tour they organized, including drawings, research, rainforest try to convince a man with an ax not to cut down their photos, and any observations they made. These scrap- home. books could be constructed from paper that the class Green, Jen. Rainforests. Gareth Stevens Publishing, 1998. An interesting makes using rainforest materials such as coconut fibers book of facts and activities for studies of rainforest topics. that are added to the pulp. Grupper, Jonathan. Destination Rainforest. National Geographic Society, 1997. A good scientific look at many aspects of life in the rainforest, Extensions: with large, high-quality color photographs and minimal text. Investigate local connections to the rainforest by Jordan, Martin and Tanis. Jungle Days — Jungle Nights. Kingfisher visiting local grocers and specialty stores to see what Books, 1993. Beautiful paintings illustrate this story of animals and their activities in the rainforests of South America. A good book to tropical products are for sale in your community. read to a group over several sessions. Visit a local natural area and conduct research to Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. Children Save the Rainforest. Cobblehill Books/Dutton, 1996. Documents the work taking place through the find out what migratory birds (or butterflies) either live Bosque Eterno de los Niños/Children’s Eternal Rainforest in Costa in or pass through your area. Have students plot on a Rica. world map the places to which these colorful visitors Telford, Carole, and Rod Teodorou. Up a Rainforest Tree. Heinemann migrate in winter. Discuss the importance of maintain- Interactive Library, 1998. Looks at the animals and plants found at ing rainforest and local habitat in order to protect these each level of the forest, from the rainforest floor to the highest emergent trees. species. Compare and contrast the ecology of the tropical Books for older students and adults rainforest and that of forests in your region. Students Ayensu, Edward S., ed. Jungles. Crown Publishers, 1980. A wonderful encyclopedia of the tropics that is well illustrated and includes a very should find that the same ecological principles (e.g., helpful “Products of the Jungle” section. light gaps and forest succession) are at work in both. Forsyth, Adrian. Portraits of the Rainforest. Camden House, 1990. Good Some resources to help with these explorations are information for teachers and great color photographs to share with a TRFic! A Temperate Rainforest Teacher’s Guidebook and class. Organized by interesting categories such as “rarity,” Poster Kit (Sierra Club of Canada, BC Chapter) and “beetlejuice,” and “El Tigre.” Forsyth, Adrian, and Kenneth Miyata. Tropical Nature: Life and Death Exploring the Boreal Forest: Understanding an Ecosystem in the Rainforest of Central and South America. Charles Scribner’s by Dave Glaze and Kay Wilson (Saskatchewan Environ- Sons, 1984. Seventeen essays tell of some fascinating and shocking mental Society, 1991). aspects of life in the rainforest. Anyone want a maggot? continued on next page ➤
85 Teaching Green: The Elementary Years Kricher, John. A Neotropical Companion: An Introduction to the Ani- Organizations and websites mals, Plants and Ecosystems of the New World Tropics. Princeton
86 Plants and Animals