"When one tugs at a single thing in nature...
he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
John Muir

Introduction | Task | Process | Resources | Evaluation
Conclusions | Ending Quotes

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the International Rainforest Network.  After a nationwide talent search you and a few select others have been selected to present on television the research you have compiled. 

The segment you will be researching and producing is "Interdependence of Life in the Rainforest," and your group will not only need know everything about your animal but also must know and explain how other species in the rain forest depend on that animal: this is the interdependnece of life.

  • food chain/surrounding fauna/flora
  • consumer/producer
  • life cycle/life span
  • interdependence with environment

TASK

Your Amazon Rainforest TV show will be a multimedia show that your team will present to the viewers in TV land (our class). Your TV show will consist of the following:
  • report on an animal and its role in the rainforest ecosystem
  • rap song about that animal
  • background for TV show with your animal in its environment

Your team will also need to create a title for your TV show and theme music.

PROCESS

STAGE 1
Your team will explore rainforest sites and answer questions on a rainforest questions template. Your team will meet after students have explored and answered questions to share their findings.

STAGE 2
Your team willl make a presentation of your animal. Each team will research animal sites and report on one animal.

Choose an animal from the list below:

Bat
Hummingbird
 

 

You will design six slides for each of the following:

  • animal anatomy

  • habitat

  • diet

  • adaptations

  • conservation status (endangered, threatened)

  • life cycle and predators

(NOTE: Use the Animal Template to take notes for your animal report.)

 

STAGE 3
Your team will create a title for your TV show. Your team will develop theme music for your TV show. Your team could write a rap to a jungle beat or write your own lyrics to a familiar song. Also, each group will create a rainforest background to use as a prop in your presentation. You may use tempera, watercolors, ribbons, string, cutouts, crayons, markers, etc.

STAGE 4
Finally your team should rehearse your TV show before you "broadcast it" on the Rainforest Explorers Network!

Lights, Camera, Action - It's Show Time!

RESOURCES

You will be searching and investigating Rainforest Websites and Animal Websites.

EVALUATION

Your team will be evaluated with a rubric.

CONCLUSION

Congratulations! The Rainforest Explorers Network was very impressed with your new show! Your team wowed us with all that you now know about the Amazon Rainforest and how we can all work to save rainforests!

THE RAINFOREST (QUOTES)

"We still don’t know exactly how many species there are on Earth, but the best estimate is around 30 million, 1.4 million of which have officially been recorded. If current patterns of deforestation and habitat loss continue, we shall soon be wiping out species faster than we can record their existence".
Jonathon Porritt

"As the human population grows and our demand for natural resources increases, more and more habitats are devastated. Today, we may be losing 30,000 species a year -- a rate much faster than at any time since the last great extinction 65 million years ago that wiped out most of the dinosaurs. If we continue on this course, we will destroy even ourselves."
American Museum of Natural History

"The extermination of thousands of life forms before we
have even managed to record their existence is by far the most
tragic consequence of humankind’s "march of progress"
across the face of the Earth".
Jonathon Porritt

"The Earth does not belong to Man.  Man belongs to the Earth.
Man does not weave the web of life.  He is merely a strand it it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
Chief Seattle

This page last updated on December 13, 2005