Rainforest Alliance

Step 1 -- Connect (The Concept to Prior Knowledge)

Challenge

Students consider the different perspectives on the use of resources that are available from different bioregions.

Materials

- Magazine/newspaper articles about local development projects

Procedure

1. Students consider the different uses of a tree. Brainstorm the different ways that a tree might represent value among students and among different interest groups like loggers, farmers, bee keepers and fruit farmers.
2. Teachers prepare students by identifying a local development project that students can relate to. Provide magazine/newspaper articles and/or have local decision-makers communicate the issue with students.
3. Teachers will design a simulation that will have students address the different interests of community members in a particular piece of land. A challenge from the local community is selected by students or by the teacher as a focus for discussion. It might be the future of an empty lot or a farmer’s field that is for sale. Stakeholders are interested in using some of the local land for their own purposes. Students are to decide on a solution to which stakeholder(s) are entitled to use the local piece of land. Explain that a stakeholder is a person or group that has a direct or indirect interest or stake in a matter.
4. Help students identify the different interest groups and create a personal profile of a representative from each group of stakeholders. Include a representative from the plant and animals present in the bioregion.
5. Students take the roles of different stakeholders and have a debate about their right to use this land for their own purpose.
6. A panel of students who listen to debate and sit in decision-making roles consider the testimony and decide on a land use plan.

Step 2 -- Literature/Discuss (Give Expert Information Book; Ask Questions)

Challenge

Students consider land use decisions from another perspective, that of rainforest inhabitants.

Materials

- Ghana Slideshow [PDF]
- Ghana Slideshow Script [PDF]
- Ghana Teacher Summary [PDF]

Procedure

1. Use the Rainforest Alliance Ghana Slideshow to introduce students to the country of Ghana.
2. Students compare and contrast their communities and land use issues with the communities in Ghana. Students identify the problems present and think about all the stakeholders involved.
3. Students research Ghana's geography and focus on the different uses of the Ghanaian rainforest.
   
   Resources for Discussion:
   • Where We Work: Ghana
   • Profiles in Sustainability
4. Have the students enact a role playing sequence similar to that in Step 1 with a focus on the rainforest of Ghana. Include a chocolate producer and consumer in the process.
5. Questions for discussion:
   • Who is involved in growing chocolate in Ghana?
   • What are the different ways to grow chocolate?
   • Who are the stakeholders?

Step 3A -- Practice (Math and Learning Centers)

Challenge

Students integrate their knowledge of chocolate production with the effects on the biodiversity and ecological integrity of the rainforest.

Materials

- Research tools (Internet, Encyclopedia, etc.)
- Paper, pencils

Procedure

1. To begin to understand the demand for chocolate, students create a survey to discover how much chocolate they eat at home, in their class and in their school.
2. Students research chocolate demand, land use issues and trends in tropical rainforests of Ghana.
3. Students create word problems to teach others about how much chocolate people consume and how it affects tropical rainforests.

Step 3B -- Create (Performance Tasks Related to Standard Indicators)

Challenge

Students shift their perspective from taking care of their own bioregion to taking care of the rainforest.

Materials

- Paper
- Art supplies

Procedure

1. Students create scenarios that ensure that the people of Ghana can continue harvesting from the rainforest, cacao trees are made available for chocolate exports and the forest is conserved.
2. Challenge students to create comic strips stories to explain their scenarios.

Step 4 -- Present (Edit Work/Students Present Projects)

Challenge

Students use their knowledge to take action to help conserve the rainforest.

The Rainforest Alliance curriculum is unique in that it teaches science, math, language arts and social studies essentials while addressing the United States National Standards for Learning. These are the standards addressed in the third grade lessons.

Language Arts Writing

Standard 4 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
2. 3. 4. Gathers and uses information for research purposes (encyclopedias, dictionaries, electronic media).
Uses multiple representations of information (maps, charts, diagrams, tables) to find information for research topics.
7. Uses strategies to compile information into written reports or summaries.

Reading

Standard 7 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
Uses reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of informational texts.
5. Summarizes and paraphrases information in texts.
6. Uses prior knowledge and experience to understand and respond to new information.

Standard 6 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literacy texts.
9. Makes connections between characters or simple events in a literary work and people or events in his or her own life.

Listening and Speaking

Standard 8 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
Contributes to group discussions.
Asks questions in class.
Responds to questions and comments.
1. Listens to classmates and adults.
7. Makes basic oral presentations to class.
10. Organizes ideas for oral presentations.

Thinking and Reasoning

Standard 3 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
4. Makes comparisons between countries in terms of relatively concrete characteristics (size, population and products).

Standard 1 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
1. Uses facts from books, articles and databases to support an argument.
7. Recognizes when a comparison is not fair because important characteristics are not the same.

Standard 5 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
1. Identifies issues and problems in the school or community that one might help solve.

Mathematics

Standard 1 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
1. Uses a variety of strategies to understand problem situations.
2. Represents problems situations in a variety of forms.

Standard 3 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
7. Solves real world problems involving number operations.

Standard 4 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
1. Understands the basic measures perimeter, area, volume circumference.
2. Selects and uses appropriate tools for given measurement situations.
4. Understands relationships between measures.
1. Uses specific strategies to estimate quantities and measurements.

Standard 9 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
2. Understands that mathematical ideas and concepts can be represented concretely, graphically, and symbolically.

Life Sciences

Standard 6 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
1. Knows the organization of simple food chains and food webs.
2. Knows the transfer of energy.
3. Knows that changes in the environment can have different effects on different organisms.
4. Knows that all organisms (including humans) cause changes in their environments and these changes can be beneficial or detrimental.

Standard 1 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
Understands atmospheric processes and the water cycle.

Standard 4 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
5. Knows that the characteristics of an organism can be described in terms of a combination of traits; some traits are inherited and others result from interactions with the environment.

Standard 5 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
3. Knows that living organisms have distinct structures and body systems that serve specific functions in growth, survival and reproduction. (body structures for walking, flying, or swimming).

Standard 7 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
3. Understands the concept of extinction and its importance in biological evolution.
4. Knows ways in which living things can be classified.

Standard 9 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
Understands the sources and properties of energy.
Standard 11 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
5. Knows that good scientific explanations are based on evidence (observations) and scientific knowledge.
6. Knows that scientists make the results of their investigations public.

Standard 13 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
1. Knows that people of all ages, backgrounds and groups have made contributions to science and technology throughout history.

Standard 12 Level 2 Grade 3 - 5
3. Plans and conducts simple investigations.
4. Uses appropriate tools and simple equipment.