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Middle School Teachers Will Go Bananas for the New Rainforest Alliance CurriculumLessons Emphasize Conservation and the Social Impacts of the World's Most Popular FruitSeptember 23, 2005
New York -- Responding to an ever-increasing demand for ways to bring global education into the classroom, the Rainforest Alliance, an international not-for-profit conservation organization, is now offering 7th and 8th grade teachers a new, free online educational resources. The standards-based environmental curricula for 7th and 8th graders were created by the Rainforest Alliance and Project Learning Tree, an award-winning environmental multidisciplinary environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation. Since the inception of the Rainforest Alliance Learning Site two years ago, the Rainforest Alliance has been working closely with kindergarten through 6th grade teachers and students to encourage good global citizenship in young children and foster a deeper understanding of current conservation issues. Now, through the new middle school curricula provided on the Learning Site, 7th and 8th grade teachers will have access to social studies, language arts, math and science activities that explore the environmental, cultural and economic aspects of banana production in Honduras. Each year, people around the globe consume more than 55 million tons of bananas, making the banana the world's most popular fruit. By connecting students to rainforest conservation issues through such a familiar topic, the Rainforest Alliance curricula help students to better relate to the environmental and economic effects of banana production in Honduras.
"By tracing the journey of bananas from tropical farms to their breakfast tables, students learn about the origin of one of their most favorite foods and how they are connected to ecosystems and cultures that may seem very distant," explains Julianne Schrader, Education Manager of the Rainforest Alliance. "This is an eye-opening experience for young people and a memorable way for them to better understand their role in the global community." The hands-on, interactive lessons created by Project Learning Tree and the Rainforest Alliance give middle school students an opportunity to explore the origins of the banana as well as the communities and wildlife affected by the production of this popular fruit. Using the new Rainforest Alliance curricula, 7th graders conduct a survey to understand the reasons for bananas' popularity, learn about a banana's journey from farm to school lunch, and then create a children's book about bananas. Eighth graders delve further into the subject and conduct a banana "scavenger hunt" at a local grocery store to learn more about which countries export bananas to the United States, how bananas are used and what costs are associated with bananas. With the addition of the middle school units to the K - 6th grade curricula on the Learning Site, students can learn about the socioeconomic and environmental issues facing Latin America beginning at a very basic level when entering kindergarten, and build upon these lessons each year until they come to understand complex topics in middle school. By building upon each previous year's lessons, students are able to bridge the connections between our lives and the lives of people and wildlife throughout Central and South America. Teachers can log onto the Rainforest Alliance Learning Site to access the free kindergarten through 8th grade curricula, sign up for the Eco-Education Matters monthly e-newsletter and browse through new educational resources.
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