The Amazon Rainforest Webquest

INTRODUCTION

The Amazon Rainforest in South America is only a small part of the world. However it holds many organisms which all interact together in some form or another, and it contributes a lot to our atmosphere.

The problem is that the Amazon Rainforest is disappearing and the San Antonio Zoo wants you to help save the Amazon Rainforest by creating a rainforest exhibit. Furthermore, they also want to raise awareness of the problem by asking you to do the following task.

TASK

The San Antonio zoo has employed you to research the Amazon rainforest. You are being asked to create an informational PowerPoint display about the rainforest for visitors at the Amazon Rainforest Exhibit at the zoo. They will send you on some virtual tours through the Amazon rainforest to help you. While on the tour, you are to collect and gather information which may be important to the following questions:

What is the Amazon rainforest?
What creatures live there?
How is the rainforest valuable?
What are some of the problems faced by rainforests of the world?
How can we solve the problems of the rainforest?

PROCESS

First of all, go on the virtual tours, explore the websites, and understand what is significant about the rain forest. Also find out what kind of creatures are in the rainforest, and what threats they face. Be sure to record information which may be needed for your project. Then, put it all together and create your presentation.

RESOURCES

Tour One -

CLICK "Enter Amazonia" for general information.
CLICK "Waterworlds" for information about the waters and water animals
CLICK "Life on Land" for land animals
CLICK "The Big Top" for animals in trees
CLICK "Powerful Plants" to find out what plants are there and how the plants are used
CLICK "Sacred Ground" to learn about problems in the rainforest.

Amazon Interactive

Amazon-Rainforest.org

Jungle Photos - animals, plants, people, scenery, towns

Easy Rainforest Facts very kid friendly site

Great Pictures of the Rainforest

Information and Issues – Be sure to check out the light green navigation on the left of this page for important information and issues about the rainforest.

Additional headlines – for extra information only

Virtual Tour - Way cool!!!

The Jaguar

Scavenger Hunt

Animal Sounds and Pictures

EVALUATION

Evaluation Rubric for the PowerPoint Presentation

Aesthetics/Technical Quality & Grammar/Spelling

4

The PowerPoint presentation is fully complete with only a couple of grammatical errors. Project demonstrates superb effort.

3

The PowerPoint presentation is finished with only minimal errors in detail Project demonstrates good effort.

2

The PowerPoint presentation contains many errors. Project demonstrates little effort.

1

The PowerPoint presentation appears to be incomplete. Project demonstrates no effort at all.

Organization & Sequence

4

The PowerPoint presentation is logical, and clearly and completely addresses each question posed in the TASK. Excellent attention is paid to details.

3

The PowerPoint presentation is logical, and does a pretty good job of addressing each question posed in the TASK. Good attention is paid to details.

2

The PowerPoint presentation is some what logical, but lacking in a few respects. Little attention is paid to details.

1

The PowerPoint presentation is incomplete and lacking. No attention is paid to details.

CONCLUSION (by Frank Tcheng)

The Amazon Rainforest is an important portion to the well being of the Earth. It has been described to be "the lungs of Mother Earth".

The Amazon Rainforest is the world's greatest natural resource. It is the "most powerful and bio-actively diverse natural wonder on the planet." However, it is being destroyed like many of the other rainforests around the world because they can create large profits.

After completing this webquest, you should have a more in depth understanding of the value of the Amazon Rainforest, understand why it is important to the rest of the world, and why it is more important to maintain and preserve the rainforests instead of destroying them.