updates-lfrf/updates-lfrf.9801

LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST, UPDATE Jan 8th. 1998

From: Geoffrey Haines-Stiles
Subject: LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST, UPDATE Jan 8th. 1998
Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 14:36:10 -0500
 Back to top



LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update January 8, 1997 Volume 7, Issue 5


--------------------------------------------

1. PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE Updates "UPDATED"
2. LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Features
3. Website of the Week
4. Meet the LFRF Team: DR THOMAS E. LOVEJOY
5. PTK Video Schedule
6. Ordering Information

--------------------------------------------

1. PTK UPDATES -- UPDATED!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST, the main PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE Learning
Module for spring 1998. For those of you "graduating" from PTK's LIVE FROM
MARS program, its time to think about switching gears from astronomy and
space to earth and life science, from the search for evidence of >possible<
extra-terrestrial life to the exploration of what are certainly the most
diverse and concentrated areas of life on our own planet--the Amazon Basin
and other rainforests in the Americas and elsewhere.

By way of introduction, I'm Janet K. Cook, a teacher working near Denver and
the editor of UPDATES LFRF, the online newsletter for this project. My
students and I were actively involved over the last two years in both the
LIVE FROM MARS and LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA 2 projects. I'll be working with
Eileen Bendixsen, another LIVE FROM... veteran who'll be moderating
"discuss-lfrf" (an online discussion group for educators and others see
below for more!) to help you take full advantage of all the opportunities
provided by PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE.

This is going to be quite exciting for me. I was in the Amazon rainforest
in person in both 1978 and 1988 and now in 1998, I'll take a virtual trip
back to visit again! It should be a fun and educational trip for all of
us.

Look for LFRF UPDATES to bring you the latest weekly news about the entire
LFRF project: we plan to publish every Wednesday, and hope to hear feedback
from many of you via "discuss-lfrf".

2. LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Features

One highlight of the Module will be three live broadcasts scheduled for
April. But, of course, there will also be collaborative, on-line student
activities, online chats with rainforest scientists, the invaluable
teacher's "discuss-lfrf" mail list, and the usual wide variety of learning
resources always found in PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE websites, teacher's
guides,
posters and multimedia kits, both in print and on-line.

The new LFRF website will be hosted by NASA's Remote Sensing Public Access
Center, also home of "The Observatorium". A set of brief introductory pages
relating to PTK are already located at:

New PTK address as of June 1999.
http://passporttoknowledge.com

For now, these only provide information about past PTK projects, but LFRF
UPDATES will let you know when the new LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST site debuts
in mid-February.

A favorite part of past PTK projects has been getting to know the scientists
involved in the projects. LFRF will be no exception. Scientists' Field
Journals will be included on the website so students can learn about them
and their work and prepare themselves for the live chat sessions and TV
programs. And this time the website will also feature more images of the
researchers and their work.

We'll introduce some of the scientists here in e-mail via UPDATES each
week:
first, Tom Lovejoy, the renowned rainforest ecologist who designed the
ambitious experiment we'll explore in the Amazon, followed next week by
Susan Laurance, a student of trees and birds, and then Heraldo Vasconcelos
(a senior entomologist from Brazil's INPA and an expert on leaf-cutter ants)
Jan. 22, and on Jan. 29 Claude Gascon (field director for the
Smithsonian/INPA project: Claude's primary research interest is frogs.)

The PTK video and online team will work with scientists and students at
different real-world locations to introduce participants to the immense
variety of flora and fauna found in rainforests. And although there will be
major emphasis on biology and life
and earth science, PTK also plans to work with NASA, JPL and "INPE" (the
Brazilian Space Agency), to weave remote sensing images and activities
throughout LFRF. So even if you're "space", not "general science", we hope
you'll find a reason to implement LFRF, or at least share these UPDATES with
your colleagues.


3. Website of the Week

Each week, UPDATES LFRF will feature a different website to help you and
your students become more knowledgeable about rainforests.

This week's website, "Amazon Adventure", developed by a West Virginia high
school, gives an excellent overview of the Amazon Basin. The homepage at:

http://168.216.210.13/amazon/index.htm

is one of my favorites. The picture gives one a real feel for the vastness
of the river. At Iquitos, Peru, 2000 miles from the mouth of the river, the
Amazon is already over a mile across! Explore this wonderful site which
includes a wealth of information as well as activities to whet your appetite
for the experiences to come.


4. Meet the LFRF Team

TOM LOVEJOY:
Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy is Counselor to the Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution, in Washington, D.C., for Biodiversity and Environmental
Affairs, essentially the #2 position at this prestigious national resource.
>From 1973-1987 he directed the science programs of the World Wildlife
Fund-US, during which time he helped bring tropical rainforests and issues
of conservation biology to widespread public attention. As the Journal
excerpts relate, in the late 1970's he devised the "Biological Dynamics of
Forest Fragments Project", a large-scale, ambitious and ongoing joint
Smithsonian-Brazilian experiment designed to provide objective scientific
evidence about rainforests and the consequences of changes in land use. In
1988, he became the first environmentalist to receive Brazil's "Order of Rio
Branco."

As this excerpt makes clear (the full transcript for this and other Journals
will also soon be found on the LFRF website) his interest in biology all
started at school, through the efforts of an enthusiastic teacher!

Question:
How did you first get interested in the natural sciences,
in the natural world around you?



Answer:
Well, almost without knowing what I was doing to myself, I
decided to go to a secondary school that had a zoo. They
were quite far-seeing, actually, they required biology of
all students, and I can remember telling my parents, well,
I'll take it the first year and get it over with. Instead I
had this just incredible interaction with the biology
teacher, named Frank Trevor, who, in the space of three
weeks, "flipped my switch" and got me interested in biology
to the point where I will never have enough of it.

Question:
What made you so excited in those three weeks?



Answer:
Well, part of it was the sheer beauty of living things,
which I'd never really looked at that way before, and also
the difference and the intricacies of how things fitted
together

(Editor's note: one of the purposes of Journals and the
interactions which PTK brokers between world-class
researchers and teachers and students, is to provide a
personal insights into what motivates their careers in
science: PTK asked Dr. Lovejoy for his first reactions on
visiting the rainforest, and what insights he thinks
studying the rainforest provides.)

Question:
What are your first reactions when you go to the
rainforest?



Answer:
You know, when you think about going to the rainforest you
think there are going to be animals all over the place and
jumping out at you from behind trees, and that you'll see a
jaguar every three minutes, and things of that sort. In
fact, it's quite the opposite.

When you go in, you first wonder, what's the big deal?
There are all of these trees there and they all look the
same, and you hardly see anything moving at all--which is
because everything's hiding from everything else! And so
it takes a little while to develop the perception to be
able to see what's going on there and to see the
differences and really develop a sophisticated ability to
understand the biology of the forest and all of its
intricacies.

Question:
What was your personal reaction when you first went into
the rainforest?



Answer:
I was a little afraid of it. I was a little afraid of
tarantulas and snakes and things of that sort, when, in
fact, I really learned that by and large it is pretty
benign. Most things that could hurt you don't really want
to get involved with you in any case.

And then you just begin to see something like a termite
nest, or an ant nest, or leaf-cutting ants, or army ants.
And then, after a little while, your eye begins to pick
things up and your ear begins to hear things and you see
little brilliantly-colored butterflies, and you see a lot
of different kinds of ants, you notice a little flower over
here and something over there. Before long you're just
drawn into the detail and variety of it, and you forget
about your expectation of having big mammals being there
all the time.

Question:
What was the genesis of the Biological Dynamics of Forest
Fragments Project, and what was it designed to add to the
field?



Answer:
Well, in the early 1970s, there was a raging debate going
on in the scientific literature about whether it was better
to have one big national park or a series of small ones
that added up to the same area. And the question was,
would you preserve more biological diversity with one big
one, or a bunch of small ones. And it was a raging debate,
but there was very little in the way of data about it.

It just suddenly occurred to me that there was a chance to


do a giant experiment and really get some of those answers.
Brazil had a law that said that 50 percent of any
development project in the Amazon had to stay in forest.
So the idea was, how about arranging that 50 percent so you
had a whole series of forest fragments of different sizes
which you could study before they were isolated fragments,
and then follow their changes over time, and compare the
small ones to big ones and draw some conclusions about what
was the best way to design and manage a national park. I
guess it has been called the largest controlled, in the
science sense of being able to make comparisons, the
largest controlled experiment that's going on in ecology,
or, I guess, for that matter, in anything. I mean, what
we're doing to the entire planet with greenhouse gases is
an experiment, but there is no "control." The great
advantage of this experiment is that we actually have
intact forest that we can compare to the fragments, and we
have the history of those fragments before they were
actually fragments to make the comparisons.

(Editor: Lovejoy and his team have hosted many U.S.
Senators on fact-finding tours of the rainforest,.and PTK
is pleased to have the chance to take students on a similar
field trip, using telecommunications to make America's
youngsters also "VIP's"!)

Question:
What are the things that when you take VIPs on a tour of
the rainforest you most want them to see by the time they
leave?



Answer:
Actually, you know what I want them most to do, other than
see some things? I want them to hear biological diversity
all night long! Trying to sleep in their hammocks and
having to listen to everything from frogs to howler
monkeys, it really gives them a sense of the variety of
life that the daytime visit by itself will not.

Question:
What do you think are some of the most important scientific
concepts that secondary school teachers can bring to life
through the kinds of issues that (arise from) looking at
the rainforest and understanding the rainforest?



Answer:
First of all, I think we are really talking about the
greatest expression of life on earth. There is no better
way to talk about the variety of life and the importance of
the variety of life. But there are also the ways that the
rainforest relates to local climatic conditions, such as
half the rainfall in the Amazon is generated internally and
largely because there is forest there.

And the tropical forests hold this enormous pool of carbon,
so as we worry about greenhouse gases, and carbon dioxide
in particular, what happens to that pool of carbon becomes
really important. So as we think about trying to get that
carbon cycle under control and global climate under
control, what we do with forests is a central part of the
solution.

And beyond that, it's just the sheer variety of
interactions and ways of making a living that go in the
forest. This is evolution and ecology written at its most
dramatic.

Question:
Who are the kinds of people who do research out there the
rainforest?



Answer:
Well, the people who go out there and do it, go out there
because they love it, because they're fascinated by it, and
because its fun. When you really come down to it, science
is just really a way of being a kid for your entire life...


5. PTK Video Schedule

LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST
LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST will feature three live programs originating from
sites in Brazil, Washington and across the United States. They will debut
on April 7, 14 and 21, 1998, allat 13:00 hours Eastern. It's not too
early
to contact the Instructional TV
person at your local PBS station to verify that they will broadcast the
program in your area. Even though the national PBS satellite will be
feeding the PTK videos, local stations are under no obligation to show the
programs. To ensure local broadcasting, or alternate access to the videos,
teachers from that area need to assure the station that it is worthwhile to
do so. Start making your interest known now and be sure to thank them for
past and future support, also.

You can also downlink the signal directly, if your school or district has
the right dish (expect detailed coordinates in future UPDATES) and-subject
to Space Shuttle and other missions NASA-TV will also likely carry the
videos live, and subsequently re-run them several times.

LIVE FROM THE POLES
Just to get the date on your calendar, please also note that April 28 will
see LIVE FROM THE POLES, a PTK special offered in cooperation with NSF's
National Science and Technology
Week, whose theme for 1998 is "Polar Connections: Exploring Earth's Natural
Laboratories." While PTK is not planning an original teacher's guide or
custom Web site, NSF is creating print and online materials. We'll let you
know more in the coming months here. You may find one of your local science
museums is hosting special teacher training sessions as part of NSF's NSTW
Network. PTK's interactive video plans to have both Arctic and Antarctic
sites live on camera, with previously unseen footage from both North and
South Poles!


6. Ordering Information

Printed Teacher's Guides and other support materials, similar to the
well-reviewed PTK Guides and Kits for Mars and Antarctica, will become
available in February. Detailed descriptions, ordering addresses, and costs
will be posted on UPDATES next week, Wednesday January 14th.

To subscribe to this discuss-lfrf, (the online discussion group for
educators and others planning to use the project), please send e-mail to:


listmanager@passporttoknowledge.com

(note address change from previous PTK projects!)

Place ONLY the words:

subscribe discuss-lfrf

in the body of the message and that will automatically subscribe you
according to your Reply-To address embedded in your e-mail. (Be sure to turn
off your "signature", or add the word on the line after discuss-lfrf>.

To be removed from the UPDATES or discuss list at any time, follow the same
instructions but type in the body of the message, for example:

unsubscribe discuss-lfrf


LET US HEAR FROM YOU!

We hope you'll use "discuss" to let the PTK team and your colleagues know
what's on your mind, and to make suggestions about how to ensure LIVE FROM
THE RAINFOREST is an exciting and worthile learning adventure.

On behalf of PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE, welcome to the new school year and this
new project! We hope you'll enjoy traveling with us virtually to some of the
most amazing and instructive places on Earth.

Sincerely,
JANET COOK
Editor, UPDATES LFRF
Geoff Haines-Stiles
Project Director, PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE & the LIVE FROM... specials
"electronic field trips to scientific frontiers"
Real Science, Real Scientists, Real Locations, Real Time
vox: 973.656.9403 * fax: 973.656.9813 * mobile: 908.305.7061
alt. e-mail: ptkghs@aol.com
http://passporttoknowledge.com
Antarctica... Stratosphere... Hubble... Mars... Rainforest... the Arctic,
and more



LFRF Update January 15, 1998

From: "Richard A. Kurnik"
Subject: LFRF Update January 15, 1998
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 18:46:51 -0500 (EST)
 Back to top


LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update January 15, 1998
Volume 7, Issue 6

--------------------------------------------

1. PTK Update including Weather World Winners
2. PTK Video Schedule
3. Meet another member of the LFRF Team
4. LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Features
5. Ordering Information
6. Website of the Week

--------------------------------------------

1. PTK Update

Welcome to LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST, the Passport to
Knowledge program for the spring of 1998. We have taken
the liberty of automatically subscribing the PRE-EXISTING
members of UPDATES-LFM TO this list. We felt this was the
best way to keep you in touch with our latest PASSPORT TO
KNOWLEDGE project--LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST.

UPDATES-LFRF, like UPDATES-LFM, will come to you just
once a week, providing the easiest way to keep up with this
rapidly-evolving project without too many messages. To
participate more actively, just as in LIVE FROM MARS, please
see below for instructions about how to join DISCUSS-LFRF,
our online "teacher's lounge", designed expressly for
brainstorming, sharing, and providing input to PTK and
LFRF.

We realize (though we much regret!) that some of you will
not want to be part of this list. If you would like to
unsubscribe, please send a message to:

listmanager@passporttoknowledge.com

and in the body of the message write:

unsubscribe updates-lfrf

PLEASE NOTE: This >MAY< not be the same address that
you used to subscribe to this list originally.

If you have any problems with unsubscribing, please send a
note to Eileen Bendixsen (eb@passporttoknowledge.com) and she will
see that you are unsubscribed.

We hope voyaging with us to Mars over the past year and a
half has gotten you in the mood for virtual exploration! We
hope you will travel with us this spring as we come face to
face with one of the most diverse and concentrated areas of
life on our own planet--the Amazon Basin and other
rainforests in the Americas and elsewhere.


WEATHER WORLDS WINNERS

The Weather Worlds Scavenger Hunt was immensely
popular. Congratulations to these classes who won in their
sections.


Darlene Taylor's MESA Class at Dixon Middle School, in
Provo, UT


Susan Hurstcalderon's 8th Grade class at Blessed Sacrament
School, in Washington, DC


(Yes, Gentle Readers, Susan WAS one of the co-moderators,
but her class did come up with their answers independently
and we did not wish to discriminate against these enthusiastic
students. We promise you they won fair and square!)


Cheryl Labbane and Patti Wood's 4th Grade class at
Southeast Elementary, in Jenks, OK.


CONGRATULATIONS!!!


Read on in UPDATES-LFRF to see more of what's planned,
and how you and your students can participate.



2. PTK Video Schedule


LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST will feature three live
programs originating at sites from Brazil to back home in
North America. They will debut April 7, 14 and 21, 1998.

Program 1: MISSION TO PLANET EARTH

This first program sets the stage for all that follows, by
showing the planetary processes which form and shape
rainforests, introduces how we study them, and gives a first
look at some of the lifeforms which inhabit them, and why
rainforests are important. Several rainforests around our
planet will be included in this first overview. We ll meet the
cast of human characters who will populate this stage over
the next two weeks: Claude Gascon, field coordinator for
BDFF, who has been fascinated by frogs ever since a college
professor gave an assignment to research a rainforest
creature, and imagine yourself inside its skin (a similar activity
is in the LFRF Teacher's Guide), Heraldo Vasconcelos and his
leaf-cutter ants, and Susan Laurance and her tree studies.
We'll also see how NASA and INPE (Brazil's space agency)
use remote sensing to see, from orbit, what you can't see
down on the ground.


PROGRAM 2 "WORLDS BENEATH THE CANOPY"

Program 1 set the stage and introduces a few key players: this
program populates it with a rich cast of characters--human,
plant and animal, and explores the plot which links them all
together in the drama of life and death, survival and
adaptation or death and extinction. Highlights will include
bats and dung beetles, always a student favorite.


PROGRAM 3: "CONNECT GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY"

The Amazon may be the largest rainforest on Earth, with the
greatest diversity of species, but the issues raised there in high
relief most definitely connect "back home", in urban
playgrounds, suburban backyards, and in America's rural
areas. This program will show how and why rainforests affect
the rest of the planet, literally and metaphorically. We ll see
how the Smithsonian Biodiversity study is doing and show
results of the students own biodiversity study which will
have been going on on-line for several weeks. We ll also
explore the effect of man on rainforests and other habitats.


Each program will feature not only live segments with project
scientists but also classrooms at home using the program and
learning about the rainforest. Live classroom sites are chosen
from those involved in the on-line projects. Please be sure to
document your activities. Videos submitted by teachers can
also be included in the programs.

It's not too early to contact the Instructional TV person at
your local PBS station to ensure that they will broadcast the
program in your area. Even though national PBS is a sponsor
of the PTK program, local stations are under no obligation to
show the programs. To ensure local broadcasting, teachers
from that area need to assure the station that it is worthwhile
to do so. Taping rights: one year from Broadcast dates. Call
973-656-9403 for pricing on the 3 one hour videos if not
available via satellite access in your area.


3. Meet another member of the LFRF Team

[Note from the editor: These are journals from scientists with
whom we'll be working in Brazil. You might want to save
these journal articles in a word processing file until you're
ready to use them. Scientists' journals are very interesting to
the students and help them get more into the project]


SUSAN LAURANCE

Susan Laurance, together with husband Bill, is one of a team
of ecologists tracking the interaction of plants, insects and
animals, and comparing the intact, developed and
regenerating forest areas. They're adding the latest chapter to
data extending back almost 20 years. She and Bill, an
American, have worked in rainforests in Australia as well as
in South America. Susan took PTK on a tour of the bi-national
Smithsonian-INPA sites north of Manaus, and provided some
practical "do's and don'ts" for living and working in the
rainforest:

PTK asks "Why did I come to the Amazon?"

Well, the Amazon is one of those places where you're always using the
words the "biggest" or the "best", and in many ways to work
in the rainforest here is to work in the largest area of
rainforest. It's working in one of the areas which has one of
the highest diversity of bird species, one of the highest
diversity of plants species, of anywhere in the world, so it's a
very exciting place to be and to work here as a scientist.

I think one of the nicest experiences I've had was to
encounter a pair of spider monkeys in the canopy. While
being on the floor of the forest, to see a pair of spider
monkeys up close and to have them see me too, and respond
to me. Not that they were very pleased to see me! They
were shouting monkey words at me and throwing down
sticks. But just that feeling that we were interacting. Not that
they were so positive about it, but I think that was really
exciting to see that.

I can't think of a bad thing. I've never really had a very bad
experience working here. There's the bites, there's the spines,
when you have to open up a trail and you might get a whole
lot of spines all over your body that are painful, sore
muscles, insect bites, feeling like you're never going to be
beautiful again, but there's no really bad experience I've ever
had.

When you walk through the forest, you're always looking for
things. You look where you put your feet, you look where
your hands are going. You're looking for snakes, you're
looking for spiders, you're looking for ants, especially
ant-defended plants, which can be especially nasty--these
very small ants, but getting a LOT of them on you! You're
looking for wasps' nests, you're looking for spines. You don't
put your hand anywhere without looking where it is going.
You don't place your hand on a tree without looking at the
tree. It's really just common sense. It's really just being smart
when you are working in the forest.

I always carry a snake bite kit, for if I was bitten by a viper. I
always have a pen and paper. I carry a candle, because if
you're trying to light a fire in the rainforest, it's a much easier
way than using matches. I carry a small compass. So these are
some of the everyday things of just making sure that you are
covered. We always carry plenty of water, it's a good idea!
Although it rains and you're in a rainforest, it's very hot and
you lose a lot of water. You can get heat exhaustion very
quickly working the forest, so you just need be aware of
what you're eating. Making sure you eat plenty of salt, make
sure you're drinking plenty of water primarily.

I grew up in a tropical area of Australia that has rainforest,
and I think that maybe that had a great influence because I
was always very comfortable in the forest. And our house
backed onto forest, and we had a little rainforest stream, and
as kids we spent a lot of time there. And it was not a foreign
type of environment for us, it was very normal. And I think
that had a lot to do with it. Also my family and myself,
we've always had a great love for animals, and for me it has
always been a very strong ambition to always work with
animals, to work with the environment. So I think that's
probably the biggest reason I can think of why I am here.

PTK asked Susan what is it was she most liked about working
in this "sticky, humid, hot 'hell'?"

I think it is the mystery of it, there is so much to discover,
there is SO little known, there's a lot of exciting things about
what wildlife is doing here, what plants are doing here. They
have evolved over time to develop some really fascinating
strategies for survival, and I think that's what so exciting
about working in the rainforest is that there is so much to
discover the mystery.


4. LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Features


One of the high points of PTK has been projects such as THE
GREAT PLANET DEBATE, PET or WEATHER WORLDS...
online collaborative debates/discussions related directly to
the topic. In the Smithsonian BDFF (Biological Dynamics of
Forest Fragments) project we have a real world
BIODIVERSITY (different species) SURVEY of DIFFERENT
FRAGMENTS over TIME (20 years.)

Students involved in LFRF will research some volume/area of
space in their region using a protocol they propose and
prepare in on-line discussions. On a timetable which upfront
allows teachers to plan ahead, they will do such a survey.
Real rainforest scientists will mentor students and teachers
and help them with the project.

Separate but cooperating student teams for plants, insects,
mammals, weather(etc. etc.) will to spread the load of
research around. The "GREAT BIODIVERSITY SURVEY" (I m
sure you and your students working together can come up
with a catchier name!) will have kids going out and surveying
their chosen site. In class, kids will digest and submit reports
on-line and the rainforest researchers and other students will
comment on, respond, and discuss the reports with the
students on-line.

Working on an on-line project like this involves students in
many ways--researching, writing, discussing, problem-solving,
etc. It's a great inter-disciplinary activity.



5. Ordering Information

THINK AHEAD, and PLAN NOW for SOME UNIQUE
LEARNING EXPERIENCES


Support Materials:

Teacher's Guide Pack: includes 60 page guide featuring
hands-on activities, Special PTK full color LFRF poster,
student worksheets, and more. $20.00 per guide pack.


Multi-media Kit: includes Teacher's Guide pack described
above, teacher resource video with rainforest background
and segments demonstrating how to implement hands-on
activities via classroom demonstrations, sample online
materials, set of 35mm slides, and more! $125.00 per
multi-media kit.


Advanced orders may be placed by calling 973-656-9403.
Packs will be shipped when available in late February.


Online Resources: Selected portions of the Teacher s Guide,
full background on the LFRF project, and many other
resources will be available via the Web at a site which is
presently under development. Web date availability: early
Feb. 


6. Website of the Week

Each week, UPDATES features a different website to help you
and your students become more knowledgeable about
rainforests. You should either bookmark it in your browser
or save the addresses in a word-processing file so that they're
available when you need them later on. This week's
website, Good Green Fun, is at:
http://www.efn.org/~dharmika/ggftrop.htm. This is a great
site for everyone. The opening page looks like it's just for
elementary teachers, but there are links to so many sites,
suitable for all ages. LFRF, of course, does not encourage
you to buy anything at any sites we mention, we're just
providing these for the great information they have.



In addition to the weekly UPDATES, PTK also offers a
listserve or on-line discussion group by e-mail for educators
and others planning to use the project) which allows teachers
to ask questions, discuss problems, make suggestions, etc.

To subscribe to updates-lfrf or discuss-lfrf, please send e-mail
to: listmanager@passporttoknowledge.com (note address change
from previous PTK projects!) Place ONLY the words:

subscribe updates-lfrf
or
subscribe discuss-lfrf

in the body of the message and that will automatically
subscribe you according to the Reply-To address embedded
in your e-mail. (Be sure to turn off your "signature", or add
the word on the line after .

To be removed from the UPDATES or discuss list at any time,
follow the same instructions but type in the
body of the message, for example:

unsubscribe discuss-lfrf



We hope you'll use UPDATES to keep abreast of PTK news
and "discuss" to let the PTK team and your colleagues know
what's on your mind, and to make suggestions about how to
ensure LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST is an exciting and
worthwhile learning adventure. On behalf of PASSPORT TO
KNOWLEDGE, welcome to the new school year and this new
project! We know you'll enjoy traveling with us virtually to
some of the most amazing and instructive places on Earth.


LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST, UPDATE as of Jan 21, 1998

From: "Richard A. Kurnik"
Subject: LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST, UPDATE as of Jan 21, 1998
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 14:40:36 -0500 (EST)
 Back to top


--------------------------------------------

1. PTK Update #7, including news of another PTK Winner!
2. PTK Video Schedule: a brief reminder
3. Meet another member of the LFRF Team
4. LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Features: Guide preview
5. Ordering Information
6. Website(s) of the Week

--------------------------------------------

1. PTK Update

Welcome to LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST, the major PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE
project for the spring of 1998. Progress is
rapidly being made toward an exciting spring for everyone.
PTK director, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, is off soon to another
production planning meeting with the Brazilian scientists
with whom we'll all be working. This week's website will let
you see their work a little more closely, via a very informative
site hosted by the National Museum of Natural History's Biodiversity
program of the Smithsonian Institution.

PRESIDENTIAL AWARD WINNER

Rhonda Toon, an active PTK teacher, has just been awarded
the National Science Foundation Presidential Award for
Excellence in Science teaching for 1997 for the state of
Georgia! She'll get to meet President Clinton at the White
House in June to receive her award. She will immediately
blow her prize on a fabulous trip to the rainforest
in Costa Rica in June. She used her work with LIVE FROM MARS
as a major component of her submission.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

We're sure there are a bunch of folks who have parlayed PTK
into local and national awards or grants to improve your
teaching. We would love to hear from you all, not just so
we can congratulate you, but also so we can share your winning ways to
inspire others to do the same.


2. PTK Video Schedule

(Just a brief note for those new to the list: repeat readers should skip to
the next sections, which have new news!)

LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST will feature three live
programs originating at sites from Brazil to back home in
North America. They will debut April 7, 14 and 21, 1998.

Program 1: MISSION TO PLANET EARTH

This first program sets the stage for all that follows, by
showing the planetary processes which form and shape
rainforests, introduces how we study them, and gives a first
look at some of the lifeforms which inhabit them, and why
rainforests are important.

PROGRAM 2: "WORLDS BENEATH THE CANOPY"

Program 2 shows us the rich cast of characters--human, plant
and animal--active in the rainforest and explores the plot
which links them all together in the drama of adaptation or
extinction.

PROGRAM 3: "CONNECT GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY"

This program will show how and why rainforests affect the
rest of the planet, literally and metaphorically. We'll see
more of what the bi-national Smithsonian/INPA Biodiversity study is doing
and show
results of the students' own "Backyard Biodiversity" survey which will
have been going on, on-line, for several weeks.


3. Meet another member of the LFRF "Team"

[Note from the editor: These are journals from scientists with
whom we'll be working in Brazil. You might want to save
these journal articles in a word processing file until you're
ready to use them. Scientists' Journals are very interesting to
the students and help them get more "into" the project]

Heraldo Vasconcelos is head of the Department of
Entomology at INPA, The National Institute for Research in
Amazonia, headquartered in Manaus, and the Smithsonian's
partner in the bi-national Biological Dynamics of Forest
Fragments project. Heraldo's principal research interest, at
the moment, is leaf-cutter ants.

***

Ants, like humans are social, in a sense... Ants together with
bees, wasps, and termites, are the only the social insects. With
ants, in general, you have a division of labor... different ants
do different tasks... You have the Queen which is the only
one, in most species, which lays eggs, so they have
"production", and the growth of the colony is dependent on
the Queen. And the workers are the "labor force." Different
workers, sometimes different sizes or different ages, have
specific tasks. For instance, in leaf-cutting ants, which is one of
the most complex social organizations among the ants, it's so
complex because they don't just cut leaves to eat. They use
these leaves to grow the fungi which is their food source. So,
leaf-cutting ants are agriculturists, farmers, just like humans,
but beginning well before humans!

In this society of leaf-cutting ants you have very small ants
which take care of the fungi. And you have bigger ants which
are strong enough to cut leaves. And finally you have the
soldiers. The soldiers cut leaves sometimes, too, but only the
very tough leaves. But they are mostly involved in mass
defense. For instance, if army ants, a kind of enemy of leaf-
cutting ants, invade the leaf-cutting ant's nest, thousands of
soldiers go outside the nest to defend the rest of the nest.
And many die in these battles, but the nest survives in the
end, which is the purpose.

Leaf-cutter ants live inside ground nests. These nests are very
big. A mature nest has something like five million workers.
It's a nest more than five meters wide, 3-4 meters deep, with
hundreds of chambers the size of a soccer ball. Inside some
of the chambers they keep the fungi, and they also have
chambers where they put their garbage. It is very well
organized in the sense that the garbage chambers tend to be
below the fungi chambers, so there is no contamination. So,
they are very clean in this sense.

...the workers leave the nest to gather leaves. In the primary
forest, this means that a worker sometimes needs to travel as
far as 100 meters from the nest, and then climb up to the
forest canopy, which is 30 or 35 meters above. And then
they cut a small piece of leaf that weighs sometimes two
times more than the ant's own weight--that's like you carrying
two people on your back! And then they climb back down,
and 100 meters back. So probably during one night they are
able to do one or two trips at maximum... which is a very
tough job.

...there is a classic work by Edward Wilson, who worked in
the Peruvian Amazon, and he records in a single tree there
were forty-three species of ants, and this is more than you will
find in the complete British Isles, which means England,
Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland. We really don't know how
many species of ants there are in the Amazon, but in the
neotropics, which means the Amazon and other parts of
Latin America, we know that there are about 3,000 species
of ants. I guess that more than half occur in the Amazon.
These are the number of "described" species, and we guess
that we are going to get (at least) two times, or three times
more, in the near future. So I would say that 3,000 species is
a good guess for the Amazon.

[PTK note: Dr. Vasconcelos was one of many Brazilian
researchers who told us, somewhat to our surprise, that
often Brazilian students know little about the Amazon, given
the vastness of the nation and the vastness of the rainforest.
He thought they might be very interested in the topic, rather
than being bored by too much familiarity!]

Well, I think that the sort of program you are doing now, an
educational program, and focusing on the Amazon, it is very
important. We have all kinds of educational programs that
talk about lions, and elephants, and all kinds of things like
that, which are not from the Amazon. So the students need
this information, and more regional information, which will
help the students learn more about what the Amazon region
is, how it works, how does the forest work. (In fact, for
many Brazilian students, the Amazon is...) not so close to
home. Most of the Brazilian population lives in the South of
Brazil, and in fact Manaus is about the same distance from
Sao Paulo [the most populous city in Brazil] as Miami is from
Manaus.

You need to have motivation to work in the forest, a very
clear-cut objective, and I think the more that you learn about
the forest the more you want to know about the forest. So
that keeps your motivation high and keeps you going to the
forest. When you are in the forest you feel good, because
you're in a really nice place, with the sensation that you are
the only one there, and you are doing things that no one has
done before, so that keeps you really going and going.


4. LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Features

For a teacher preparing for a new unit, what could be more
comforting than a detailed, clear, easy to use lesson plan?

Your Guide to the rainforest is rapidly approaching the
printing stage. This year's Teacher's Guide is going to be the
best.

Plans for the Guide pack are quite comprehensive. In addition to
the step-by-step instructions for a host of educational
activities, there are black-line masters of worksheets and
maps for use as handouts, overheads, etc. Background on
the project as a whole and for each activity will give you the
knowledge you need to help your students. Links to helpful
websites, bibliographies of other sources, and sidebars with
supplementary information will add to your repertoire.

All this, plus a full color poster!

>From opening activities to a variety of assessments, you will
find everything you need in the Teacher's pack. Activities
planned include: learning why there are no seasons in a
tropical rainforest, understanding how plants and animals
have adapted to different rainforest conditions, gathering
information from maps and other data sources, and
investigating the relationships between the native flora and
fauna and humans.

The Teacher's Guide will help you in other ways, too. Each
lesson will be keyed to the appropriate national standards, so
it will be easy to fit into your required curriculum. Extensions
will give you ideas for changing activities to meet the needs
of all students, K-12, regardless of their grade, special
interests, or language skills. There are also tie-ins to all areas
of the curriculum, making LFRF usable in any classroom, not
just the science room. Mapping projects will improve
geography skills, comparing data from the Amazon area to
those in your own or another locale and converting
metric units to miles, etc., will sharpen math skills, and reading
scientists' Journals, communicating with other students, and
accessing material from the web will keep your class reading and
writing all day!


5. Ordering Information

Support Materials:

Teacher's Guide Pack: includes 80 page Guide featuring
hands-on activities, Special PTK full color LFRF poster,
student worksheets, and more. $20.00 per Guide pack.
(Yes, it grew from 64 to 80 pages since the last Upodate!)

Multi-media Kit: includes Teacher's Guide pack described
above, teacher resource video with rainforest background
and segments demonstrating how to implement hands-on
activities via classroom demonstrations, sample online
materials, set of 35mm slides, and more! $125.00 per
multi-media kit.

Advance orders may be placed by calling 973-656-9403.
Packs will be shipped when available in late February.

Online Resources: Selected portions of the Teacher's Guide,
full background on the LFRF project, and many other
resources will be available via the Web at a site which is
presently under development. Web date availability: early
Feb. 


6. Website of the Week

Each week, UPDATES features a different website to help you
and your students become more knowledgeable about
rainforests. You should either bookmark it in your browser
or save the addresses in a word-processing file so that they're
available when you need them later on.

This week's website, the Biological Dynamics of Forest
Fragment Project (BDFFP) in Manaus, Brazil, is at:

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/biodiversity/bdffp.htm

This project includes the team of scientists with which we'll be
working. Look through the staff and you'll find them all
listed. The Project Description explains what they're studying
and how. Bookmark this so it will be easy to refer to during
the project.

To get ready for the project, you'll want to make sure your
computer can download everything, before you need it.

Check out this imaging site from the Gulf of Maine Aquarium
(one of PTK's collaborators and an uplink site during LFA2) at:

http://octopus.gma.org/surfing/summary.html

Not only can you enjoy all the pictures, but you can check to be sure
you're able to access everything, in order to get ready for some in-class
and online image processing activities during LFRF.

Along this same line, if you're worrying about paying for
your technology needs, the Schools and Libraries Corp. (SLC)
has developed materials to help you either develop or
improve your district technology plan so you can qualify for
the "E-rate" discount. Contact them at 1(888)203-8100 or
check out their website:

http://www.neca.org


PTK ON-LINE SERVICES

In addition to the weekly UPDATES, PTK also offers a
mail list, or on-line discussion group by e-mail, for educators
and others planning to use the project, which allows teachers
to share ideas and successes, ask questions, discuss problems,
make suggestions, etc.

To subscribe to discuss-lfrf, please send e-mail to:

listmanager@passporttoknowledge.com

(note address change from previous PTK projects!) Place ONLY the words:

subscribe discuss-lfrf

in the body of the message and that will automatically
subscribe you according to the Reply-To address embedded
in your e-mail. (Be sure to turn off your "signature", or add
the word on the line after .

If a colleague would like to subscribe to UPDATES, please have them
follow the directions above but put:

subscribe updates-lfrf

in the body of their message.

To be removed from the UPDATES or discuss list at any time,
follow the same instructions but type in the
body of the message. For example, put either:

unsubscribe discuss-lfrf

OR

unsubscribe updates-lfrf

and you will be removed from the respective list.

***

We hope you'll use UPDATES to keep abreast of PTK news,
and "discuss" to let the PTK team and your colleagues know
what's on your mind, and to make suggestions about how to
ensure LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST is an exciting and
worthwhile learning adventure. On behalf of PASSPORT TO
KNOWLEDGE, welcome to the new school year and this
new project! We know you'll enjoy traveling with us virtually
to some of the most amazing and instructive places on Earth.

Janet K. Cook
Sinclair Middle School
300 W. Chenango
Englewood, CO 80110
(303) 781-7817 (w) (303)806-2000 x1904 (vm)







LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update   January 28, 1998         

From: "Janet K. Cook"
Subject: LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update   January 28, 1998         
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 23:24:57 -0700
 Back to top


LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update January 28, 1998
Volume 8, Issue 8

--------------------------------------------

1. PTK Update
2. PTK Video Schedule
3. Meet another member of the LFRF Team
4. LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Features
5. Ordering Information
6. Website of the Week

--------------------------------------------

1. PTK Update

Welcome to LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST, the Passport to
Knowledge program for the spring of 1998. Progress is
rapidly being made toward an exciting spring for everyone.
The Teacher’s Guide is within minutes of being sent to the
printer. And it’s going to be bigger than ever--a full 80 pages
of facts, activities, and fun. More to follow....


2. PTK Video Schedule

LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST will feature three live
programs originating at sites from Brazil to back home in
North America. They will debut April 7, 14 and 21, 1998. If
you know all about them, skip to Claude’s journal.

Program 1: MISSION TO PLANET EARTH

This first program sets the stage by showing the planetary
processes which form and shape rainforests, introduces how
we study them, gives a first look at some of the lifeforms
which inhabit them, and why rainforests are important.
Several rainforests around our planet will be included in this
first overview.

PROGRAM 2 "WORLDS BENEATH THE CANOPY"

Program 2 shows us the rich cast of characters--human, plant
and animal--active in the rainforest and explores the plot
which links them all together in the drama of adaptation or
extinction.

PROGRAM 3: "CONNECT GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY"

This program will show how and why rainforests affect the
rest of the planet, literally and metaphorically. We’ll see
how the Smithsonian Biodiversity study is doing and show
results of the students’ own biodiversity study which will
have been going on no-line for several weeks. We’ll also
explore the effect of man on rainforests and other habitats.

Each program will feature not only live segments with
project scientists but also classrooms at home using the
program and learning about the rainforest. Live classroom
sites are chosen from those involved in the online projects.
Please be sure to document your activities. Videos submitted
by teachers can also be included in the programs.

It’s not too early to contact the Instructional TV person at
your local PBS station to ensure that they will broadcast the
program in your area. If you don’t have access to PBS, find
someone with a programmable satellite who will let you
watch or tape it there. Ideas: local museums, libraries, or
satellite dish sales stores (several people have taken the kids
right to the store to watch with the employees!) Taping
rights: one year from Broadcast dates. Call 973-656-9403 for
pricing on the 3 one hour videos if not available via satellite
access in your area.


3. Meet another member of the LFRF Team

[Note from the editor: These are journals from scientists with
whom we’ll be working in Brazil. You might want to save
these journal articles in a word processing file until you’re
ready to use them. Scientists’ journals are very interesting to
the students and help them get more “into” the project]

Claude Gascon is Field Director and Science Coordinator for
the INPA/Smithsonian Biological Dynamics of Forest
Fragments Project, headquartered in Manaus, Brazil.

***

I initially came down about 10 years ago in 1987 to start
some field work for my Ph.D., working primarily with frogs
and tadpoles, trying to understand where frogs breed, what
aquatic or terrestrial habitats frogs need to be able to breed
successfully and to establish healthy populations in natural
forests. That type of basic natural history information is
extremely important for us to understand the natural
situation. Then we can compare that with any modified
situation, such as cutting down large areas of forests, and
seeing what happens to the frogs if their breeding
requirements or their feeding requirements are not met in
this modified landscape. We can expect and predict that
they will be negatively affected.

(Claude got started on his career through an exercise in
research and imagination directly paralleling one suggested
for students in the LFRF Teacher's Guide.)

…there was one biology teacher in university in my first
ecology course who asked us to do a paper that essentially
asked us to become any animal or any plant that we decided
to choose, and describe in a written essay how we, as that
animal or plant, would live, what we needed to survive,
where we lived and under what conditions, etc. And after a
couple of days of thinking, I chose to be a frog and put
myself in the skin of a frog, and started to look in books and
do some research. I wrote a paper that got me really
interested in frogs, and that led to more reading. The more I
read, the more I got interested. I eventually had a chance to
start some graduate work with frogs in Canada and then had
a great opportunity to come here and continue my research
with frogs.

…The most inspiring moment I’ve had didn’t really have to
do with research per se, it was just the moment, one of these
moments that make you reflect over a whole series of things
in life. It was an encounter I had with a frog, a frog of about
an inch long, an adult frog, the poison arrow frog, very
colorful. Poison arrow frogs here in the Amazon have
evolved, at least for part of the lifecycle of their young, they
take care of their young. They will lay eggs in a terrestrial
nest--they don't deposit eggs in the water like most North
American frogs-- and then the male will actually defend that
nest until the eggs hatch. When the eggs hatch, the male will
sort of back into the nest, and the tadpoles, through reflex,
will jump onto the male’s back. Then the male will actually
carry these tadpoles, his young, on his back for maybe
several hours a day until he finds a pond where he then
backs into the pond and the tadpoles go into the water.

Well, the first time I came across a one-inch frog that has a
brain perhaps the size of half a pea carrying young, actually
taking care of its own progeny, I guess I shouldn't say that I
cried, but I did cry, I had a tear coming down from my eye,
because it was just such a wonderful sight to see that such a
small animal, that in terms of intelligence is not something
that we can really relate to, but certainly has some
intelligence and has some reflexes of having evolved this
lifestyle of caring for its young…just caring for its young in
such a hostile environment. Well, it was something that just
had me reflect for the rest of my ten years here, really.

The worst moment I think I’ve spent in the Amazon, and
there have been several worst moments in terms of ten years
of doing research here--in general, life is very difficult in the
forest and you’re under harsh conditions and wet and moldy
and you don't have air conditioning, etc, etc.—-but I think
the worst moment really that I had, had to be a moment of
fear where I was doing work at night with one of my
research assistants. We were fairly far from camp and all of a
sudden we heard a jaguar calling. Jaguars do call when they
are in reproductive mode; the males will start grunting. And
we heard a jaguar calling a couple hundred yards away from
us, and that was all right, it was a kind of a nice experience.
But as we kept walking down the trail, all of a sudden we
heard a second male jaguar calling from about 20 yards in
front of us. We never did see them, but we were sort of in
this situation where one jaguar was between us and the
camp. And this was at night and we only had headlamps and
no guns or anything, so we essentially had to find a quick
way to get around and back on the right side of the trail
towards camp. And I must say that night I did not sleep very
well. I dreamt a lot about jaguars sort of sitting and licking
their lips and looking at my hammock that night!


PTK asks: How does research done here impact people living
far away from the Amazon?

On the global scale, I think there are obviously some very
important considerations that have to be taken into account
with respect to the preservation and conservation of the
Amazon forest itself. And the two main issues have to do
with the global warming issue and the other with the
hydrological cycles--the water or rain cycles in the world. We
know that both issues have a distinct link with the presence
of the Amazon forest here. In other words, the presence of
this large patch of tropical rainforest here, in essence,
controls much of the hydrology of this area and in other
parts of the world, meaning that a lot of the moisture and
water is actually created and maintained by the presence of
this forest and therefore cutting down a lot of it will affect
not only rainfall locally, by decreasing rainfall and essentially
making it a drier area, but will also have an impact on
neighboring countries.

In terms of global warming, we also know that there is a
direct link between taking a patch of forest, cutting it and
burning it, and thereby releasing gases that contribute to the
greenhouse effect, which is essentially just the warming up of
the world's climate. Burning tropical forests contribute to
that, but when your parents drive you to school or when
you see an industry spewing out smoke, most of those gases
are also contributing to this greenhouse effect, and to the
whole global warming of the planet.


PTK asks: What is the value of conserving species like frogs?

There's value to every living being, really. A frog, in
ecological terms, is important because it transfers energy
from the aquatic system to the terrestrial system, which not
many living beings do. I would argue that the value of any
given frog is the same as the value of any given mosquito or
any bacteria. It's a repository of millions of years of evolution
and therefore is something that intrinsically has some value.
We as human beings do not, I believe, have the right to just
go out and destroy such a rich repository of biological,
genetic, and ecological information. It would be a shame to
do that. It would be the equivalent of buying books and
burning them before we even open their covers. We can see
them, but we won't even know what's in them, and most
books contain very important information. And more so
with living beings. They do contain a lot of important
information, which, in many cases, can help us understand
our own presence on this earth.


4. LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Features

As the Teacher’s Guide is going off to the printers, let me
share some of the exciting aspects of the program this year.

A main focus of this year’s program will be helping teachers
to identify student misconceptions of the Rainforest and
provide activities and materials to help clear up some of
these problems. As a result, we’re developing a short pre
and post test so students, teachers, and PTK can see how
students’ perceptions changed by participating in the
program. We’re hoping this will help teachers focus activities
on the specific needs of their students.

To this end, we’ve arranged the Teacher’s Guide so that it is
easy to pick and choose those activities which will best suit
your needs. And each activity will list the science standards
addresses in the activity so you can easily show how you
satisfied curriculum needs using the program.

After the warm-ups, the activities start with an orientation to
the American tropics with “Rivers, Maps and Math.”
Students will learn about different countries in Central and
South America and the river systems that run through them.
They’ll also do a lot of compare and contrast work with local
American river systems and the Amazon. Start you class
“pool” now for the largest river in the world!

After reading today’s journal, you’ll see why we included the
activity, “Imagine! I’m a....Frog!” Students don’t have to be
a frog, like Claude. They can become a sloth or a capybara
or even a strangler fig! By really getting into their organism’s
“skin” for a day, they’ll not only learn about that animal, but
also, how it’s related to many other plants and animals in the
rainforest.

Later on, they’ll be ready for the Amazon Rainforest Food
Web Game, an adaptation of a commercial game developed
by: Floyd Sandford, Biology Department, Coe College, Cedar
Rapids, IA 52402, and adapted by PTK with permission: full
original version available for $8.00 [includes $1.50 for
shipping and handling.] Make check payable to Dr. Sandford.
I, personally, am sending for the entire 80 page booklet, as it
sounds really worth it. Look forward to an exciting day
“making connections” with your students as they find out the
relationships between hosts and parasites, consumers and
producers, herbivores and carnivores!

Those are a couple of the fun ones, but physical and earth
scientists, don’t think we’ve forgotten you! The teacher’s
guide also has some great activities explaining photosynthesis
in a clear, easy to understand manner. Your kids won’t be
one of those in the TV ad who thinks photosynthesis has
something to do with cameras! They’ll get to grow plants
and see how the actual photosynthetic formula works.
They’ll get to burn things and play with pH indicators and
even study light intensity changes throughout the year.
Stream tables will also be back. Remember how you made
all those cool dendritic river patterns last year? This year
we’ll use them to show how vegetation, or a lack thereof,
effects erosion. The students will see why you can actually
see the Amazon miles out into the Atlantic Ocean, especially
during flood stage.

One of the really fun activities should be “The Great Mold
Race.” Always wonder which molds faster, wet bread or
dry? Now you can find out. Students will each get a slice of
bread and add their favorite mold-enhancing substances (will
it be milk or soda or grass?) Stay tuned to find out!

There will also be outdoor activities--I’ll describe them is
more detail next week, as well as announcing the start of the
Biodiversity Survey!


5. Ordering Information

Support Materials:

Teacher's Guide Pack: includes 60 page guide featuring
hands-on activities, Special PTK full color LFRF poster,
student worksheets, and more. $20.00 per guide pack.

Multi-media Kit: includes Teacher's Guide pack described
above, teacher resource video with rainforest background
and segments demonstrating how to implement hands-on
activities via classroom demonstrations, sample online
materials, set of 35mm slides, and more! $125.00 per
multi-media kit.

Advanced orders may be placed by calling 973-656-9403.
Packs will be shipped when available in late February.

Online Resources: Selected portions of the Teacher’s Guide,
full background on the LFRF project, and many other
resources will be available via the Web at a site which is
presently under development. Web date availability: early
Feb. 

6. Website of the Week

Not all of the rainforest in South American is in Brazil. This
week, check out the Suriname website and learn about the
rainforest there. There are beautiful pictures and tapes of the
animals and plants found there.
http://www.euronet.nl/users/mbleeker/suriname/suri-eng.html

Each week, UPDATES features a different website to help you
and your students become more knowledgeable about
rainforests. You should either bookmark it in your browser
or save the addresses in a word-processing file so that they’re
available when you need them later on.

To get ready for the project, you’ll want to make sure your
computer can download everything, before you need it.
Check out this imaging site at:
http://octopus.gma.org/surfing/summary.html . Not only
can you enjoy all the pictures, but you can check to be sure
you’re able to access everything.

Along this same line, if you’re worrying about paying for
your technology needs, the Schools and Libraries Corp. (SLC)
has developed materials to help you either develop or
improve your district technology plan so you can qualify for
the “E-rate” discount. Contact them at 1(888)203-8100 or
check out their website: http://www.neca.org.


PTK ON-LINE SERVICES

In addition to the weekly UPDATES, PTK also offers a
listserve, or on-line discussion group by e-mail, for educators
and others planning to use the project which allows teachers
to share ideas and successes, ask questions, discuss problems,
make suggestions, etc.
To subscribe to discuss-lfrf, please send e-mail to:
listmanager@passporttoknowledge.com (note address change
from previous PTK projects!) Place ONLY the words:

subscribe discuss-lfrf

in the body of the message and that will automatically
subscribe you according to the Reply-To address embedded
in your e-mail. (Be sure to turn off your "signature", or add
the word on the line after .

If a colleague would like to subscribe to this UPDATES,
follow the directions above but put:

subscribe updates-lfrf

in the body of the message.

To be removed from the UPDATES or discuss list at any time,
follow the same instructions but type in the
body of the message, for example put either:

unsubscribe discuss-lfrf

OR

unsubscribe updates-lfrf

and you will be removed from the appropriate list.
We hope you'll use UPDATES to keep abreast of PTK news
and "discuss" to let the PTK team and your colleagues know
what's on your mind, and to make suggestions about how to
ensure LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST is an exciting and
worthwhile learning adventure. On behalf of PASSPORT TO
KNOWLEDGE, welcome to the new school year and this
new project! We know you'll enjoy traveling with us virtually
to some of the most amazing and instructive places on Earth.



Janet K. Cook
Sinclair Middle School
300 W. Chenango
Englewood, CO 80110
(303) 781-7817 (w) (303)806-2000 x1904 (vm)