To be removed from the UPDATES or Discuss list at any time,
follow the same instructions but type
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 continue to 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. We know you'll
enjoy traveling with us virtually to some of the most amazing
and instructive places on Earth.
------=_NextPart_000_0040_01BD4885.6F7794C0
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LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update
March 5, 1998 Volume 7, Issue 13
--------------------------------------------
March 5, 1998 Volume 7, Issue 13
--------------------------------------------
News from LFRF
Backyard Biodiversity Survey: the Debate begins
The LIVE LFRF programs: how to tune in
Journal of the Week: Emilio Bruna
"They're Back!" Challenge Questions, that is...
Web Site of the Week
How to Subscribe
***
News from LFRF
Page proofs of the Teacher's Guide are back from the printers
(they call 'em "blues" but seeing them makes us happy--
80 pages, more artwork AND more space to make it easier to
read and use!), the full color poster is being finalized with the
designer's (Carol Richman's) favorite frogs prominently
displayed, and 3 hands-on Activities have been
videotaped with lead teachers Pat Haddon (carbon, dry ice
and photosynthesis), Marty Stickle (sneaker species) and
discuss-lfrf,moderator Eileen Bendixsen (the Tropical Food
Web Game) for the Teacher Resource video for the
multimedia kit.
Cameraman-editor Brian Igelman has been capturing digital
video stills for the full web site, which should debut in
mid-March. (What you see at the moment
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest
is the "Preview" version.) Soon to come are more Field
Journals from researchers Ellen Andresen (howler monkeys
and dung beetles) and Emilio Bruna (go to the Web site for an
illustrated version of the Journal you can read in text below)
and some notes from satellite engineer Ann Devereaux on
the selection of a live uplink site in the heart of the rainforest.
(they call 'em "blues" but seeing them makes us happy--
80 pages, more artwork AND more space to make it easier to
read and use!), the full color poster is being finalized with the
designer's (Carol Richman's) favorite frogs prominently
displayed, and 3 hands-on Activities have been
videotaped with lead teachers Pat Haddon (carbon, dry ice
and photosynthesis), Marty Stickle (sneaker species) and
discuss-lfrf,moderator Eileen Bendixsen (the Tropical Food
Web Game) for the Teacher Resource video for the
multimedia kit.
Cameraman-editor Brian Igelman has been capturing digital
video stills for the full web site, which should debut in
mid-March. (What you see at the moment
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest
is the "Preview" version.) Soon to come are more Field
Journals from researchers Ellen Andresen (howler monkeys
and dung beetles) and Emilio Bruna (go to the Web site for an
illustrated version of the Journal you can read in text below)
and some notes from satellite engineer Ann Devereaux on
the selection of a live uplink site in the heart of the rainforest.
Permissions have been received from Brazil's Ministry of
Communications for the satellite frequencies, and PTK and
its partners in NASA Advanced Technology Communications
Satellite (ACTS) program are pondering just how big and
heavy a dish to pack from Cleveland to Manaus to maximize
performance during RAIN in the RAINFOREST!
Amid all the excitement, we're delighted to be able to announce
Brazil's distance learning network, TV Escola, plans to carry
edited and translated versions of the live programs to over
50,000 schools across that nation. We also hope there'll be
live e-mail and other participation from Brazil during
the programs seen in the U.S.A.
***
Communications for the satellite frequencies, and PTK and
its partners in NASA Advanced Technology Communications
Satellite (ACTS) program are pondering just how big and
heavy a dish to pack from Cleveland to Manaus to maximize
performance during RAIN in the RAINFOREST!
Amid all the excitement, we're delighted to be able to announce
Brazil's distance learning network, TV Escola, plans to carry
edited and translated versions of the live programs to over
50,000 schools across that nation. We also hope there'll be
live e-mail and other participation from Brazil during
the programs seen in the U.S.A.
***
Backyard Biodiversity Survey: the Debate begins
The weather guy says it's going to rain all weekend....can't
stand the thought of another day inside with all the
noise.....
noise.....
long for the exotic location you thought you'd see before the
cereal and jello phase of your life?
cereal and jello phase of your life?
And you said to yourself, Eileen and Susan have lost it this
time! Come on and join us as we explore the most exotic
of all locations....the rainforest. This is a journey that
everyone can take...one that lifts you and your students
from the hum drum of the daily routine and lets you hear
of all locations....the rainforest. This is a journey that
everyone can take...one that lifts you and your students
from the hum drum of the daily routine and lets you hear
the howler monkeys, see the splendor of the colorful
macaws, smell the wild herbs and spices...your senses
will be working overtime.
macaws, smell the wild herbs and spices...your senses
will be working overtime.
My [Susan's] sixth grade science students will accompany
me as we begin our journey. This will be my fourth journey
with PTK. In the past my 7th and 8th grade classes have
been part of Live from Mars, Live from Antarctica, and Live
been part of Live from Mars, Live from Antarctica, and Live
from Antarctica II. We started with LFA, sending our answers
to the "Outhouse Challenge" via US mail. We progressed to
lurking during LFHST; we became very active online with
Live from Mars and LFA-2. Now, we can't imagine a semester
without a LF module of some type. We're anxious to get
to the "Outhouse Challenge" via US mail. We progressed to
lurking during LFHST; we became very active online with
Live from Mars and LFA-2. Now, we can't imagine a semester
without a LF module of some type. We're anxious to get
started on our debate for the Backyard Biodiversity Survey.
We're curious to find out how many of you will use your school
grounds to conduct your survey. Should we all try a
sample survey using only the school grounds? What do you
think?
We're curious to find out how many of you will use your school
grounds to conduct your survey. Should we all try a
sample survey using only the school grounds? What do you
think?
My [Eileen's] seventh grade students were able to get a taste
of LFRF when they participated in the taping of the Food Web
of LFRF when they participated in the taping of the Food Web
Game for the teacher resource video. Many of my former
students have returned to tell me how much they enjoyed LFM
and LFA2 last year. Their participation in the Planet Explorer
Toolkit collaborative activity was definitely the highlight.
This past fall we had a fall break the first week of data collection
for Weather Worlds. My students were very disappointed that they
did not get to go out and collect their data for the entire two
Toolkit collaborative activity was definitely the highlight.
This past fall we had a fall break the first week of data collection
for Weather Worlds. My students were very disappointed that they
did not get to go out and collect their data for the entire two
weeks. Now they can't wait for the excitement to begin and they
get to once again go outside and discover.
This brings us to the point: Please join us in this debate...send
a message to debate-lfrf and be a part of the exotic mission
to the land of orchids, bromeliads, and more.....we start on
Monday, March 9.... See you [and debate you] there.
Susan Hurstcalderone and Eileen Bendixsen
Co-Moderators,
debate-lfrf
***
The LIVE LFRF programs: How to Tune In
1) PUBLIC TELEVISION: Ku-band
All 4 PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE programs
slated for this April (4/7, 4/14, 4/21 for LFRF and 4/28 for LIVE
FROM THE POLES) are being offered, without cost and live, to all PBS
stations. But, as we always note, each station makes its own
individual choice about whether to carry the programs live or
on tape delay, or not at all. (Hiss, boo, shame!) While PTK has
confirmed over the years that 13:00 Eastern is the very best
time for a live, interactive national program, some PBS
stations find this time-slot falls in the middle of programming such
as "Sesame Street" which--for good and obvious reasons--they
do not wish to pre-empt.
Many stations therefore carry PTK live on second, instructional
channels if they have them, or record the programs for later
channels if they have them, or record the programs for later
re-run on tape: based on evaluation data we know that many
teachers--almost a majority, in fact--already use LIVE FROM
programs on tape, as necessitated by teaching multiple
classes at different times. We therefore encourage stations at
least to run the programs at a subsequent time, rather than
ignoring them completely if they do not carry them live.
So, please, check local broadcast schedules in advance of the
announced air dates, to ensure you and your students are not
disappointed. Closer to air time, PTK will publish whatever
information about dates and times we have received from
individual PBS stations on the LFRF Web site--but
we do not expect to receive full and complete data from every station.
PBS in Washington last week sent out a misleading message
to stations which some local broadcasters >incorrectly< took
to mean that the live PTK programs were cancelled. To repeat,
that was and is completely incorrect:
precise transponder information has changed, and all participating
PBS stations have been notified about this. There should be NO reason
why any PBS stations planning to carry PTK programming should
not proceed as planned.
If your school or district intends to download the
programs directly from either the Ku-band or C-band satellites, PLEASE
CONTACT PTK DIRECTLY TO REGISTER AND REPORT YOUR
PARTICIPATION!
Call (908) 273-4108, or fax (908) 277-9590,
or e-mail ptkinfo@passporttoknowledge.com.
NASA-TV: C-band
Just as in previous PTK programs, NASA-TV intends to
carry these 4 programs (LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST AND LIVE FROM
THE POLES) live, subject to Shuttle missions and other agency
pre-emptions. See NASA TV's online schedule
http://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov/NASA.News/NASA.TelevisionSchedules/Education.Schedule/
(should be all one line!) for the latest plans. If you "search" the site, you can find the
So, please, check local broadcast schedules in advance of the
announced air dates, to ensure you and your students are not
disappointed. Closer to air time, PTK will publish whatever
information about dates and times we have received from
individual PBS stations on the LFRF Web site--but
we do not expect to receive full and complete data from every station.
PBS in Washington last week sent out a misleading message
to stations which some local broadcasters >incorrectly< took
to mean that the live PTK programs were cancelled. To repeat,
that was and is completely incorrect:
precise transponder information has changed, and all participating
PBS stations have been notified about this. There should be NO reason
why any PBS stations planning to carry PTK programming should
not proceed as planned.
If your school or district intends to download the
programs directly from either the Ku-band or C-band satellites, PLEASE
CONTACT PTK DIRECTLY TO REGISTER AND REPORT YOUR
PARTICIPATION!
Call (908) 273-4108, or fax (908) 277-9590,
or e-mail ptkinfo@passporttoknowledge.com.
NASA-TV: C-band
Just as in previous PTK programs, NASA-TV intends to
carry these 4 programs (LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST AND LIVE FROM
THE POLES) live, subject to Shuttle missions and other agency
pre-emptions. See NASA TV's online schedule
http://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov/NASA.News/NASA.TelevisionSchedules/Education.Schedule/
(should be all one line!) for the latest plans. If you "search" the site, you can find the
listings for previous "LIVE FROM .... " programs, also.
NASA-TV repeats all PTK programs in their subsequent educational
programming slots. For those with satellite dishes NTV is
available on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees West
longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880 Mhz,
and audio of 6.8 Mhz. This is a full transponder service and is
operational 24 hours a day.
***
JOURNAL FROM TEAM MEMBER EMILIO BRUNA
Hi there! My name is Emilio Bruna and I'm one of the researchers
working in the rainforests here in the Brazilian Amazon. I was
born in Juarez, Mexico, but my father's job moved us around
quite a bit (there were stints in Boston, Mexico City, and
Venezuela). When I was ten, my family moved to El Paso, Texas,
and that's where they are to this day (my parents, that is; my
brother Sean is studying Anthropology at the University of
Chicago). I've always had an interest in natural history,
conservation, and the outdoors, so it was no surprise that
I majored in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution at the
University of California - San Diego's Revelle College. It was there I had my
first serious exposure to biology in the Tropics- my Junior year I
spent ten weeks in Costa Rica on the Univ. of California's
Tropical Biology Field Course and was hooked. I returned to
UCSD, finished my Bachelor's degree, and then
started working on a Master's degree there studying the genetics and
ecology of a group of lizards in the South Pacific (talk about a great
field site, I did my field work on the tropical island of Raratonga
in the Cook Islands for a month...). Now I'm a Ph.D. candidate
at the University of California-Davis' Center for Population
Biology, where I'm studying how species interactions like
pollination, seed dispersal, and herbivory influence the
Hi there! My name is Emilio Bruna and I'm one of the researchers
working in the rainforests here in the Brazilian Amazon. I was
born in Juarez, Mexico, but my father's job moved us around
quite a bit (there were stints in Boston, Mexico City, and
Venezuela). When I was ten, my family moved to El Paso, Texas,
and that's where they are to this day (my parents, that is; my
brother Sean is studying Anthropology at the University of
Chicago). I've always had an interest in natural history,
conservation, and the outdoors, so it was no surprise that
I majored in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution at the
University of California - San Diego's Revelle College. It was there I had my
first serious exposure to biology in the Tropics- my Junior year I
spent ten weeks in Costa Rica on the Univ. of California's
Tropical Biology Field Course and was hooked. I returned to
UCSD, finished my Bachelor's degree, and then
started working on a Master's degree there studying the genetics and
ecology of a group of lizards in the South Pacific (talk about a great
field site, I did my field work on the tropical island of Raratonga
in the Cook Islands for a month...). Now I'm a Ph.D. candidate
at the University of California-Davis' Center for Population
Biology, where I'm studying how species interactions like
pollination, seed dispersal, and herbivory influence the
dynamics of plant populations. For my dissertation research,
I'm studying the effect of habitat fragmentation on plant
populations at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragment
Project here in Manaus, Brazil. The BDFFP is a collaborative
project administered by the Smithsonian Institution and Brazil's
National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA).
About fifteen years ago, one and ten hectare blocks of rainforest
were isolated in order to study the effects of deforestation on
animal and plant populations.
I'm particularly interested in one species found
here-Heliconia acuminata. Heliconia acuminata is a common herb in
the understory of the forests here (about 1000 plants per
hectare), but habitat fragments only have between a third and
a half the density of Heliconia plants as nearby continuous
forests. My challenge is to find out the ecological mechanisms
responsible for these differences.
A common hypothesis put forward to explain the disappearance
of plants from habitat isolates is that fragmentation disrupts
plant reproduction. As yet however, there have been few
experimental tests of this theory. The experiments I'm
conducting are looking at the relative importance of
pollen and resource limitation, pollinator efficiency, and the costs
of reproduction, and incorporating these results with detailed
demographic information into models predicting population
fluctuations. Hopefully, the results will suggest what makes
populations more or less resistant to habitat fragmentation,
and then future work can test whether these results can be
generalized to other plant species.
were isolated in order to study the effects of deforestation on
animal and plant populations.
I'm particularly interested in one species found
here-Heliconia acuminata. Heliconia acuminata is a common herb in
the understory of the forests here (about 1000 plants per
hectare), but habitat fragments only have between a third and
a half the density of Heliconia plants as nearby continuous
forests. My challenge is to find out the ecological mechanisms
responsible for these differences.
A common hypothesis put forward to explain the disappearance
of plants from habitat isolates is that fragmentation disrupts
plant reproduction. As yet however, there have been few
experimental tests of this theory. The experiments I'm
conducting are looking at the relative importance of
pollen and resource limitation, pollinator efficiency, and the costs
of reproduction, and incorporating these results with detailed
demographic information into models predicting population
fluctuations. Hopefully, the results will suggest what makes
populations more or less resistant to habitat fragmentation,
and then future work can test whether these results can be
generalized to other plant species.
This research is part of a team effort looking at the effect of
fragmentation on plant populations at the BDFFP - I'm working
collaboratively with John Kress (NMNH Botany) and his post-
doctoral students, Matthew Hamilton (National Zoo) and Preston
Aldrich (NMNH Botany). While I'm concentrating on the
ecological side of things, they're studying the genetic effects of
fragmentation on plant populations (including Heliconia
acuminata). By using the same plant populations for the
ecological and genetic components of the project, we hope to
see how each influences the other.
It's this combination of approaches, personnel, and location
that makes this an exciting project to be a part of. Keep an
eye out for the results!
Editor's note: Emilio is part of a very international research group.
There are Brazilians, North Americans, Australians, Peruvians,
Colombians, Germans, and Canadians, to name just some of the
nationalities working with the BDFF project. You'll
meet many of them online and on-camera in the three LIVE FROM THE
RAINFOREST broadcasts. And despite their rigorous work
and intense research load, many of these scientists have agreed to
answer questions that you may have about the rainforest and
their research. Starting March 23, you can submit e-mail
question to these scientists via LFRF. See INTERACT online
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest
for details about this exciting interactive opportunity.
***
"They're Back!" Challenge Questions, that is...
Teachers tell us their students like the weekly Challenge
Questions which have been a feature of many past PTK
programs, from the classic "Why is this Outhouse Triangular
and Painted Black?" brainteaser of the original
LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA! Each week Updates will publish another
content-rich conundrum, which invites students to think
logically, do a little research, and watch out for traps set by
the fiendish PTK team.
So, this week's Challenge Questions, Batch 1:
Where is the WETTEST spot on Earth spot on the planet?
And where is the HOTTEST spot on the planet?
And where is the DRIEST place on Earth--a place
where, allegedly, no rain has ever been recorded?
Hint--many of these places are not where you might think,
given the locations to be featured in LFRF... but
we don't want to tell you too much! Answers will be announced
next week in UPDATES, and you'll likely see some related sequences
during the live programs.
It's this combination of approaches, personnel, and location
that makes this an exciting project to be a part of. Keep an
eye out for the results!
Editor's note: Emilio is part of a very international research group.
There are Brazilians, North Americans, Australians, Peruvians,
Colombians, Germans, and Canadians, to name just some of the
nationalities working with the BDFF project. You'll
meet many of them online and on-camera in the three LIVE FROM THE
RAINFOREST broadcasts. And despite their rigorous work
and intense research load, many of these scientists have agreed to
answer questions that you may have about the rainforest and
their research. Starting March 23, you can submit e-mail
question to these scientists via LFRF. See INTERACT online
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest
for details about this exciting interactive opportunity.
***
"They're Back!" Challenge Questions, that is...
Teachers tell us their students like the weekly Challenge
Questions which have been a feature of many past PTK
programs, from the classic "Why is this Outhouse Triangular
and Painted Black?" brainteaser of the original
LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA! Each week Updates will publish another
content-rich conundrum, which invites students to think
logically, do a little research, and watch out for traps set by
the fiendish PTK team.
So, this week's Challenge Questions, Batch 1:
Where is the WETTEST spot on Earth spot on the planet?
And where is the HOTTEST spot on the planet?
And where is the DRIEST place on Earth--a place
where, allegedly, no rain has ever been recorded?
Hint--many of these places are not where you might think,
given the locations to be featured in LFRF... but
we don't want to tell you too much! Answers will be announced
next week in UPDATES, and you'll likely see some related sequences
during the live programs.
***
Website of the Week
For those who'd like to be prepared for the input from Marty
Stickle's students, here's a site which features the Costa Rican
National Park Locations. In addition to maps
showing the general locations, each site has a fairly detailed
listing of what's available at the site--tropical rainforest, hummingbirds,
etc.
Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve, for example,
is famous for the numbers and variety of birds seen there,
including the fabulous quetzal. Check them out at:
http://www.tourism.co.cr/m apindex.htm
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 for activities later on.
***
PTK Online 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 <end> on the line below <subscribe
discuss-lfrf>).
To be removed from the UPDATES or Discuss list at any time,
follow the same instructions but type <unsubscribe> 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 continue to 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. We know you'll
enjoy traveling with us virtually to some of
the most amazing and instructive places on
Earth.
follow the same instructions but type <unsubscribe> 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 continue to 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. We know you'll
enjoy traveling with us virtually to some of
the most amazing and instructive places on
Earth.
------=_NextPart_000_0040_01BD4885.6F7794C0--
LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update March 13, 1998 Volume 7, Issue
From: Geoffrey Haines-Stiles
Subject: LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update March 13, 1998 Volume 7, Issue
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 08:01:27 -0500
Back to top
LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update March 13, 1998 Volume 7, Issue 14
----------------------------------------------------------------
News from LFRF
Backyard Biodiversity Survey: Sign up for the Debate
Journal of the Week: input from Bill Laurance in Manaus, Brazil, and a
student in Washington
Challenge Questions: answers for week 1, and CQ's for week 2
The LFRF programs: how to tune in live
Web Sites of the Week: Maps and more...
How to Subscribe, and keep connected
***
News from LFRF
Thursday the PTK offices smelled of fresh ink, and were decorated with
smiles: the first batch of Teacher's Guides arrived, and their deep green
and bright brown were just what we wanted. They'll be mailed out very soon,
Priority Mail, to all who've sent in orders. The poster's still on
press--but also looking pretty and informative, with colorful animals and
quotes from Columbus and von Humboldt! And the blackline masters which
accompany the Guide are almost as long as that first LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA
guide from 4 years back. The Teacher's Resource Video for the MultiMedia Kit
is nearly complete: great demonstrations of Activities in the Guide from
Marty Stickle, Pat Haddon and Eileen Bendixsen: real teachers demo some
tricky but instructive hands-on science, and help you achieve success in
your class (or home school.) To find out more about the Guide or Kit, send
e-mail to ptkinfo@passporttoknowledge.com or check out the LFRF Web site, at:
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest
You can order online, or print out and fax your request.
Next Tuesday sees our satellite equipment off to Brazil: we hope for "smooth
sailing" through customs in Rio and off to Manaus, where we trans-ship to
get out to our final location 60 kilometers off in the rainforest. You'll
soon be able to read about how and why we selected our primary uplink site
in Ann Devereaux's Travel-Log, to be posted at the LFRF Web site next week
(in the TEAMS section) when the full site goes LIVE!
You'll also find lots of information on the plants, animals and insects of
the rainforest in ECOsystem, and lots of information about rainforests in
Brazil and around the world in GEOsystem. What you may have already seen on
the WWW is only the preview site, and PTK and SECOND STORY INTERACTIVE have
been hard at work zapping and zipping images and text from New Jersey to
Oregon to add visuals and information to make this site fun and informative
for learners of all ages: please be sure to check in late next week,
Thursday 19 or Friday 20, to see the latest.
And this Saturday, high school biology teacher Bruce Rinker and students
from Millbrook School, New York state, head off to the Peruvian Amazon and
then to Machu Picchu: thanks to the Magellan Corporation, he's packing a
phone, and thanks to the Children's Environmental Trust, which is
coordinating the trip, the students should be sending Journals and digital
images back from their trip: if all goes well, also watch next week in TEAMS
for the first contributions from these real-world STUDENT CORRESPONDENTS!
Each week from now through the end of the school year, there will be lots
happening, online or on-air. Please pass along UPDATES to colleagues,
friends and family and tell them it's not too late to join our electronic
field trip to one of the most fascinating environments on Earth. (See below
for how to subscribe to project mail lists which provide full information.)
***
Backyard Biodiversity Survey: Sign up for the Debate
Join us and participate in PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE'S spring 1998 online
Collaborative Activity--the LFRF "Backyard Biodiversity" Survey. By itself,
it won't solve all of the ills of the classroom, or instantly make your
sftudents first in the world in math and science ("How about them TIMMS
results?") but it will:
* provide students with an opportunity to communicate with rainforest
researchers as the student activity is designed online
* provide students with an opportunity to collect real data with real-world
value
* provide students with an opportunity to collaborate with researchers and
other students in ways which parallel the real-world work of research scientists
* provide students with a forum to discuss and share the results of their
surveys
* provide students with a challenge to use the collected data in a
meaningful way
(For a flavor of what's already going on, see JOURNALS below!)
In the final phase of the project, LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST will challenge
students to a contest using the data collected from across the continent
(and perhaps around the world). Winning entries will be recognized online
and with science prizes!
The "Backyard Biodiversity" Survey will be showcased on PTK's April 21, 1998
LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST broadcast, "CONNECT GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY" (or
"Pensar Globalemente, Agir Localmente", as one Brazilian environmental
handbook puts it!)
Come Join in the Fun...
To subscribe to debate-lfrf send an email message to:
listmanager@passporttoknowledge.com
and in the body of the message write:
subscribe debate-lfrf
***
THIS WEEK'S JOURNAL FROM AN LFRF TEAM MEMBER
Since this Monday saw the beginning of the debate-lfrf, we thought we'd
break format a little, and feature input from two important people--Bill
Laurance, research scientist, from Brazil, and Melissa, 6th grade student
scientist, from Washington, D.C. We hope to see many more researchers and
students online in the weeks ahead!
***
This is the message posted to debate-lfrf, Tuesday March 9, 1998.
As promised, to get the debate going, here are some thoughts from Bill
Laurance, one of the team leaders in the Smithsonian/INPA experiment on the
effects of forest fragmentation on biodiversity, which he e-mailed to us
specifically for this "debate-lfrf" group over the weekend. (Online you've
already met Dr. Laurance through his 2 Journals describing rainforest
research [and his well-founded fear of jaguars!] one of which we distributed
via Updates.)
MEASURING BIODIVERSITY
"In its literal sense, 'biodiversity' is the diversity of life, and that can
mean different things to different people. One of the commonest ways to
measure biodiversity is to simply count species. Anyone can do this. For
example, you could count the number of plant species growing in a city lot
and compare that to the number growing in a forest (to make a fair
comparison, you should use the same plot size in each area).
We might compare two different areas--such as our city lot and the
forest--but make two lists for each site: native species, and weeds or
exotic species. Often weeds, or invading species, in fact do very well when
their native environments are disturbed. And as many parts of the U.S. have
discovered, sometimes 'more' (as in more deer, and more deer ticks), is not
necessarily a good thing! In this way, we find we're making value judgements
about species, as if some species were more important than others. Usually
we consider native species 'good' and weeds or exotic species 'bad.'
There are yet other ways to measure biodiversity. Some people give special
importance to primitive species ('living fossils), or to species that have
very small geographic ranges ('local endemics'), and thus are very prone to
extinction. Another way to evaluate species is by their ecological roles.
For example, 'keystone species', such as jaguars and elephants, have a major
impact on the entire ecosystem, and thus are especially important to protect.
A final way to measure biodiversity is by studying the genes of species.
Geneticists have made enormous advances in the past few decades, and they
can work wonders. For example, it is possible to tell whether one
population of a species has been interbreeding with another population over
the past ten thousand years, just by taking a few blood samples and studying
the genes in the blood cells.
A final note about biodiversity: no matter now you measure it, it is
declining very, very rapidly today. Scientists believe that species are now
going extinct as fast or faster than when the dinosaurs disappeared--and
that was one of the most massive extinction episodes the earth has ever seen."
Dr Bill Laurance
***
Just a day later, students began to speak up. Scientists and students,
getting acquainted and beginning to think about the same issues--the essence
of PTK's online collaborative activities.
"Hi, I'm Melissa. I'm 11 years old and in sixth grade at Blessed Sacrament.
We've been talking about our 'backyard', we call it the playground. It
really is a parking lot. There is some green space around the edges and
around the school building. It looks like spring is almost here. On Monday,
the temperature was up to 73 degrees F. We went outside and didn't need our
jackets. However, on Tuesday the high temperature was about 45 F. Today the
high was only 36. We have all kinds of plants starting to peep out. The
daffodils are up but they haven't bloomed yet. The National Park says the
cherry trees (ed. note: this is Washington, D.C., remember!) will be
blooming early in a couple of weeks. They are concerned that the blossoms
will be damaged because the temperature is so low now.
If you want to put us on your map, we are at:
longitude 77 degrees 4 min. 30 sec. W
latitude 38 degrees 57 min. 30 sec. N
We would like to know where you are located. Tell us what's happening where
you live."
In the coming weeks we hope to have LOTS more introductions, action and
discussion. If you've got students or family with inquiring minds, check
below for how to sign up!
***
Challenge Questions: Answers for Week 1, and New Brainteasers for Week 2!
Last week, we asked what are the WETTEST, HOTTEST and DRIEST places on
Earth... and we're delighted to have this just in from students of the Chase
Foundation in Argentina:
1) Punto ms lluvioso del planeta: Monte WAIALEALE, Hawaii, Estados Unidos,
350 das.
Yep, that's right--the rainiest place on Earth is NOT in the rainforests of
the Amazon or Africa, but in Hawaii, Mount Waialeae, in the United States.
But you can see why we consider CQ's brainteasers in which the chase (pun
intended) is often more important than the answer: their second response
about the >hottest< place was:
2) Punto ms caliente del planeta: AL AZIZIYAH, Libia, al sur de Tripoli,
136.4BAF o sea 58BAC en 1922.
But, with thanks to Haines-Stiles car-pool member, Benjamin Blonder, 6th
grade, at least one source gives a different answer:
from Felton & Fowlers "Best, Worst, and Most Unusual", Galahad Books 1976
New York, Part 1, Nature & Science, page 178.
MOST UNUSUAL HEAT WAVE: A freak heat wave hit the central coast of Portugal
on July 6, 1949, sending the temperature up to 158F for a period of two
minutes. Moments later the mercury slid back down to the mid 120's. No
satisfactory explanation for this fleeting swelter has ever been put forward.
If you or your students know >other< documented candidates for "hottest",
please submit them to discuss-lfrf: PTK was fully prepared to go with North
Africa as the hottest, but as often with CQ's there seems to be more than
one right answer!
But the Chase Foundation students were right on with their answer for the
DRIEST place on Earth:
3) Punto ms seco del planeta: Desierto de ATACAMA, Chile.
The Atacama Desert of Chile seems most sources' best answer: some places
there have never recorded any precipitation. Even the "Dry Valleys" of
Antarctica has some blown snow in many areas (see LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA and
this year's LIVE FROM THE POLES, April 28, 1998.) And for an explanation of
why the Atacama is so dry and why rainforests have so much rain, see
Activity 1.1 in the LFRF Teacher's Guide.
Congratulations, Argentina, and thanks, Ben: glad to have you in our car-pool!
***
Now that you all know where the wettest, driest and hottest places on earth
are, let's try:
What is the LONGEST river on Earth? And, what is the LARGEST river on Earth?
Hint--when you get your copy of the LFRF Teacher's Guide you may just want
to keep it away from student contestants if you don't want them clued in too
easily on answers to the above. But, on the other hand, you'll find the
answer is not quite as simple as you or the encyclopedia might first think!
Answers will be announced next week in UPDATES, and you'll see some related
sequences during the LFRF programs.
***
The LFRF programs: How to Tune In
PUBLIC TELEVISION or DIRECT: Ku-band
All 4 PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE programs slated for this April (4/7, 4/14, 4/21
for LFRF, and 4/28 for LIVE FROM THE POLES) are being offered, without cost
and live at 13:00 hours Eastern, to all PBS stations and district, state and
regional educational networks and cable systems. Contact your local PBS
station for the broadcast schedule for your area (they may choose to
re-broadcast the programs at a later time due to scheduling conflicts.)
If your school or district intends to download the programs directly from
either the Ku-band or C-band satellites, PLEASE CONTACT PTK DIRECTLY TO
REGISTER AND REPORT YOUR PARTICIPATION! Call (908) 273-4108, or fax (908)
277-9590, or e-mail ptkinfo@passporttoknowledge.com
NASA-TV: C-band
Just as in previous PTK programs, NASA-TV intends to carry these 4 programs
(LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST AND LIVE FROM THE POLES) live, subject to Shuttle
missions and other agency pre-emptions. See NASA TV's online schedule:
http://spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov/NASA.News/NASA.Television.Schedules/Education.Schedule/
(Of course, this should be all one line and without spaces, but it can't
appear that way in this e-mail Update!)
For those with satellite dishes NTV is available on GE-2, Transponder 9C at
85 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, with a frequency of 3880
Mhz, and audio of 6.8 Mhz. This is a full transponder service and is
operational 24 hours a day.
***
Website of the Week
Ready to conquer the world? Here's a great site featuring maps on forested
areas of the world. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre provides
information services on conservation and sustainable use of the world's
living resources. You can ask for maps of individual countries or the
entire world and they show the areas covered by different types of
forests--mangrove, pine, swamp, etc. There is also some data about acreage
for some countries. It's not complete yet, but the main rainforest countries
are there.
http://www.wcmc.org.uk/forest/data/
And speaking of maps, a very special set of extremely useful materials can
be found at ESRI's web site (the Environmental Systems Research Institute.)
http://www.esri.com/base/data/online/wothphysic.html
ESRI has agreed to cooperate with PTK and LFRF in providing map data for our
web site, and you'll soon see the results online. But ESRI's own site
already has a wealth of data: check out the zoom feature on the vegetation
map of South America, and much, much more.
Each week, UPDATES features different websites to help you and your students
become more knowledgeable about rainforests. You should either bookmark them
in your browser or save the addresses in a word-processing file so that
they're available when you need them for activities later on.
***
PTK Online 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 and 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
To be removed from the UPDATES or Discuss list at any time, follow the same
instructions but type
put either:
unsubscribe discuss-lfrf
OR
unsubscribe updates-lfrf
and you will be removed from the appropriate list.
We hope you'll continue to 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. We know you'll enjoy traveling
with us virtually to some of the most amazing and instructive places on
Earth.
Cordially,
Janet C. Cook
&
Geoff Haines-Stiles
for PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE & LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST
LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update March 20, 1998 Vol. 7, #15
From: Geoffrey Haines-Stiles
Subject: LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update March 20, 1998 Vol. 7, #15
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 05:38:30 -0500
Back to top
Ed. note: Friday March 20, 18:00 hours Manaus time... just back from a day
of taping fish research at the place where the Solimoes and Rio Negro rivers
mingle their dark and coffee-colored waters: could not get online from
Manaus yesterday a.m., or since... let's hope this Update is not too
mis-formatted. The whole thing, this week, is a kind of "Field Journal"!
***
LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update March 20, 1998 Volume 7, Issue 15
-----------------------------------------------------------------
News from LFRF
3, 2, 1, LAUNCH! The Website is LIVE!
The LIVE LFRF programs: Smithsonian scientists sign up to answer questions
Journal of the Week: Project Director Geoff Haines-Stiles, on location in Brazil
Backyard Biodiversity Survey: Join the Debate
Challenge Questions: Week 2 Winners, and CQ #3
PTK a finalist in the "Oscars of Online"
Web Site of the Week
How to Subscribe
***
News from LFRF
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE'S proudly announces the launch of the full LIVE FROM
THE RAINFOREST website. Just yesterday the preview site was replaced by the
expanded version! Tooting our own horn (apologies) we made it the Web site
of the Week, and you can find out more below. The complete production
crew--videographers, producers, satellite experts--are now in Manaus, though
as of the evening of March 20 they were still 60 kms away, by boat, from the
uplink site. And the Smithsonian Institution has confirmed a great list of
scientists, expert on rainforests and their ecology, who'll be on hand,
online and on camera, to answer e-mail questions during the 3 live programs.
***
On-air Researcher Q&A: Smithsonian scientists sign up to answer students
during the live program!
In a first for PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE, 22 top Smithsonian scientists have
agreed to participate in the live broadcasts in April. As veteran PTK
participants know, an exciting part of the LIVE FROM programs has been the
ability to submit questions to the scientists on the programs while the
program is in progress, with the possibility of yours being one of the
handful to be selected for a live answer. The only downside has been the
limited number of questions PTK could answer live, and some disappointed
students.
This Module, we've added a live panel of rainforest experts, 6-7 per
program, specifically to answer students questions "live" via e-mail even if
they are not broadcast, adding a wonderful bit of excitement. With luck,
you'll get an answer from a world expert in real time. Detailed instuctions
and an e-mail address to use will be posted in the next few Updates. But we
thought teachers and students would be excited to know some of the people
who'll be on hand, and a brief headline about their respective specialities.
As in the past, we ask teachers to be sure, however, that students have
already researched a little about their questions and are asking things that
can't be answered simply by checking the class encyclopedia or the LFRF website.
Each of these scientists are specialists in their field and will be able to
give your students wonderful insights into the progress of research in
rainforest ecology. Joining us for the first broadcast, "MISSION TO PLANET
EARTH," April 7, will be:
Francisco Dallmeier, Tropical Ecology
Fred Engle, Measuring Tropical Deforestation though satellite imaging and
"ground-truthing"
Adrian Forsyth, Tropical ecology, specializing in entomology (and co-author
of the wonderful book, "Tropical Nature" referenced in the LFRF Teacher's
Guide.)
Tom Fritts, Amphibians and Reptiles (special interest in Galapagos Turtles
and Brown Tree Snakes)
Tom Lovejoy, Conservation Biologist and Counselor to the Secretary (of the
Smithsonian) for Biodiversity and Environmental Affairs (see "TEAMS" Homefront)
Abelardo Sandoval, Bio-cultural diversity of the tropical rainforests
Jim Comiskey, Measuring and monitoring from the ground
Ted Schultz, Ants, especially fungus-growing ants
There's an equally stellar list for programs 2 and 3, and we're delighted
with this new resource. The Q&A pairs will all be archived online for future
reference, long after the initial live programs premiere.
Look for more names and specialities next Updates. And if you're having
trouble imagining what this "panel of experts" might look like, think of a
public TV station during Pledge Drive, with those banks of people waiting to
take your call and a donation. EXCEPT that this time the folks answering the
phones are GIVING away information not soliciting dollars. We hope you'll
join in!
Sincere thanks to all these scientists for agreeing to give us (and you!)
their time and expertise during our live broadcasts!
***
Journal of the Week
Geoff Haines-Stiles, Project Director, on location in Brazil
"50% organization, 49% perspiration, 1% inspiration"
Information travels at the speed of light, and an idea weighs nothing. But
PTK's LFRF can only fly at the speed of a Boeing 767, and the equipment used
to bring ideas to life weighs close to 2,000 kilograms! And that takes more
than a modem and a mouse to get it from here to there.
March 18, 1998
It's midnight March 18th, in the waiting room in Brasilia's airport. Bright
flourescents, dim faces. We've been on the road for nearly 36 hours--and we
think we're actually doing pretty well. The crew--videographer Scott Enlow,
and NASA satellite experts John Diamond and Greg Kubat, are looking punchy
after the overnight flight from Miami (and we'd all started earlier that day
from Cleveland, OH, New Jersey and Nashville, TN.) If I looked in a mirror,
I'd add myself to that list.
We'd gone through customs in Rio: lots of paperwork, but with careful
preparation from our partners at NEON RIO (a film and TV company that
specializes in supporting natural history projects in the Amazon--thanks,
Flavio Somogyi and Dudu Continentino) all went smoothly--so smoothly, in
fact, that we actually had a unexpected couple of hours to make it out of
the airport and down the freeway to see the incredible views from Corcovado,
the massive statue of Christ, with arms outstretched, which towers high over
Rio. Expect some pictures of LFRF playing tourist in a future Journal entry
on the Web.
Then it was back to the airport... back on board our jet, and off to Brasilia.
March 19, 04:00
We arrived at Manaus in the early morning... a bag of video gear had gone
missing, so instead of a quick, smooth transfer to the hotel, it was another
half hour of paperwork. It's like a game of Concentration as we pick out the
most similar case from the sheet of examples: exactly what were the locks
like? Was the label on the top or bottom?
It was almost 5 a.m. by the time we had checked in at the Tropical Hotel,
close to the docks we'd be using next day, and fallen asleep.
07:00.
Right on time a chipper Tom Lovejoy (from the Smithsonian-INPA research
project) calls, ready for his interview. He's here in Manaus for a
"once-every-4-years" review of the BDFFP project you can read about in the
Guide and online. Yes, he was calling by pre-arrangement, but who knew we'd
be arriving just two hours earlier!
At least Scott Enlow, our cameraman, was already prepped, and so were
we--after a bracing shower. Lovejoy was great on camera, informative and
with some wonderful verbal images to share, and some tips about how best to
experience the rainforest. "Use your ears and not just your eyes." Look for
his comments about a glowing beetle, as large as a mini-UFO, appearing in
one of the videos!
Then off to the INPA campus, to deliver courtesy copies of the Guide and
poster, and speak with the researchers who'll soon appear on camera,
including Antonio Nobre and Miroslav Honzak, experts on using remote sensing
and high technology to understand the forest and its ecology. They have a
most unusual lab. High tech computers inside, and through the floor to
ceiling window a fabulous view of the rich vegetation on the INPA
campus--samples of typical plants and trees of the Amazon region. INPA's
research interests extend from studies of tropical medicine, to recipes for
the best use of regional fruits and fish! Antonio and Miro are working on
how to identify trees from above, using the distinctive shapes and colors of
their leaves--cutting edge computer science as well as ecology. Everyone was
very friendly and confirmed plans to participate, live or on tape.
Now for the fun part, the final mile--OK, 60 kilometers, by boat to our
satellite uplink location, at the Ariau Amazon Towers, an ecotourist lodge
on the Rio Negro, north of Manaus. (You can read more about it and see
pictures in Ann Devereaux's Travel Logs on the Web.)
Once more, nearly 50 crates of gear, some almost 300 pounds (150 kgs.) get
lugged on board a double-decker boat. And we're off, across the smooth, dark
waters of the Rio Negro. All of us marvel once more at just how wide the
river is... and remember this is just one of a 1000 or more that together
make up the Amazon system.
At the Ariau, it's hand-haul once more... with no carts to help. And this
really does deserve some images in the videos. First the satellite gear gets
transferred from the big boat to 2 smaller motor canoes: there are some
nervous moments as we try to figure out just how much weight a canoe
(satellite dishes in canoes, after all, are not everyday problems, even for
rocket scientists!) like this can handle. Then down a narrow side channel,
through rafts of vegetation, and back to the heliport which we know will be
sturdy enough for the dish, with a clear view of ACTS off there in the north
west sky. The canoe sidles up beside a wooden walkway. This had been dry
land last time we were here, on the location scout. Though weird weather
associated with El Nino has made this a very dry "wet season" there's still
enough flooding to make our job a little easier. We can float a few hundred
meters closer to where we need to be.
The hotel staff, our satellite crew, even producers--everyone pitches in:
heavy boxes get carefully pushed, pulled and even carried, balanced on heads
(as if in a 1950s National Geographic documentary!) up narrow wooden stairs.
The transfer from Cleveland has involved truck and plane, bus and boat,
canoe and now human muscle--oh, and don't forget a lot of brain power to
coordinate this complex network. But now, it's done. By the evening of March
19th. the satellite dish is sitting in the middle of the heli-pad, ready for
days of cabling, and tests and checkout.
We're nearly ready!!! (Actually... keeping up the lessons of the real world
"extreme science" which PTK represents, we're really only "ready" for the
next milestone, hurdle, challenge, problem, opportunity--getting the first
satellite signal correctly up and out from Ariau and the Amazon, all the way
to NASA Lewis, and back to the Amazon, via ACTS.
Let's hope that by next UPDATES we'll be able to report that this experiment
in truly "distance learning" really works.
Keep your fingers crossed! And--literally--onward and upward with LIVE FROM
THE RAINFOREST.
***
Backyard Biodiversity Survey: Join the Debate
The debate list has been warming up this week, just like Spring in North
America. There have been introductions from classes all across the country,
talking about weather and getting ready to go outside and measure biodiverstiy.
As discuss-lfrf moderator Eileen Bendixsen wrote, "The data collection
collaborative activities are among my students favorite things to do in
science. I must admit this is partly due to the fact they get to go outside."
The debate-lfrf list is used to support the LFRF "Backyard Biodiversity"
Survey Collaborative Project. Part of the success of any project is
communication. As we proceed through this project, please use this list to
tell us about your successes as well as your problems. Often there is
another teacher lurking out there who is facing the same situation. Please
feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding the LFRF
"Backyard Biodiversity" Survey. Send e-mail to: Susan Hurstcalderone
promptly respond.
***
Challenge Questions: Week 2 Answers and Week 3 CQ's
Last week, we asked what is Earth's LONGEST river, and the LARGEST, and we
hinted that the answer might not be quite what you expected. Most sources
say the Nile is the longest river, at some 6670 kms, (4145 miles), but in
our research for LFRF we found some references which argue that if you
measure the Amazon from its source to its most northerly outlet into the
ocean, you can legitimately measure it as some 6740 kms and 4195 miles,
which would make it the longest by about 70 kilometers, or about 50 miles.
(The official measurement, from source to the Canal do Norte and Ilha
Bailique is 6489 kms, 4030 miles.) But let's not get too territorial (pun
intended) about this: both the Amazon AND the Nile are very long rivers!
But as for the largest, there's no contest. The Amazon's flow is more
massive (in terms of volume of water discharged into the ocean) than the
next 8 largest rivers combined: more water flows from the Amazon into the
sea in a day than from England's river Thames in a year. So the answers are
either the Nile and the Amazon, or the Amazon and the Amazon!
On the discuss-list, answers for last week's Challenge Questions were
provided by "Grott's Greats."
CONGRATULATIONS!!! also to Gianfranco Martinis, Mrs. Buice's 4th grade class
at Lamar Co. Elementary School, Wheeler, Allison, Anthony, Chris, Maxx,
Mitchell, and Chelsea from Ms. Hammond's class, Grott's Greats, David
Williams from Mike Reynolds class at Cranbrook Kingswood MS, and Mary
Logsdon's fourth graders from Eastridge Elementary School in Lincoln
Nebraska--and MANY MORE who participated.
Special Note from Mrs. Buice's 4th grade class:
We also found that there is a subterranean river flowing under the Nile! Cool!
Alejandra from the Chase Foundation in Argentina was another winner in last
week's Challenge--Great job, Alejandra!!!
>>>CHALLENGE QUESTION--WEEK #3<<<
Will you find the answer in the almanac? Is it on your favorite reference
page on the Internet?
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE has produced LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA and now LIVE FROM
THE RAINFOREST, from the heart of the Amazon Basin. What is "X" if we
(JOKINGLY) thought about renaming our series "LIVE FROM X PERCENT OF EARTH'S
FRESH WATER"?
Answers next week, and if your students want to submit their answers for
possible notice online, subscribe to discuss-lfrf and you'll find out how!
***
The "Oscars of Online"
With the Academy Awards next Monday, we're pleased to let you know that last
year's PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE project, LIVE FROM MARS, is a finalist in the
Global Information Infrastructure Awards, in the Education category. We
won't know the winners until April 20, but since the competition is
intense, with 800 exemplary projects submitting, we're pleased to be honored
as a finalist for the second year in a row.
We're also pleased to see our NASA "sister" projects at Quest and Windows on
the Universe in the "final 6". 3 of the 6 finalist education projects
supported in part by NASA--quite an achievement in itself, so kudos also to
our friends and supporters at both NSF and NASA.
***
Website of the (end of the) Week
OK, it may be somewhat self-serving to nominate our own LFRF Web site, but
Friday March 20 saw the debut of the expanded site, after a lot of hard work
from designers Brad Johnson and Julie Beeler, and the entire PTK team.
You'll find GEOsystem now provides an introduction to rainforests around the
world, and ECOsystem focuses on some of the many creatures who inhabit
them--with special focus on those featured in The Tropical Rainforest Food
Web Game, Activity 2.3 in the LFRF Guide.
And we especially hope you'll visit TEAMS, with many new Journals and
biographies from the INPA/Smithsonian project on location in Brazil (do we
see a common concern with encountering jaguars emerging?), and lots of
photojournalism-style images to bring the words to life. And there are
expanded descriptions of the upcoming live TV programs, tips about how to
integrate the various multimedia components of the project, PTK's thanks to
sponsors who've lately come on board--and more!
But this is still, by no means, the final site. LFRF will continue to add
Journals and Travel Logs, develop an archive of the Researcher Q&A pairs
which will go active March 23rd, and provide more video and audio
information in the weeks ahead. In fact, please think of
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest
as the web site of this month and the next!
After you've enjoyed everything there, you might want to take a gorgeous
tour of Belize, the small Caribbean/Central American country with over 60%
of its land still covered by tropical forests but once the center of the
once powerful Mayan civilization. This site presents 4 guided tours of
Belize rich with information and beautiful photography. Click on the
"National Park" tour to see pictures and descriptions of their beautiful
rainforest and marine national parks. Included is information about the
flora and fauna found in the area. The other tours show sites in Belize,
including some fascinating shots of Mayan ruins.
http://www.belizenet.com/guide/guidehp.html
Each week, UPDATES features different websites to help you and your students
become more knowledgeable about rainforests. You should either bookmark them
in your browser or save the addresses in a word-processing file so that
they're available when you need them for activities later on.
***
PTK Online 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 and which allows teachers to share ideas and successes, ask
questions, discuss problems, make suggestions, etc.
The easiest way to subscribe or unsubscribe to either DEBATE-LFRF or
UPDATES-LFRF is to visit the "Interact" section of the LFRF website at:
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest
and fill out the simple form found there.
Another way to subscribe to discuss-lfrf is to 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
To be removed from the UPDATES or Discuss list at any time, follow the same
instructions but type
put either:
unsubscribe discuss-lfrf
OR
unsubscribe updates-lfrf
and you will be removed from the respective list.
We hope you'll continue to 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. We know you'll enjoy traveling
with us virtually to some of the most amazing and instructive places on Earth.
Onward and Upward,
Janet C. Cook
Editor, UPDATES-LFRF
&
Geoff Haines-Stiles
LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update March 28, 1998 Volume 7, Issue
From: Geoffrey Haines-Stiles
Subject: LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update March 28, 1998 Volume 7, Issue
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 10:48:58 -0500
Back to top
LIVE FROM THE RAINFOREST Update March 28, 1998 Volume 7, Issue 16
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Late-breaking News from LFRF
Get Your Teacher's Guide / Multimedia Kit Now!
The Website is Expanded and Growing Wild... just like cecropia in a tree-fall
The LFRF programs: Get your live e-mail questions ready!
Journal/Bio of the Week: Cristina Cox--a Fishy Tale, and a mini-update on
ants from Heraldo Vasconcelos
Backyard Biodiversity Survey: The Debate is in Full Swing
Challenge Questions: Week 3 Results, and CQ #4
Web Site of the Week
How to Subscribe
***
News from LFRF
The Teacher's Guides and Kits are in the mail--if you ordered early you
should already have yours: first responses from educators are positive about
content, practicality and presentation. The video production crew is in
Brazil (Brasil is the correct spelling down in this huge and beautiful
nation), making final preparations for the live programs. Today cameraman
Brian Igelman is literally up in the air with Brazilian co-producer Flavio
Somogyi, taping aerials of Camp 41 and the main satellite uplink site.
Editor Scott Enlow has finished dynamic sequences on Cristina Cox, showing
us the "varzea" forest bordering the Rio Solimoes (yes, that's actually the
Amazon: Cristina explains that name change on camera!) and how and why
different species of electric fish generate different frequencies of
electric fields. And most important to our LFRF plans, this Update is
actually being sent over the satellite link whose long, strange trip from
Cleveland via Miami we wrote about last Update. Back in North America, the
Backyard Biodiversity Survey debate is in full swing, with more and more
students reporting local plans and explorations. And the LFRF website is
live and full of marvelous information.
Get Your Teacher's Guide/Multimedia Kit Now!
LFRF Updates editor Janet C. Cook--a middle school teacher in
Colorado--writes (and since she's your humble editor for this very Update,
you can take this rave review with a pinch of salt--but it does have some
good suggestions about interdisciplinary extensions!)
"I received the Multimedia Kit this week and it is gorgeous. The video is
nearly one hour long and full of wonderful background information and great
tips on how to do several of the more complicated activities--the Tropical
Rainforest Food Web Game, oxygen production by plants, and Sneaker Species.
I've been doing PTK and other online projects for a couple of years and I
still learned lots. I love the National Geographic map of Amazonia. That's
going to make the map activities much easier. And my position as school
"Handout Queen" is safe, since there are about 30 blackline masters, keyed
to the Activities, at my disposal.
The Teacher's Guide is the largest yet from PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE--almost 40
different Activities, not counting all the extensions for different ages and
interests. For example, since I teach math and social studies, I can use
"Rivers, Maps, and Math" while my partner does Activity A.5, "A Day in the
Life." Each student will mark the area where their plant or animal (selected
and researched as part of "Day in the Life") lives on the maps they've made
with me. Later on, when they are doing "Light and Dark" and other
activities involving photosynthesis, we can do "The Mathematics of Edge
Effect" and talk about how fragmentation changes the plants' abilities to
produce food, grow, etc. This is going to be fun!
Doing the many different Activities should not be complicated with all the
available materials. Marty Stickle's slide set will help the students see
what their adopted animals look like. The poster--proudly adorning my
door--gives a beautiful atmosphere to the room, as well as plenty of
information about the forest, great pictures of some of the inhabitants, and
some great quotations.
If you haven't ordered yours yet, contact PTK through the website or call
PTK at (908) 273-4108, or via fax at (908) 277-9590, or e-mail ptkinfo@passporttoknowledge.com
The LFRF Website is LIVE and Expanded
And speaking of the web site, if you haven't yet checked out the new and
expanded site, turn your Internet browser to the same URL as the former
Preview site:
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest
I (Janet Cook) especially like the TEAMS Journals with the accompanying
images. There is also a ton of background information to make your teaching
easier--information about the plants and animals suggested for the "A Day in
the Life" and "The Tropical Forest Foodweb Game," maps of many different
rainforest locations, and ideas about different aspects of the project to
help you use it in your classroom.
And have you noticed that each time you enter the site, there's a different
picture to welcome you??? And check out that monkey leap on the ECOsystem
introductory page.
The LFRF programs: Get your live questions ready!
The live programs are set for April 7, 14 and 21. Check your local PBS
station to ensure you know if they are carrying LFRF live or on tape
delay--or not at all. Stations are always interested in viewer input, and as
many PTK Advocates can tell you, they listen to input from dedicated and
persistent (and polite) potential audience members. Subject to Shuttle
missions, NASA-TV (carried on some cable systems and accessible at many
science centers) should also be carrying us live at 13:00 Eastern: PLEASE
BOOKMARK THAT DATE AND TIME!
Last week, we listed the scientists from the Smithsonian who will be on the
panel to answer questions from students during the broadcasts. Here are some
of the scientists from the INPA/Smithsonian research project in Brazil who
will be featured on the first program and answering questions LIVE FROM THE
RAINFOREST. Use this "inside information" to prime your students about which
questions might be appropriate for the different scientists. (Also, of
course, check last week's list for the Smithsonian "answer panel"!)
Many of these scientists already have Field Journals posted on the website,
or soon will have. So think of the site not as "under construction" but
growing wild under rainforest conditions!
Program 1: "MISSION TO PLANET EARTH," APRIL 7
MARIO COHN-HAFT, American and the husband of Rita Mesquita (see below), is
an expert on birds and has guided Bill Gates (Microsoft) and rock star Peter
Gabriel around the Amazon. He knows an immense number of species, and can
mimic many of their calls. He very much likes exploring and is often out in
the wild, and up before dawn, to see and hear birds. Questions could include
songbird migration and numbers, quantities of species and individual birds,
and feeding habits of different birds.
RITA MESQUITA, Brazilian and married to Mario (see above) handles education
and outreach for the Smithsonian-INPA BDFFP (Forest Fragments) project, and
is wildly enthusiastic about sharing her love of the forest with young
people. She's an expert in FOREST REGENERATION and knows a lot about what
happens when the forest is cleared, and then abandoned, and then slowly
becomes forest once more. Also ask her about local ecology movements and
education and schooling of young Brazilians.
CLAUDE GASCON: See Claude's Journal in the Team section of the website:
Claude explains why frog sing (ok, croak) and takes us on a night-time tour
of the rainforest--and even chases after what he thinks might be a coral
snake to show it to our camera crew! (It wasn't and there's no truth to the
rumor the crew was last seen running in the opposite direction.) He'd be a
good person to ask about frogs and why their numbers are low this year in
the Amazon (El Nino?) but also decreasing in many places world-wide, and
about the overall INPA/Smithsonian collaboration as well.
Also appearing in this program will be: Heraldo Vasconcelos, head of the
Ecology Department at INPA (leaf-cutter and other ants), Emilio Bruna
(plants, such as heliconia), and Marcela Santamaria (see her Journal about
climbing up into the canopy online). We've also just added a short sequence
on fish research (Cristina Cox) to program one, to complement the material
on the Amazon. Check out the website "TEAMS, Field Teams" for more
information about each team member, and see below for Cristina's Biography.
Journal/Biography of the Week: Cristina Cox--Fishy Tales
Cristina Cox will be a guest in program 2--the river systems of the
rainforest are a "world" beneath the canopy just like the understory, and
the temporal niche of night-time, where bats live. Oddly enough, we'll find
that electric fish and bats are both fascinating in how they use senses
alien to humans to successfully make a living in these exotic worlds.
Personal Background
Like many biologists, I began to be interested in forms and organisms by
finding and collecting them--in my case, at the beach. I grew up in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, and Ipanema beach was my first field site. Later, I started
to enjoy being in contact with more pristine, undeveloped shores around Rio
state. But my fascination with biology really awoke while I spent time
diving around islands near a town called Angra dos Reis, where the water is
calm, warm and one doesn't need much more than a snorkel to enjoy the fish,
sponges, reefs, etc., that flourish there.
Although in college I was never a good student in physics and chemistry, I
did enjoy the ecology, botany and zoology classes. During these college
years, I took many summer courses and was trained as a fish biologist in the
Rio State Fishery Agency. So, while still in college, I got an idea of how
biologists work, in the field and in laboratories. Early, then, I decided I
wanted to be in the field!
Although Rio was an interesting place to be at the time, I was anxious to
travel and see different parts of the world. In 1983, when I graduated from
college, two friends and I planned to attend a meeting in Manaus, a city in
the middle of the Amazon and future jumping-off point for "Live from the
Rainforest". This trip would give us an opportunity to visit an area about
which I had been very curious. Plane tickets were very expensive at that
time and my friends gave up the trip. But I was determined to go and, as the
daughter of an airline captain, I was able to swing a free ticket and so
went by myself. Three months after the meeting, I moved to Manaus to start
my master's in the Aquatic Biology program at the Instituto Nacional de
Pesquisas da Amazonia (INPA), with a four year scholarship from the
Brazilian Government. And here I am still!
Research
Part of my field work has focused on fish migrations into and out of the
floodplains along the Amazon river. This work has put me into contact with
the immense diversity of fish and the impact of the seasonality of this
region, where for months it rains a lot but for other months virtually no
rain falls at all. Fish use many environmental cues to know when they should
leave the floodplains for the river, and vice versa, and it is fascinating
research.
My other field project involves a study of communities of fishes that live
on the bottom of the Amazon river and its tributaries. We use nets to trawl
the bottom of the rivers, in often remote and difficult-to-explore habitats.
We have so far collected 360 species of fishes, many of them rare, and a
handful of them previously undescribed in any scientific literature!
***
One of the things which makes PTK projects live and interactive is that you
and your students aren't the only ones reading these online materials.
Participating researchers are also online--catching any slight taxonomic
boo-boos, keeping us 100% honest, and chipping in new information. Here's a
recent message.
Addendum to "Stalking the Wild Piranha"
A note from Heraldo Vasconcelos, researcher on leaf-cutter ants (see program
notes above):
Dear LFRF,
Just a few words about leaf-cutting ants and the flowers they were carrying,
as described in the Field Journal (from PTK satellite team member, Ann
Devereaux.)
Leaf-cutting ants (genus Atta) cut a variety of plant materials, which can
include fresh and occasionally dry leaves as well as the flowers, fruit and
seeds from several plant species. As much as 70% of the species available
within their foraging territories could be cut from, although only a few
species are preferred. They select leaves on the basis of their chemical and
physical traits, avoiding plants that are toxic to themselves or to the
fungus they cultivate. Flowers are occasionally harvested, especially during
the peak of the flowering season when they are very abundant. In fact, it
is not uncommon to see these ants carrying flowers at any time, as different
plant species flower in the forest during different parts of the year.
Flower petals do have a high water content and a low content of toxins, what
perhaps what makes them attractive to leaf-cutting ants.
Yours sincerely,
Heraldo Vasconcelos
Backyard Biodiversity Survey: The Debate is in Full Swing
The consensus development section of the debate is now underway with data
collection due to begin April 7 (hopefully it won't snow at any of our
schools then!) Right now, students and teachers are deciding exactly how
much area to study, how often, how to tabulate results (do you say 1 square
foot of grass or 935 blades of grass??), and how to study the exact same
area two weeks later if you can't mark it?
If you haven't signed your class up yet, don't despair! Click on the
INTERACT Collaborative Activities section of the website or e-mail Susan
Hurstcalderone
You'll also want to sign up for "Debate-LFRF" either on the website
(INTERACT/Collaborations) or by sending an e-mail to
listmanager@passporttoknowledge.com
Place ONLY the words:
subscribe debate-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
Challenge Questions: Week 3 Results, and CQ #4
Last week's Challenge Question stumped just about everyone. But Grott's
Greats were pretty close with an answer of 95%. The Question was: If
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE has produced LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA and now LIVE FROM
THE RAINFOREST from the heart of the Amazon Basin, what is "X" if we called
our series LIVE FROM X PERCENT OF EARTH'S FRESH WATER?
***
Answer: The Amazon is said to make up 1/5th of Earth's fresh water, and the
ice-cap in Antarctica holds about 70%. So, 1/5th 20%, plus 70%, means
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE could rename itself "LIVE FROM 90% OF EARTH'S FRESH
WATER".
Nah... never mind, we think we'll stick with what we've got.
But thanks to everyone who participated this week.
***CHALLENGE QUESTIONS - WEEK #4***
Time once again to get out the reference books, or search online. Where will
you find this week's answers? Who will be the first class to submit them?
Question #1:
Thinking about all the Journals that write about encountering jaguars in the
forest--what color exactly is a jaguar? Black or spotted?
Hint--it's not as simple as you might think, and you need to keep looking
(just as you must do if you're walking in the rainforest!)
***
Question #2:
There is a breed of chicken that has made an unusual adaptation to life in
the Amazon Rainforest. What is that breed of that chicken and what is its
adaptation?
***
You are invited to send original student answers to Eileen Bendixsen
Moderator, DISCUSS-LFRF: ebend@netlabs.net
Please include the words CHALLENGE QUESTION in the subject line of your
e-mail. Answers are due by Wednesday, April 1 at 10:00 pm EST.
Web Site of the Week
This week we're featuring the outstanding site from the Missouri Botanical
Garden. There is general information about different biomes including the
rainforest. This would be an excellent site for students desiring to compare
features of the rainforest with their own or other locales.
http://www.mobot.org/MBGnet/index2.htm
Each week, UPDATES features different websites to help you and your students
become more knowledgeable about rainforests. You should either bookmark them
in your browser or save the addresses in a word-processing file so that
they're available when you need them for activities later on.
PTK Online 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.
The easiest way to subscribe or unsubscribe to either DISCUSS-LFRF,
DEBATE-LFRF or UPDATES-LFRF is to visit the INTERACT section of the LFRF
website at:
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest
and fill out the simple form found there.
Another way to subscribe is to send e-mail to:
listmanager@passporttoknowledge.com
Place ONLY the words:
subscribe discuss-lfrf
or
subscribe debate-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
***
We hope you'll continue to use UPDATES to keep abreast of PTK news, DEBATE
to join in the Backyard Biodiversity Survey, 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. We know you'll enjoy traveling with us virtually to some
of the most amazing, instructive, and--yes--wet places on Earth.
Onward and Upward,
Janet K. Cook
Editor, UPDATES-LFRF
&
Geoff Haines-Stiles
