Earthwatch Australia Teach Live

As you have realised I am not at school. It might look like I am still on holidays but I hope that I am doing some really important work that will help us to learn about Rainforests and help a scientist to collect some really important data.

Start up your netbook and in Documents open a new folder and name it with your initials and forests

Eg. Mine would be named JDforests

When you save this work you must save all of it into this folder and back it up as you go.

Check out the assessment rubric before you start so that you know what you are being assessed on.

This unit has six parts for you to work through:

1. Part 1: Who or what is Earthwatch?
2. Part 2: What is a forest?
3. Part 3: Research assignment
4. Part 4: Rainforests up close
5. Part 5: Rainforest Dioramas
6. Part 6: Assessment rubric

Part 1: Who or What is Earthwatch?

So the first thing that I would like you to do is to go to the Earthwatch site http://www.teachlive.org.au/About-Earthwatch and find out the three core objectives that Earthwatch has. Add these into a new MSWord document

Click on the 2010 Climate change in the Rainforest and list three things that I should be doing while I am away.

Remember:

1. to save the document with an appropriate name (your initials followed by forests could be used for this document as well)
2. use the same colours as you use in your relational notebooks
   1. red for headings
   2. blue for sub-headings and
   3. black for normal text

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Part 2: What is a forest?

To answer this question I could do a number of things:

1. Highlight the word forest and right click Lookup. Try it!
2. Go to Google and put forest as my key word. Now try that.
3. Go to Google and put what is a forest as my key words. Finally try this.

These screen clips show the results I got from doing each of these three things. 1. 2. 3.

1. Can you think of another way to search for information on this topic? Try it out.

Questions

1. Use the table below to help evaluate the three methods.

Type of search	Method	Number of references given	Relevance of the references	Reliability of the relevant references
1 Lookup	Lookup the word Forest in MS Word	3	1st is relevant to me	Reliable because MS Word used the Encarta dictionary as its’ reference.
2 and 3 Google	I key word was put in for the search.	178,000,000	Of the first 4 only one was relevant the other sites were about businesses
	What is a forest put in as the Key words.
Other search of your choice

1. Which method gave me the best result?
2. Why have you chosen this one?
3. Was your method better than my best one? Tell me why it was better or worse than my method.
4. How can you decide if a web site gives you accurate and reliable information?

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Part 3: Research assignment

Answer the following questions. Remember to reference the sites that you get information from at the end of each section using the correct referencing format. See the table below.

Using any method you think appropriate answer the question “What is a forest?” in 50 words. Yes it has to be exactly 50 or as close as you can. Remember you do not have to count the words, you highlight the text and word will do it for you. See the Word Count document below.

Word Count Document 97.50 kB

Find answers for the following questions What types of forests do we have in Australia?

What are the characteristics of a Rainforest? Location around the world Location in Australia. Temperature Rainfall Altitude Types plants and animals that live in these forests

What are the characteristics of a Eucalypt forest? Location around the world Location in Australia. Temperature Rainfall Altitude Types plants and animals that live in these forests. Use a Venn diagram to compare Australian Rainforests and Eucalypt forests. Use the word document below.

Venn Diagram 28.50 kB

Type of reference How to format the reference and an example for each type Web site Author (the person or organisation responsible for the site) Year (that the site was created or last revised), name and place of the sponsor of the source, viewed Day Month Year, <URL>. Example: PIRSA Forestry Matters, 2008, What is a Forest?, Government of South Australia, viewed 20 March 2010, http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/forestrymatters/forestry_fact_sheets/what_is_a_forest Online images Author (the person or organisation responsible, if available) Year, Title of image (or a description), name and place of the sponsor of the source, viewed Day Month Year, <URL>. Example: Darhorton, Feb 28, 2006, Daintree Rainforest, webshots, viewed 20 March 2010, http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2203858200086605708nEGWKu If there is no named author, put the image title first followed by the date. Title of image, Year, name and place of the sponsor of the source, viewed Day Month Year, <URL either full location details or just the main site details>. Example: IMG8 - Daintree Buttress Roots, 2008, rainforest rescue, Australia, viewed 20 March 2010, http://www.rainforestrescue.org.au/media/image-gallery.html

Go Back

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Part 4: Rainforests up close.

In this activity you will investigate the structure of the rainforest so that you will be able to make a Rainforest Diorama. Complete the table using the sites below to research the structure of plants in a rainforest.

Rainforest structure table.
Name of the layer	Main facts about the layer	How will I represent this layer in my Diorama?
Emergent Layer	The tallest trees in the rainforest. Usually 50m high or more These trees are often far apart.	I will make these trees out of brown and green card. I will use a scale of …cm = 1m Using this scale my card trees have to be …cm high.

1. The Prince’s Rainforest Project. Structures of Rainforests. Viewed 20 March 2010. http://www.rainforestsos.org/pages/structure-of-a-rainforest
2. Internetgeography. 2009. Tropical Rainforests. Viewed 20 March 2010. http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/topics/rainforest.html#structure
3. Daintree Discovery centre. Viewed 20 March 2010. http://www.daintree-rec.com.au/daintree.html
4. Wet tropics, 2002, Mushrooms and Fungi - General Information, visited 20 March 2010. http://www.wettropics.gov.au/pa/pa_fungi_info.html
5. Wet tropics, 2002, Rainforest Structure Diagram, visited 20 March 2010. http://www.wettropics.gov.au/st/rainforest_explorer/Resources/Documents/4to7/rainforestStructureDiagram.pdf
6. Gondwananet , Tropical Rainforest Plants. Viewed 20 March 2010. http://www.gondwananet.com/tropical-rainforest-plants.html
7. Gondwananet, Daintree Tropical Rainforest Facts, Viewed 20 March 2010. http://www.gondwananet.com/daintree-tropical-rainforest-facts.html

Look at the poster shown on this web site to see some of the animals that you might see in the Rainforest http://www.wettropics.gov.au/st/rainforest_explorer/Resources/Documents/4to7/RainforestRavePoster.pdf.

Using this poster complete activities 3, 7, 8 and the first part of activity 9.

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Part 5: Rainforest Dioramas

Use the information that you have collected in the Rainforest Structure table to make a Diorama. I have left two examples for you to look at and the sites below may help you.

1. How to make a Rainforest Diorama, viewed 20 March 2010, http://www.stormthecastle.com/diorama/rainforest-diorama/rainforest-diorama-index.htm
2. Lynda Hatton, 2009, How to build an easy Rainforest Diorama. Suite 101.com, viewed 20 March 2010, http://educational-kids-crafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_build_an_easy_rainforest_diorama
3. Dr. Terence Cavanaugh, 2006, Panorama Dioramas - a DIGITAL CAMERA Project. viewed 20 March 2010, http://drscavanaugh.org/digitalcamera/diorama/diorama_panorama.htm

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Part 6: Assessment rubric for this Unit

Click and download on the rubric word document (below) and save it to your PC, name it appropriately and assess yourself.