It is highly desirable to collaborate with Biology, Earth Science, and Social Studies, English, and teachers of any other subject area on this unit.  This will work best in schools that actively integrate subjects.

Grade/Age Level:     High School

Lesson Length: Five 50-minute class sessions.  It is recommended to start on a Thursday so students can research over the weekend.

Objectives:

• Students will learn about the many uses and importance of rainforest plants through research on the Internet and other sources
• Students will learn about 3-D design by creating a large sculpture based on a plant of their choice (can be stylized to some degree)
• Students will learn about installation as an art form by combining the finished pieces together to transform a public area in the school into a rainforest.
• Students will gain collaboration skills by working together to assemble the finished piece

Vocabulary: Herb Layer, Shrub Layer, Canopy, Understory, Symbiosis, Installation, Ephemeral Art
Other vocabulary will be dependent upon which plant students choose.  Some possible plants include: Fern, Brazil Nut, Banana, Crecopia, Strangler Fig, Palm Tree, Coffee, Kapok, Cocoa, Orchid, Vanilla, Bromeliad, Passion Flower, Philodendron, Breadfruit, Cashew, Manioc, Yucca, Heliconia, Mahogany, Rubber Tree, etc.

Supplies:

• Reference sources (encyclopedias, Internet, etc.)
• Wire (green florists' wire is great), papier mache, newspaper, masking tape, heavy paper or tagboard, glue, glue guns, scissors, string/yarn, thick rope, raffia, pipe cleaners
• Wood stands or clay to anchor plants
• Tissue paper, construction paper, cloth, and acrylic paints in all colors, especially greens, browns, and other earth tones
• Optional: Special lighting and sound effects CD, sand or soil

Procedures:

Resources: "Journey into Amazonia" video, maps of rainforest areas.  Students need paper and pencil.

"In the last unit we learned about deforestation in the U.S. and why it is important to preserve forested areas.  This week we're going to begin studying the rainforest.  A few places in the U.S., such as rainy areas of the Northwest, are considered temperate rainforest. We're going to focus on the rainforest around the Amazon in South America. (Show maps.)  Why do you think it is important to study and preserve the rainforest?" Write down a list of their answers on board.

Show Episode Three of  "Journey into Amazonia": "The Big Top." Tell students to take notes: Write down names of plants and animals that they find interesting and pay particular attention to the consequences of rainforest destruction.  Why is it important to study and preserve the rainforest?

Students will need:

• Access to computers with a Web Browser
• Library reference materials such as encyclopedias.
• Paper and pencil for taking notes

Research:  You may want to split up the class, half to the library and half to the computer lab, and then switch.  It is important for students to collect their research from a variety of sources.  Students are to conduct research to choose a rainforest plant that is useful in some way: either medicinally, as a food source, as a natural resource, or in some other way.  The research has three main parts:

        1) Find a good picture of your plant that can serve as a model.  Write down a verbal description also.
        2) Why is your plant important (must fulfill at least one below)

• To the indigenous people?
• To the world's populations?
• To the animals living in the rainforest?

This research should be briefly written up in a one-page fact sheet to be turned in for credit.  The information will be needed to construct the plants and the final installation.

Materials: wire (green florists' wire is great), papier mache, newspaper, masking tape, heavy paper or tagboard, glue, glue guns, scissors, string/yarn, thick rope, raffia, pipe cleaners
Tissue paper, construction paper, cloth, and acrylic paints in all colors, especially greens and other earth tones
Wood stands or clay to anchor plants
Students must have an image of the plant they have chosen

Explain the concepts of "installation" and "ephemeral."  Installation is an art form that changes a space in some way, but it usually doesn't last. (ephemeral means transitory or fleeting)  It can be preserved through photographs.  This relates to the rainforest because the rainforest is disappearing at an alarming rate.  Tell the students that the individual plants they are making are going to become part of a whole, that will transform the chosen space.  Explain that the subtractive process at the end makes a statement about the disappearing rainforest.

Students will construct a three-dimensional interpretation of their plant.  Students who are making LARGE things like trees will need to work in groups.  If your plant is small and plentiful, make several of them.  Methods include:

• Make a wire frame that is then covered to look like a plant stem or bark
• Leaves can be constructed out of tissue paper to look translucent, or made with acrylic-painted thicker paper to look tough and rubbery
• Score and bend leaves and petals to give shape
• Vines can be made from twisting thick ropes
• Flowers can be made from tissue paper and very carefully patterned with lightly applied paint
• Don't forget the pistils and stamens of the flowers-try pipe cleaners
• Fruits and nuts can be made from papier mache
• Try stuffing forms with newspaper to give volume
• Raffia adds texture to Banyan trees
• Make sure you create a support for your plant to stand on, either by anchoring it to a piece of wood, clay, or some other object that can be camouflaged later
• Donít forget to camouflage the means of construction-hide tape, keep glue neat

Keep available all the supplies from the two previous days
You may want to use sand or soil as part of the "ground"
Optional: Special lighting and sound effects CD

Students work together to assemble all their finished plants into a finished rainforest environment, complete with "layers".  If possible make an environment that it is possible to move through. Set up committees, for example: Canopy Group, Ground Group, Shrub Group, Understory Group, or whatever divisions would work best with your class.  Try to achieve a sense of interconnectedness and symbiosis among these organisms.  Research comes in here: Students must be able to determine where their plant belongs, (the canopy or the shrub layer?) and tell the committee where to put it.  Some plants are parasitic on others. Vines can intertwine through the whole thing.  Cloth, sand, soil, etc. can simulate the forest floor.  Special lighting in different colors can be used to simulate sunlight filtering through the trees.  Sound effects can enhance the mood further.

Make announcements to other classes and teachers about the project and its significance.

In the weeks following the initial installation, the teacher and small groups of students disassemble the installation gradually.  This is to symbolize the disappearance of the rainforest.

Evaluation/Assessment:

• Do students demonstrate knowledge about rainforest plants through their research and apply this knowledge to the installation project?
• Do students demonstrate 3-D design skills in creating their individual plants?
• Do students work together well to assemble the finished installation?

Use botany books and Rainforest websites to find pictures of plants

Sources:

• "Journey into Amazonia" video and website: http://www.pbs.org/journeyintoamazonia/
• Amazon Life: Learning Ecology through Amazon Rain-Forest:  http://library.thinkquest.org/20248/inicio.html
• ArtsEdNet: Art and Ecology:   http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/ArtsEdNet/Resources/Ecology /index.htm