Field Trip To FRIM: What is a Rainforest?

Hiking through the rainforest, exploring the canopy walk, and eating lunch by the stream are all great fun, but field trips are for learning and not just for fun. After lunch, it was time for these 7th graders to get down to work.

What is a Rainforest?

The purpose of the field trip was for students to explore their surroundings in hope of uncovering the answer to the question- what is a rainforest? To facilitate learning about rainforests Mr. Popp had the students break into small groups. Each group was given a theme (food webs, relationships, disturbance, adapatation, and diversity)to help them focus their exploration.



My group's theme was "relationships". We spent a little time looking at the animals and plants living near the stream and compared them with the animals and plants living in the open. We then headed up a trail into the rainforest. It didn't take long for us to come face to face with that ubiquitous presence in the Malaysian rainforest- the leech. It didn't take long for all of is to pick up a hitch hiker or two as we hiked along the forest (we all noticed how many more leeches there were in the forest than on the open trail). Athough we all had leeches climb on is, but I don't think anyone had a leech start sucking their blood. After we left the forest we had a fun time poking the dead millipede to examine the little community of organisms that was starting the decomposition process.

At the end of our explorations we concluded that the rainforest was full of interesting relationships and was AWESOME!

After spending the day studying rainforests with my group, I decided they were ready for Tech so I taught them to "get their guns up"!


I don't know where else to add this picture, so I will tack in on here. Here is a view of students from a school located at FRIM.