Power Plants: A Plant-Based Energy Curriculum for Grades 5 through 8
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Program Overview
Rainforest Researchers is a computer-based program that introduces students to current research efforts on tropical forests and biodiversity. Guided by instructions on the CD-ROM, students work in cooperative teams as they role-play scientific experts investigating 2 ecological "mysteries."
Classroom CD-ROM Program
Recommended grade level:
5-8.
TheRainforest Researchers unit focuses on plant biology and tropical rainforests as students investigate 2 separate ecological mysteries, called "cases," in the Indonesian rainforest. The first mystery is why cultivated durian trees are not producing much fruit, whereas rainforest trees are producing plenty of fruit. To solve the second mystery, students must identify the source of a cancer-fighting compound obtained from an unknown plant sample purchased at an Indonesian jamu market--a place where people buy and sell traditional medicines, usually as dried plants.
To solve the mysteries, students work together in teams of 4; each member plays the role of a different scientific expert (ecologist, ethnobotanist, chemist, taxonomist). The teams follow a series of guided steps on the CD-ROM to obtain information. Then they share ideas, conduct outside research, and make decisions. While working through the program, students make real-life decisions about conducting tests that might help solve their cases.
Six extension activities and 9 hands-on experiments are included in the unit. Among these, for example, students examine fruits and vegetables to understand the difference between scientific and everyday terms; they look at various fruits and seeds to see how they are adapted for dispersal; and they make an herbal first-aid kit.
Each research case in Rainforest Researchers takes 1 to 2 weeks of class time to complete. The program can be used with a single computer and a whole class or with many computers. As many as 8 teams can complete the program at the same time.
Program materials include a CD-ROM, a videotape, a teacher's guide, a classroom set of student books (7 sets of 4 different books) and enough field worksheets for 1 class (worksheets may be reproduced).
Key to Content Standards: 5-8 (see app. C)
UNIFYING CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES: Evidence, models, and explanation.
SCIENCE AS INQUIRY: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry; understandings about scientific inquiry.
LIFE SCIENCE: Structure and function in living systems; reproduction and heredity; regulation and behavior; populations and ecosystems; diversity and adaptations of organisms.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Understandings about science and technology.
SCIENCE IN PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES: Populations, resources, and environment; natural hazards.
HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE: Science as a human endeavor; nature of science.
Price:
Kit, $249.95.
Publisher/supplier:
Tom Snyder.
Materials:
Available in kit.
