Environmental education program for schools

• Introduction
• Activity 1 Rainforest layers
• Activity 2 Rainforest detectives
• Activity 3 Rainforest explorers
• Activity 4 Reach for the light
• Activity 5 Stop, look, listen
• Activity 6 Leaf diversity
• Activity 7 Rainforest food chains

The Mamu Rainforest Canopy Walkway offers an environmental education program for visiting school groups, designed to be led by the class teacher. The program features rainforest environmental education activities which give students the opportunity to experience Queensland’s natural environment and cultural heritage. For more information on school bookings, see Mamu Schools Information (PDF, 466K)*. To make a booking, contact the Mamu walkway between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm week days to talk to staff.

Introduction

A variety of activities, suitable for students in Grades 4-7, has been developed for schools visiting the Mamu Rainforest Canopy Walkway. The activities link into the Rainforest Explorer Education Program produced by the Wet Tropics Management Authority. The Mamu walkway activities provide a practical field-based extension to Rainforest Explorer classroom activities. Each Mamu walkway activity can be undertaken as part of a broader unit of work within the Queensland Science curriculum. Curriculum links for Science are indicated for each activity. All activities are designed to be led by the class teacher during the visit to the walkway.

 

Number	Activity	Suggested locations	Description
1	Rainforest layers	Cantilever	Students find and identify features of the rainforest and locate their position within rainforest layer (canopy, mid-storey and ground).
2	Rainforest detectives	Elevated walk Forest walk	Students look for evidence of different animals and cyclone disturbance and enter their findings on a map.
3	Rainforest explorers	Elevated walk Forest walk	Students look for interesting and unusual rainforest ‘treasures’ and colourful fruits and enter their findings on a map.
4	Reach for the light	Elevated walk	Students identify and record plants with different strategies for reaching the light (climbers, epiphytes and pioneers).
5	Stop, look, listen	anywhere	Students engage their senses to describe what they see, hear and feel in the rainforest.
6	Leaf diversity	Forest walk	Students compare features of a variety of fallen leaves and discover the high level of plant diversity in the rainforest.
7	Rainforest food chains	Elevated walk	Students develop rainforest food chains based on their observations and other information.

Activity 1 Rainforest layers

Level         Grades 4-7

Locations  Cantilever, Tower

Use            This activity introduces students to rainforest structure and its key features.

Curriculum link – Science Essential learnings (Year 5)

Ways of working	Knowledge and understanding
collect and organise data, information and evidence	Life and living Living things have features that determine their interaction with the environment. Living things can be grouped according to their observable characteristics.

Aim

To observe and identify rainforest structure (ground, understorey, canopy and emergent layers) and key features (types of plants).

Before your visit

• Do Rainforest Explorer (Unit 1) Activity 7 Rainforest features.
• Make sure students are familiar with the following terms: ground, understorey, canopy and emergent layers.
• Make class copies of worksheet Rainforest layers (PDF, 394K)* for your visit.

During your visit

To start this activity, ask students to look around them at the rainforest and give activity cues (‘We are about to look at what makes a forest a rainforest. What do you notice about the canopy, the ground, spaces between the trees?’)

1. Look for the types of plants listed on worksheet (climber, epiphyte, tall tree, ground cover, etc). Use the illustrations as a guide and tick the ones you can see.
2. Decide whether each plant type lives in the canopy, understorey or ground layer and draw a line to connect.
3. Observe closely and find the three plants illustrated (native banana, native spinach and basket fern). Draw a line to connect the plant to its rainforest layer.
4. Find and draw another plant that you like. Decide what type of plant it is (from the list) and draw a line to connect the plant to its rainforest layer.

Background information

• Rainforest is typically a forest of moisture-loving, closely-spaced trees, with a closed canopy that limits the light reaching the sparsely-covered ground.
• Rainforest is made up of many different types of plants (diversity).
• Rainforest structure usually has four main layers—ground, understorey, canopy and emergent. At the Mamu walkway, the emergent layer is not obvious due to cyclone damage and undulating topography.
• Different types of plants are usually found in each rainforest layer.
• Also see Tropical Topics – Light in the rainforest (PDF)*.

Activity 2 Rainforest detectives

Level         Grades 4-7

Locations  Elevated walk

Use            This observation activity complements other activities concerning rainforest plants.  

Curriculum link – Science Essential learnings (Year 5)

Ways of working	Knowledge and understanding
collect and organise data, information and evidence draw conclusions that are supported by evidence, reproducible data and established scientific concepts	Life and living Living things have features that determine their interaction with the environment. Living things can be grouped according to their observable characteristics.

Aim

To observe and identify examples of evidence of animals (and cyclones) in the rainforest.

 Before your visit

• Do Rainforest Explorer (Unit 1) Activity 9 Rainforest Cryptosphere.
• Print copies of Night signs (PDF, 254K)* and make sure students are familiar with the animals that live in rainforest and why they can be hard to find.
• Make class copies of worksheets Rainforest detectives (PDF, 329K)* and Mamu walkway map (PDF, 101K)* for your visit.

During your visit

Ask students to review what they know about the rainforest before starting to give activity cues (‘We know about lots of different plants but what’s missing from the rainforest?’) Explain that rainforests are full of animals but you have to be a rainforest detective to find them, as many are nocturnal and/or cryptic.

1. Identify the animal clues and draw a line to connect the clue with the correct animal.
2. Tick if you see the animal clue and mark its location on the Mamu walkway map.
3. Count the different animals you see as you walk along and complete the animal tally.   
4. To conclude the activity, regroup students and ask if they can see evidence of the cyclone from 2006. Tick if you find the cyclone seekers’ clues and mark their location on the Mamu walkway map.

Background information

• Many animals live in the rainforest but are either nocturnal (active only at night); small and cryptic (hard to see) or shy (remain hidden).
• Animals that live in this rainforest include cassowaries and many other birds, pythons and tree snakes, skinks, possums, bats, musky rat-kangaroos, pademelons (rainforest wallabies) and many butterflies, moths, beetles and other insects.
• Large mammals and reptiles are not usually seen so students must focus on evidence of animals or look for small animals (insects, birds and small reptiles).
• Evidence that animals live in the rainforest can be found in clues such as chewed fruits, seeds and leaves, scats (poo), and scratch marks in trees.
• Cyclone Larry, a category 4 cyclone, caused extensive damage to the area in March 2006. Evidence of cyclone damage that can still be seen includes fallen and uprooted trees, gaps in the canopy (along the route of the elevated walk), trees with broken limbs and fast-growing pioneer trees, such as chinky pines, that have since appeared under gaps in the canopy.
• Also see Rainforest Explorer Fact Sheet – Animal groups of the Cryptosphere (PDF)*
• Also see Tropical Topics – Night in the Wet Tropics (PDF)*
• Also see Tropical Topics – Rainforest Invertebrates (PDF)* 
• Also see Tropical Topics – Cassowaries (PDF)*
• Also see Tropical Topics – Macropods of the Wet Tropics (PDF)* 

Activity 3 Rainforest explorers

Level         Grades 4-7

Locations  Elevated walk, Forest walk

Use            This activity helps students to focus on small details in the rainforest with up close observation and recording.

 Curriculum link – Science Essential learnings (Year 5)

Ways of working	Knowledge and understanding
collect and organise data, information and evidence	Life and living Living things have features that determine their interaction with the environment. Structures of living things have particular functions. Reproductive processes and life cycles vary in different types of living things.

Aim

To observe and identify interesting and unusual objects and colourful fruits found in the rainforest.

Before your visit

• Do Rainforest Explorer (Unit 1) Activity 10 Animal/plant relationships and Activity 11 Valuing the rainforest
• Make sure students are familiar with: the concept that structures have specific functions; and the importance of rainforest fruits/seeds as food sources for rainforest animals and also traditionally for Aboriginal people.
• Make copies of worksheets Rainforest explorers (PDF, 286K)* and Mamu walkway map (PDF, 101K)* for your visit.

During your visit

Give activity cues (‘If we look closely we will find some amazing and unusual objects in the rainforest.’) Explain that they should look for different leaves, fruits, flowers and fungi.

1. Look for unusual objects or treasures, tick the ones you find in Treasure hunt and mark their location on the Mamu walkway map.
2. Find and draw your own treasures and mark locations on the map.
3. Look closely for any fruits on the ground or in the trees. Tick the ones you can identify in Fruit find. Use the ruler as a measure to help you. Do not be tempted to eat any fruit as some are poisonous.
4. Can you see all the colours of the rainbow? Tick the colours you can see in the rainforest as you walk along. 

Background information

• Many plant structures are adaptations for survival in the rainforest, such as buttress roots providing greater anchorage for shallow-rooted trees.
• Also see Tropics Topics - Light in the rainforest (PDF)*.
• Instead of relying only on wind, water and gravity, many rainforest plants ‘employ’ animals to disperse their seeds.
• Seeds encased in a brightly-coloured fruit are eaten by birds, while the duller green, yellow and brown fruits, usually with strong scents, are eaten by bats, rats and other mammals, then dispersed in their droppings sometimes far from the parent plant.
• The cassowary is an important dispersal agent for many rainforest fruits including plants with fruits that are too large to be eaten by any other animal.
• Many rainforest fruits are poisonous and cannot be eaten. Ma:Mu Aboriginal people traditionally used a wide range of rainforest plants as food resources and knew how to treat poisonous seeds and nuts to make them edible. Much of this knowledge is still known today.
• Also see Tropical Topics – Forest Fruit Dispersal (PDF)*.
• Also see Tropical Topics – Bush tucker (PDF, 610K)*.

Activity 4 Reach for the light

Level       Grades 4-7

Location  Elevated walkway

Use          This activity focuses on plant diversity and different survival strategies.

Curriculum link – Science Essential learnings (Year 5)

Ways of working	Knowledge and understanding
collect and organise data, information and evidence	Life and living Living things have features that determine their interaction with the environment. Structures of living things have particular functions.

 Curriculum link – Science Essential learnings (Year 7)

Ways of working	Knowledge and understanding
collect and analyse first- and second-hand data, information and evidence	Life and living Living things have structures that enable them to survive and reproduce. Survival of organisms is dependent on their adaptation to their environment

Aim

To identify and record the ways that different kinds of plants compete for light to survive in the rainforest.

Before your visit

• Do Rainforest Explorer (Unit 1) Activity 7 Rainforest features.
• Make sure students are familiar with: photosynthesis, competition for sunlight and plants’ strategies for reaching the light (epiphytes, climbers and pioneers).
• Make copies of worksheet Reach for the light (PDF, 323K)* for your visit.

During your visit

Gather students in Shelter 3 (History). To start the activity, explain that the location for this activity is between this shelter and the end of the walkway. Remind students of plant strategies for reaching the light and explain that they are going to study different epiphytes, climbers and pioneers.

1. Around platform 22, look for the three kinds of climbers illustrated on the worksheet—root climber, tendril climber and hook climber.
2. Identify climbing pandanus; then look for another root climber. Draw and label it.
3. Identify supplejack; then look for another tendril climber. Draw and label it.
4. Identify wait-a-while; draw the hooks and write down how hook climbers reach the light.
5. At platform 23, look for trees with epiphytes; and identify basket ferns and bird’s nest ferns.
6. Count the number of trees you can see that have epiphytes; and find the tree that has the greatest number of epiphytes.
7. Find a pioneer, chinky pine. Estimate its height (height of walkway at this point is about eight metres) then calculate its age (it grows about six metres/year). Count the number of chinky pines you can see.

Background information

• In the rainforest, plants compete for light. The great diversity of plant types reflects the different ways they have developed to compete for light.
• Climbers are plants that do not spend energy in growing their own support (trunk); instead they have features (tendrils, hooks or rootlets) that enable them to cling to other plants and clamber up into the sunlit canopy.
• Epiphytes are ‘hitch-hikers’, they grow from seeds that have usually been deposited in the fork of a tree by birds or bats in their droppings or spores spread by the wind. (Note: Trees grow at the top, not the base, so a fork in a seedling close to the ground will always be at the same height as the tree grows; it will not end up higher in the canopy).
• Pioneer plants are ‘stretchers’; they grow quickly when there is a gap in the canopy and are short-lived (surviving for 20–30 years). In contrast, climax species are the large old trees that form the canopy, which are very slow growing and long-lived (hundreds of years). Pioneers are very evident at the Mamu walkway because of the cyclone in 2006.
• See nature, culture and history for more information about plant diversity at Mamu.
• Also see Tropical Topics – Light in the rainforest (PDF)*.

Activity 5 Stop, look, listen

Level        Grades 4-7

Location   Anywhere (but best from Cantilever or Elevated walk)

Use           This observation activity can be used after students have expended their energy and are ready to slow down and refocus their attention.

Curriculum link – Science Essential learnings (Year 5)

Ways of working	Knowledge and understanding
Reflect on and identify different points of view and consider other people’s values relating to science	Science as a human endeavour Science relates to students’ own experiences and activities in the community. Science can help to make natural, social and built environments sustainable and may influence personal human activities.

 Curriculum link – Science Essential learnings (Year 7)

Ways of working	Knowledge and understanding
Reflect on different points of view and recognise and clarify people’s values relating to the applications and impacts of  science	Science as a human endeavour Science impacts on people, their environment and their communities. Scientific knowledge can help make natural, social and built environments sustainable, at a scale ranging from local to global.

Aim

To engage students’ senses (observation, hearing) and feelings to experience the rainforest.

Before your visit

• Do Rainforest Explorer (Unit 3) Activity 1 My feelings.
• Make sure students are familiar with: the idea that different environments (natural and man-made) can produce different emotions.
• Make copies of worksheet Stop, look, listen (PDF, 203K)* for your visit.

Note: Laminated copies of colour charts will be provided for your use upon entry at ticket office.

During your visit

Gather the students together and have quiet time before starting to give activity cues (‘We are about to do a sensory activity. To start, I want you to all silently think about your senses and the environment we are in.’)

1. Colours: Try to find exact matches for each colour on the colour chart. How many different greens are there? What colours can you see out on the horizon? Tick the colours you can match. Compare with the rest of your group.
2. See: Form a ‘telescope’ with your hand, closing one eye, and focus on what you can see in the small circle formed by your fingers. Focus your ‘telescope’ on different parts of the scene. What can you see moving in the forest or in the sky (leaves blowing in the wind, butterflies, birds, river rushing and clouds moving)? Write down what you can see.  
3. Hear: Close your eyes and listen. Write down the sounds you can hear, or tick sound words from the list. Listen for the closest sound and the most far away sound. Listen for human and natural sounds.
4. Feel: Close your eyes and sit quietly. Write down what you feel. This might be a sensation (hot, cool, wind on your face) or an emotion (happy, excited, tired, etc).

After your visit

• Do Rainforest Explorer (Unit 3) Activity 9 Feelings.
• Do Rainforest Explorer (Unit 1) Activity 15 Music inspiring poetry.

Activity 6 Leaf diversity

Level        Grades 4-7

Location   Forest walk

Use           This activity focuses on diversity through collecting and comparing fallen leaves.

Curriculum link – Science Essential learnings (Year 5)

Ways of working	Knowledge and understanding
collect and organise data, information and evidence	Life and living Living things have features that determine their interaction with the environment. Structures of living things have particular functions.

Curriculum link – Science Essential learnings (Year 7)

Ways of working	Knowledge and understanding
collect and analyse first- and second-hand data, information and evidence	Life and living Living things have structures that enable them to survive and reproduce. Survival of organisms is dependent on their adaptation to their environment.

Aim

To explore the concept of diversity by observing different types of leaves (and therefore plants) in the rainforest.

Before your visit

• Do Rainforest Explorer (Unit 1) Activity 2 Viewing the rainforest.
• Explore the concept of diversity using classroom objects (e.g. coloured blocks and buttons) and compare examples of high and low diversity.
• Make sure students are familiar with: the concept of diversity, and biodiversity, as a key criterion for world heritage listing of the Wet Tropics.
• Make copies of worksheet Leaf diversity (PDF, 160K)* for your visit.

During your visit

Gather students in Shelter 2 (Rainforest) or Shelter 3 (History). Organise students to work in small groups within a set area on the Forest walk before giving activity cues (‘Leaves give us clues about the types of plants growing in the rainforest. We are going to discover as much as we can about the types of leaves in the rainforest’).

1. Leaf hunt: How many different sorts of leaves can you see growing in the rainforest along the track? Tick words from the list that describe features of the leaves you see.
2. Fallen leaves: In your groups, collect five very different leaves and bring them back to the information shelter.
3. Identify the various features (vein patterns, leaf shapes and other features) from your worksheet. Compare your leaves by forming a line where the most similar leaves are together and the most dissimilar leaves are furthest apart.
4. Measure the largest and smallest leaf using the ruler at the bottom of the page.
5. Draw and label the features of the two most different leaves.
6. Put all leaves back where they were found.

Background information

• Diversity is one of the criteria for world heritage listing of the Wet Tropics rainforest. Many different kinds of plants can survive in the rainforest because the living conditions are so favourable—a warm, wet climate and fertile soils.
• The rainforest at the Mamu walkway is one of the most diverse and complex types of rainforest—complex mesophyll vine forest. This area is the largest continuous stand of this type of rainforest growing on basalt soils that remains in the Wet Tropics. The high diversity of plants is reflected in the diversity of leaf types that can be seen along the tracks.
• Some leaf features may be adaptations to assist in the efficient capture of sunlight for plant growth, for example, drip tips and veins drain water from the leaf’s surface (a wet leaf can grow mould reducing the area for gathering sunlight), a shiny surface reflects heat, and hairs may help to keep water drops away from the leaf’s pores.
• Minerals and water are carried from the roots and stem to the leaves; and food produced in the leaves is transported to the rest of the plant. Veins in the leaves are the visible part of this transport system. Most simple leaves have a central ‘vein’ or midrib from which secondary veins branch off in various patterns.
• Also see Rainforest Explorer Fact Sheet – Leaf shapes (PDF)* 
• Also see Tropical Topics – Light in the rainforest (PDF)* 

Activity 7 Rainforest food chains

Level        Grades 4-7

Location   Elevated walkway

Use           This activity requires students to develop simple food chains based on prior knowledge and understanding, on-site observations and information provided.

Curriculum link – Science Essential learnings (Year 5)

Ways of working	Knowledge and understanding
Draw conclusions that are supported by evidence, reproducible data and established scientific concepts.	Life and living Living things have features that determine their interaction with the environment. Living things have relationships with other living things and their environment.

 Curriculum link – Science Essential learnings (Year 7)

Ways of working	Knowledge and understanding
Draw conclusions that summarise and explain patterns in data and are supported by experimental evidence and scientific concepts.	Life and living Living things have structures that enable them to survive and reproduce. Different feeding relationships exist within an ecosystem.

Aim

To illustrate predator-prey interactions as simple food chains.

Before your visit

• Do Rainforest Explorer (Unit 1) Activity 8 Rainforest food web.
• Make sure students are familiar with: food chains, food webs, and the roles of producers, consumers, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and decomposers.
• Make class copies of worksheet Rainforest food chains (PDF, 249K)* for your visit.
• Make copies of fact sheet Who eats who (PDF, 35K)* at Mamu walkway to assist teachers/supervisors during your visit.

During your visit

Gather students in Shelter 2 (Rainforest) or Shelter 3 (History). Set out the study area in which students should work—a designated section of Elevated walkway. Consider assigning different groups to different parts of the walkway. Give students activity cues such as ‘Plants and animals in the rainforest are linked together in a web of life. We are going to investigate who eats who so we can create simple food chains’.

1. Work in small groups. Choose three producers (plants) that you can see in the study area. Identify plants from signs and fruit identification sheets. (Hint: choose plants that have information about their predators as you will need to complete food chains for each.)
2. Draw or photograph each plant.
3. Complete a food chain for each producer with ‘possible’ consumers from information provided on the worksheet, signs, fruit identification sheet, your observations and your knowledge of rainforest animals. (Note: there is not one correct answer for this activity but many possible answers.)
4. Choose two decomposers that you see in the study area. Complete food chains for each.

After your visit

• In groups, combine different food chains into a food web using the Rainforest food web (PDF, 243K)* worksheet.

Background information

• Rainforest is a complex ecosystem where the diversity of plants and animals are linked in various relationships. A food web shows predator–prey relationships in a series of interconnected food chains.
• Food webs are shown in levels, starting with producers (plants) which are eaten by herbivores (first level consumers), which are in turn eaten by carnivores or omnivores (second level consumers) and so on.
• Decomposers consume all levels, recycling nutrients for use by producers.
• See nature, culture and history for more information about plant and animal relationships at the Mamu walkway. 
• Also see Tropical Topics – Wet Tropics Webs II (PDF)*.
• Also see Rainforest Explorer Fact Sheet – Cryptosphere Animal Groups (PDF)*.
• Also see Rainforest Explorer Fact Sheet – Cryptosphere Insects (PDF)*.
• Also see Rainforest Explorer Fact Sheet – Cryptosphere Arachnids (PDF)*.
• Also see Rainforest Explorer Fact Sheet – Other Cryptosphere Life Forms (PDF)*.

* Requires Adobe Reader

Last updated 14 May 2012

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