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Save the Amazon RainforestThe Rainforest Project

4/7/2011Union County Public SchoolsKimberly B.Social Studies block 5

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Caroline and Lucy were to reporters that were in that were in the Amazon Rainforest to stop a problem. The Bye-bye Trees Deforestation Company had orders to cut down the entire area of the Amazon Rainforest. Caroline and Lucy were so worried they did not want to lose the rainforest.

Up in the air about 20 feet above the canopy of the Amazon Rainforest, Fred Martinez and Mark Sawyer were in an airplane. The door was loose and so it was a little windy in the plane. Fred stood up and grabbed Mark because he started to fall.

Next thing they knew they were looking up at two girls their age. They looked around them and were so amazed at what they saw. Trees were everywhere, animals were abundant.

“Are you guys alright” Caroline said while she and Lucy helped them up “You had quite a flight there.”

“Where are we” Mark asked.

“You are in the Amazon Rainforest” Lucy said.

“What’s a rainforest” Fred asked.

“A rainforest is a tall, dense jungle” Lucy said “You must not be the smarter of the two.”

Caroline and Lucy laughed. Then Caroline looked at Mark and said “What happened we were just walking through the rainforest and then we saw two boys lying at our feet.

“Well,” said Mark “Fred stood up on the plane and the door was not shut well. Fred slipped and he fell out the door taking me with him.”

“Let’s get you two out of here” said Caroline and Lucy together.

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“Now that we told you how we got here,” said Mark “You tell us what you’re doing here.”

“Well,” said Caroline “We are here to try and stop the Bye-bye Trees Deforestation Company from following their orders to cut down all the trees in the rainforest.”

“Wow,” said Fred “That’s bad. We will help you. Wait what’s deforestation?”

‘“Well, deforestation is the cutting down of trees to make room for other things” said Caroline “there is also mining that blows up parts of the rainforest. Cattle ranching is also a problem. The cattle eat all the grass and then people have to cut down more trees to make more room for the cattle to eat more grass. This causes people to have a nomadic life, a life of moving from place to place. There is also some things that people do that are okay. Some tribes take axes and cut tiny bits of trees to collect latex. Ever heard of ecotourism? Ecotourism is tourism to places with unspoiled nature.”

Fred, Mark, Caroline, and Lucy took off through the Amazon rainforest. After walking what seemed like hours Fred saw something interesting, a plant that he would love to climb. “What is that?” he asked.

“Oh, that’s a Linan. It is a woody looking climbing vine. It starts in the forest floor and grows up until it reaches the canopy. It’s only predator are humans.”

said Caroline “Humans use it to make things such as furniture and baskets. See I have this picture

here that you can look at but don’t lose it.”

“Cool, can I go climb it” Fred asked.

“Later Fred” Caroline said smiling “Later”.

“Wait” said Fred

“What,” Caroline said.

“What’s the forest floor and canopy?” asked Fred

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“Well, the forest floor is the ground what we are walking on. Some animals that live here are ant eaters. Plants cannot grow here because of minimal sunlight. The canopy is the very top. It’s what you fell through when you fell out. Eagles, monkeys, bats, and butterflies live here. Board leaved hardwood evergreens grow up to the top. You also fell through the understory which is above us right now. Jaguars, red-eyed tree frogs, leopards, and lots of insects live here. Trees grow big leaves to catch sunlight there. Also the Emergent layer, that’s the top right under the canopy. Snakes toucans, and tree frogs live here. Trees have smooth oval leaves that come to a point. The rainforest has kind of like a layered roof the Emergent layer covers everything with the canopy to help.” Caroline said.

After a while, Mark looked at Lucy and said, “What kind of plant is that?”

“That’s a bromeliad. They have thick, waxy bowl shaped leaves or foliage. They live on the forest floor. People use them for food and medicine.”

“Oh, cool I think I might use that plant for a report I have to do on a plant for school!” Mark said excitedly “Aren’t all plants

producers?”

“Yes” said Lucy.

“What’s a producer” Fred asked.

When Lucy opened her mouth to answer Caroline said “let’s let Mark explain.”

“A producer is something that uses sunlight to make its own food” Mark said.

“That’s right Mark” said Lucy and Caroline “the process is called photosynthesis.”

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Walking on they heard a bunch of voices talking to one another. Lucy and Caroline looked at each other and rolled their eyes. They steered the boys away from the voices and would not answer their questions about the voices.

While walking Fred saw something that distracted him, a frog with very bright colors. “Wow” said Fred “I think that frog is trying to blind me.”

“No it’s not” said Lucy “that’s a poison arrow frog. They have bright colors to warn others that they have poison in them. The eat insects and have no predators because of their poison. They lay eggs on leaves and males and females both protect

territories. This animal is not an herbivore, eats only animals, or a carnivore, eats only meat, it is an herbivore, eats both plants and animals. In the end all the animals die and the decomposers break up their bodies and turn them into nutrients. A food web like the one I have here shows what everything eats and how the energy travels.”

In the same moment that Lucy was explaining the frog to Fred, Mark saw a bird and

asked Caroline about it. “Your right Mark” Caroline said “that’s a Macaw, a very beautiful bird, indeed. Being the largest of all parrots, they have long tails and pointed wings, and sharp beak. Their predators are Harpy Eagles and they eat fruits nuts and insects. They use their toes to help hang onto branches. Their beaks help crack nuts. Predators are animals or things that hunt eat an animal. The animal they are hunting is the prey.”

“Hey” said Lucy “you forgot about adaption. Every plant and animal or organism has to adapt or get used to the life of the rainforest. They also use camouflage to blend into their surroundings by using color. They also have a habitat or home in the rainforest. Each plant and animal is indigenous to the

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rainforest. Indigenous means orientating in or characteristics of a particular country.”

After walking what seemed forever, Fred and Mark, at the same time, saw something slightly disturbing, women with very few clothes on. Seeing the confused faces Caroline said “That’s the Yanomami tribe.”

“Where’s the clothing” Fred asked.

“They don’t wear very much clothing” Caroline responded. “Some tribes have a more western culture then others. This tribe does NOT use the western culture. Culture is the traditions of a person or group of people. The women do a lot of work around the village. They cook and clean and even grow some little gardens. The men hunt and fish. They make things such as baskets. Their culture is just simple stuff like hunting, fishing, and making things. They have houses called Shabonos. The houses are like doughnuts with little holes in the middle. The villages have little unrelated families that trade women for marriage.”

After a while, Mark said “It’s hot in here.”

“Yeah” said Lucy “The rainforest has a tropical climate. Climate is the average temperature over a long period of time. If you’ll look at this climate map I have you will see that most of the rainforest has a tropical wet climate, which is the yellow or tropical dry climate, which is the blue. The rest of South America has either a humid subtropical, the dark green, a mediterrian, the

bluish-green, or a steepe, the pink, the purple are the places that I don’t have a climate zone for.”

Then Fred saw a clearing of land. After showing Lucy he heard Caroline mumble “Oh, no we might be too late”

“What’s wrong” asked Mark.

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“See that clearing of land. See that one tree left standing with that mark on it. That’s because of the deforestation company. Lucy show them the map. You see the dark green, that’s the remaining rainforest. The light green, that’s the deforested area of the rainforest. The blue is the part that I am NOT paying attention to” Caroline said.

Then Caroline and Lucy saw another tribe. “Look there” Lucy said “That’s the Machiguenga tribe. They hunt and grow crops they will probably use this area for their crops. They have small houses for school. Closely related families live in the villages together. They share a large hut for eating and several little houses that keep the bugs out for sleeping. They make arrows for hunting.”

“How do they move around in the rainforest if they don’t have cars” Fred asked.

“Well” said Lucy “they do like us they walk or they travel in canoes. They also trade with people that visit the rainforest.”

As they were walking it started to rain. “It’s about time” Caroline exclaimed “I am surprised it has not rained before now. See the average rainfall here is over 9 ft a year; the average temperature is 80.7 degrees. You know we are here to save the rainforest. Well, here’s some more things we can do. We can recycle, we can reuse products and also we can save paper to keep the trees here. We also need to be careful that we don’t destroy the rainforest because we get a bunch of stuff from the rainforest. This is called conservation. Some things we get from the rainforest are the plants to make medicine, we get cocoa to make chocolate, and we also get sugar, spices, rubber, pineapples, and also bamboo. So we get a bunch of things from the rainforest and so we need to save it.”

“Oh” said Fred “so that’s why you are so in to saving the rainforest.”

After walking for another hour they heard the voices again. Then they heard behind them a voice. “Hey, what are you doing here” the voice said.

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After turning around they saw that the voice belonged to a construction worker. “We are here to stop you” Caroline and Lucy said together.

“Yea” said Mark “we have learned so much about the rainforest. We need you to save it. We get so many things from here that if you destroy the rainforest we will lose so much that we have.”

“Your right” said the worker “I learned a lot before I came here but what was I suppose to do. Stop the workers and say ignore the boss. No way.”

3 weeks later, Mark was at a debate. “We need to save the rainforest because we get so much from the rainforest. I helped save the rainforest. I was in the rainforest. I will NOT let you do nothing. We can do something. We WILL do something.

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Cited Sources http://www.srl.caltech.edu/ http://www.seaworld.org/ http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/ http://www.honoluluzoo.org http://www.mongabay.com http://saveamericasforest.org/ http://www.bsi.org/ http://libray.thinkquest.org/ http://christinanswers.net/ http://www.dictionary.referance.com/ http://www.unique-southamerica-travel-experience.com/ http://www.woodland-juniro.kent.sch.uk/ http://www.brazadv.com/ http://www.eduweb.com/ http://library.thinkquest.org/ http://www1.broward.edu/ http://www.wausau.k12.wi.us/ http://www.arte-amazonia.at/

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Special Thanks to all my friends including Allyson Quesnberry, Abbey Price, and Jessica Drake.

Also special thanks to my teachers that helped me throughout the project Mrs. Webb and Mr. Contafio.