What do you think should be done to

save them?

Erik and Derrick, wildlife conservationists

Farmers clear areas of rain forest so they can grow

palm oil trees.

Some people think they will be extinct

in ten years. It’s because they are cutting down and burning the rain

forest trees.

Orangutans used to live

all over Asia, but now they are just found

mostly in Sumatra

and Borneo.

We share 96.4% of our genetic makeup with orangutans.

In the

wild,

they

may live

to be 45.

Durian

Only 7 000 of these live in Sumatra.

That is a decrease of more than 80% in just over 100 years!

Today, there are around 55 000.

In 1900, there were over 315 000 wild orangutans.

Adult females:

Up to 1 m tall,

weigh about

45 kg.

They will have three or four babies.

Females have one baby about

every eight years.

Young orangutans stay with their mother until they are seven or eight.Adult males:Up to 1.5 m

tall, weigh up to 120 kg.

Pregnancy lasts for eight-and-a-half months.

Females have their first baby at about 14-15 years old.

90% of an orangutan’s diet is fruit but they also eat

nectar, honey, bark, leaves, insects and fungi.

From this.....to this...

…to this…

Destroying rain forests not only

kills orangutans, it also helps to cause

global warming and climate change!

It’s in the News!Teacher’s guideThere is much concern amongst conservationists, campaigners and the general public about the future of orangutans. They were once found all over Asia but now they are just found in Sumatra and Borneo. The numbers in these two countries are dropping mainly due to the clearance of large areas of rain forest for palm oil plantations. Before using these slides you might find it helpful to look at these websites for some background information:Mongabay NewsMetro.co.ukABC NewsThis has some video clips which are worth showing to the children.… continued on the next slide

… continued These slides give opportunities for work on a variety of mathematical concepts including measurement and number. They also provide cross curricular links to geography, art and science. If you made use of most of the ideas you could have a week’s theme on rainforests and teach all of your mathematics, literacy and other areas of the curriculum through this.

1st spread: Please save us!!● Ask the children whether they have ever seen an orangutan and where e.g. zoo, safari

park, in the wild. Display the information as a simple Carroll (using the criteria seen orangutan/not seen an orangutan) or Venn diagram.

● Tell the children that there are an estimated 50 000 to 60 000 living in the wild, and that 90% of them live in Indonesia and the remaining ones in Malaysia. Use this to practise work on percentages. Ask them to find 90% of different numbers between 50 and 60 thousand. They can then estimate how many are in Indonesia and how many are in Malaysia.

● Ask the children to visualise that number. Where else might they find that number of things? You could give each child a set of digit cards and ask them to make up various numbers up to 60 000 and discuss the place values of the digits. This would be a good opportunity to rehearse zero as a place holder.

● Tell them that there has recently been a find of a new population of orang-utans in a remote, mountainous corner of Indonesia. Conservationists have so far found 219 orangutan nests. They believe there could be up to 2 000 more of these animals. What difference does this make to the estimated numbers and the percentages from above?

● The area of the jungle where they were found is 700 square miles. Can they convert this to kilometres?

● You could look at maps of the Europe and, using the scale, draw areas of the same size. Which countries and cities are in their area? How much of the UK fits into this area?

● You could use this as an opportunity to rehearse scaling down to a size that could be drawn on A4 paper and then to make drawings or model jungles of different shapes with this area.

…continued on the next slide

1st spread: Please save us!! continued…● Look at the map which highlights where the orangutans can be found and compare it

with the map showing the countries. Can the children identify the countries in these areas where they can be found?

● If possible show a map of the world so that the children can place this area in its larger context.

● Spend some time using the scale to work out distances from place to place and make conversions from kilometres to miles and vice versa using conversions such as 0.6 miles = 1km and 1.6km = 1 mile.

● Can they use the scale to find out approximately how long and wide the different islands on the map are and perhaps work out an estimate of their areas.

● Make a collection of cuddly orangutans and use these to practice counting, number pairs to 10 and 20, one more/less etc. Use the orangutans to support number rhymes such as ‘Five little monkeys walked along the shore,’ and ‘Three little monkeys were jumping on the bed.’ Change the word monkey to orangutan if you prefer - most rhymes are adaptable enough for this to work.

● Set up a corner of the room or outdoor area as a jungle/rainforest. Count the cuddly orangutans and hide in the area for the children to find. Ask the children how they will know when they have found them all.

● Alternatively, the children could draw or paint some to use for the same purpose. Or you could print out some pictures from the internet. You could use these to count arms, legs, eyes in pairs and do some problem solving e.g. 12 legs how many orang-utans, 6 orangutans how many eyes?

● Talk about rain forests and locate them on a map of the world. Can they identify a common position for them?

…continued on the next slide

1st spread: Please save us!! continued…● Ask the children to look up information about rainfall and temperature in them. You

could then work on finding the average rainfall and temperature for rainforests. Then compare these with those in the UK.

● You could discuss why there is so much rain. Maybe this could lead into some work on the water cycle.

● Discuss why orangutans are decreasing in numbers, do the comments of the conservationists help? Discuss the dilemma of the people who live in these countries – palm oil brings valuable income into what would otherwise be very poor countries. What do they consider more important, income or saving the rain forests and the orangutans? Why? Slide 3 goes into more detail on this. Use this slide to gather initial reactions first.

● These countries are the world’s top producers of palm oil used in food and cosmetics. You could ask the children to investigate this and find out how much money they make through their sales to other countries. They could find out which countries buy palm oil from them and how much it retails at.

● Ask the children to check food and cosmetic labels at home for palm oil. Record on a Carroll diagram. Which types of foods contain palm oil? Which do not? Ask the same questions of cosmetics.

● You could look at the way it is transported and do some work on distances and the time it takes to get to its various destinations.

● Can they think of what could be done to help stop the decrease in orangutan numbers?

2nd spread: Orang-utan fact file● The children could make up a menu for an orangutan with the things they like to eat. If

they give numbers for different items they could then ensure that 90% is fruit. They could then work on ratio to find out how much of everything would be needed for 2, 3, 4 etc. orangutans. You could start with 45 durians (horribly smelly fruit that they love) as 90% of their diet, how many pieces of bark to make 100%? Vary the numbers of items according to the attainment of the children.

● Give them paper plates and ask them to draw a meal that an orangutan would like. The older children could make this as a pie chart. You could ask the to find out the food value of each item and record that in percentages. They could look at modern food packaging and make a table or pie chart in a similar fashion.

● You could find the cost of feeding an orangutan in captivity. Work out prices for a day, week, year. Find out how many orangutans are in residence at your nearest zoo. How much does it cost to feed them for a day, week, year. Ask the zoo for information about other costs associated with keeping them. Can the children work out how much it would cost to keep an orangutan for a year?

● The children could research costs of fruit by visiting a local supermarket, greengrocer or through the internet. Supermarkets always welcome school visits these days. You could do a comparison of prices in several high street supermarkets.

● Compare the estimated numbers of orangutans today with the numbers in 1900. How many less are there? If there were 200 000 in 1950 what approximate percentage decrease would that be from 1900 and then today? If the decrease in population were to continue at the same rate, how long before orangutans are extinct? Do the children agree with Erik and Derrick’s prediction?

● Several hundred orangutans have been found recently in Sumatra. Make up an estimate e.g. 450 and ask the children to tell you how many that would make the total now. You could say 500 and ask them to try to work out the percentage increase.

…continued on the next slide

2nd spread: Orang-utan fact file continued…● You could do some calendar work on the pregnancy of the females. Give them a date

for conception and then ask them to work out when the orang-utan will have her baby.

● If a female has her first baby at 14, how old will she be after her second, third, fourth? Give different starting ages. Ask the children to write these down and then to look at the numbers. Can they describe what is happening to them and why?

● If they live to be 45, pick various years in which they could have been born and ask the children when they were likely to die. You could reverse this and give a year for a death and the children work out when they were born. This could be good practice for counting along a number line.

● Look at the heights of the adults. How much taller is the male? Can they express this and both their heights in millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres?

● Ask them to convert these to feet and inches.

● Ask the children to scale these heights down and then draw them in proportion to one another on paper, so they can compare.

● Ask the children to measure each other, are they closest to the female or male in height?

● Next look at the weights, can they say what these are in grams? How much heavier is the male? Using mental calculation strategies, approximately what percentage or fraction of the male’s weight is the female?

● If you wanted to do some calculator work, you could ask the children to work these out accurately.

…continued on the next slide

2nd spread: Orang-utan fact file continued…● Ask them to estimate different items in the classroom and see if they think any will be

the same weight as the orangutans. Choose some of these items and as a class agree on an estimate and then weigh them. Ask the children to work out how many of each will be equivalent to 120kg and 45kg.

● An orangutan’s reach from finger tip to finger tip can be up to 8 feet. What is this in metres and centimetres? Ask the children to measure their reach – how does it compare?

● They could measure strips of paper to this length. How many orangutans could fit finger tip to finger tip around the classroom?

● The children could measure paper strips of their reaches and then find out how many more children it would take to fit finger tip to finger tip around the classroom?

● Their arms are twice as long as their legs. Ask the children to draw a scaled measured picture to show this.

● Ask the children to compare their arms and legs – which are longest, shortest or are they the same? In an adult they are usually the same length. You could use this as an opportunity to work on body ratios which will involve lots of measuring. See Up2d8 maths in issue 12 of the Primary magazine for more ideas and information.

● Can they work out how tall they would be if they were proportioned like an orangutan? Ask them to measure their arms, work out the length their legs would be, and then work out their new height. They could draw a scaled down picture of what they would look like!

…continued on the next slide

2nd spread: Orang-utan fact file continued…● Alternatively, they could make a life-sized paper model of themselves as an orangutan,

adding a photograph of their face to the transformation. Working in pairs, they could start by lying down and drawing around their current shape before extending their legs. What else needs to be changed?

● Discuss genetic make-up. You could ask the children to do some research on this. Which of our genetic make-up do we share with orangutans? You could expect answers such as large brains, forward-facing eyes and gripping hands. How many more similarities can they find?

● Orangutan spend ages hanging from branches using their arms and legs. You could have a competition, the children working in pairs to see who can hang from a suitable piece of gym apparatus in the hall. Give them stop watches to do this. They can then collate the classes information in a frequency table.

3rd spread: Fire, Fire!!● Ask the children to tell you what is happening in the sequence of pictures: rain forest,

burning the rain forest down, plantation of palm olive trees.

● Discuss why this is causing problems to the environment: healthy forests absorb and store vast quantities of carbon, helping to regulate temperature and generate rain. When they are destroyed carbon is released into the atmosphere. Rain forests also help prevent erosion, protect underground water supplies and are home to thousands of species in the animal world. So they need protecting. You could go into more detail and think about the effect this has on global warming and other aspects of climate change.

● Give the children an opportunity to research this in more depth and to share their findings with the class. Encourage them to make tables if appropriate to show relevant facts. You could ask them to work with a partner or in a small group and write articles for a newspaper page which they could then make. This could involve carefully measuring text boxes to given sizes for their work.

● Look at the picture of the lady with the baby orangutan. Tell them that there are several rehabilitation centres for orphaned orangutans, which are successfully rearing these babies, teaching them to feed, climb and hang and swing in trees. They could research some for example:Sepilok Orang-utan CentreSumatran Orang-utan Society

● People can visit Sepilok and work there for several months helping to raise these orphaned infants. The children could research this and plan and cost out a trip to do so.

● They could also plan a trip to Borneo, working out the cost of travel and accommodation, money they would need to take for tours, food and souvenirs. They could also plan an itinerary or timetable which includes a visit to an orangutan centre. As well as money, this is a good way to reinforce time.

…continued on the next slide

3rd spread: Fire, Fire!! continued…● You could look into charities that support the work of saving the orangutan. How much

do they raise a year? How is this money spent? How much would a person need to save a week or a month to give, for example, £240 a year to one of these charities?

● This YouTube clip is a good one to show the plight of the orang-utan and how they are being helped. There are some other great clips on YouTube worth watching, if you are able to access this at school.

● Have they any further thoughts on what should be done to save the rain forest and orangutans – refer back to the initial thoughts gathered from slide one, are they different now or are they the same?

● You could ask the children to design a fund raising project to raise money for the cause.