Climate Physical Geography Rainforests

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Rainforests School Workshops

School Trips and Workshops for physical and environmental geography

Rainforests are ancient ecosystems, virtually undisturbed for millions of years. They are the lungs of the planet, and home to countless species of plants, animals, insects and birds. If you are looking to give your children a rainforest school workshop, there are lots of great options. We have provided some ideas below as well as lots of themed workshops and day trips.

When you hear the word 'rainforest' you immediately think of the Amazon basin and its huge tropical rainforest, sadly being felled at an alarming rate for its precious timber and to clear space for agriculture. But there are also large rainforests in Africa and Australia. And not all rainforests are tropical - smaller temperate rainforests exist in New Zealand and the United States, and even incredibly rare rainforest environments in parts of the UK.

Part of what makes rainforests so valuable and also so precarious, is the ratio between their land area and the amount of biodiversity they contain. Removing even a small part of their mass results in an awful loss of plant and wildlife. At present, tropical rainforests and temperate rainforests cover just 3% of the world's land area.

Help your class learn where to find the world's tropical rainforests, about the wildlife that lives in the tree canopy, the pressures from logging, agriculture and development, the various management strategies and ways in which the rainforests are protected. And find out exactly how much rain falls in a rainforest.

Study the Rainforests with your class in a number of different ways:

• Meet creatures who live in the rainforest
• Learn about the forest ecosystem
• Discuss rainforest deforestation
• Find out the role rainforests play in global warming
• Hear how people live and work in the rainforests
• Think about how a rainforest environment differs from our own

The rainforests of South America are teeming with thousands of different species of wildlife, from tropical frogs and exotic birds, to a huge number of plants. Many of these plants and animals form part of an ecosystem, relying on each other for their prosperity. The concept of an ecosystem and equilibrium are key to many of our rainforest workshops.

Children can discover more about how the rainforests play an important role in climate change and global temperatures, as the trees take carbon dioxide from the air through photosynthesis.

These rainforest school trips and workshops can also discuss how these rainforest environments are also vital stores of resources and minerals upon which countries build their economies. Logging, farming and mineral extraction help local communities to develop, but often at the cost of the natural environment. Discussions can be made around the rights of native tribes, landowners and governements.

The experiences we feature can help you look in more detail at the topic of rainforests to help support your classroom work.

You could link a Rainforests workshop to your curriculum topics in Physical, Human and Environmental Geography, Sustainability, Biology and more.