Rain Forest Species Presentation

Unit 2 – Rain Forest Relationships

Activity 3 – Rain Forest Species Presentation

Materials & Setup

In Advance Preparing for Class Presentations

• Using the species cards they created in Activity #2, have students prepare for a two- to three-minute in-class presentation using the Student Page “Presentation Preparation” (p. 44). Each student should also write down two questions they think other students should be able to answer after listening to the presentation, as well as the answers to those questions.

• Use colored markers to draw a rain forest scene on two long strips of newsprint taped together—long enough to cover the longest section of open wall that you have available in your classroom. Your scene doesn’t need to be artistic, but it does need to show the distinct sections of the rain forest structure: canopy, subcanopy, understory, and ground cover or forest floor. See “Hawaiian Rain Forest: General Structure and Composition” (p. 43) for an explanatory diagram. Students will place species cards on this representation to show where species fit in the rain forest.

• Prepare for Activity #4: “Rain Forest Trivia” if you wish to use it as an assessment tool after the presentations.

Class Periods One and Two

• Newsprint rain forest representation (see “In Advance,” above)
• Masking tape for posting the newsprint
• Scotch tape for posting species cards on the newsprint rain forest representation

For each student
• Student Page “Presentation Preparation” (p. 44)

Instructions

1) Have students do two- to three-minute species presentations. Monitor their times, and give them signals when they have 30 seconds left. Make it clear that these presentations must not exceed three minutes. Sometimes we only have a limited amount of time to convey information, so we need to learn to speak clearly and succinctly.

Do the presentations in the following order:

a) Plants: Canopy and subcanopy first, then other plants
b) Invertebrates
c) Birds

2) Prior to each presentation, the student should give you his or her two questions. Monitor the presentations to make sure students cover the answers to these questions during their presentations.

3) At the end of each presentation, have the student tape his or her species card to the large rain forest drawing in the part of the rain forest where it is most likely to be found.

Journal Ideas

• Was it easy or difficult to keep your presentation to two or three minutes? Describe another situation in which it was important for you to keep your communication brief and to-the-point.

Assessment Tools

• In-class presentations
• Leave about ten minutes at the end of each class period to give a quiz using the questions about the day’s presentations. Have students write down their responses and hand in their quizzes. Use the student question and answer sheets to grade the quizzes.

Media Resources

None.