Rainforest JP
Junior Primary Teachers Guide
Education @ Adelaide Botanic Garden is made possible by a partnership between The Department for Education and Child Development and the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide.
Acknowlegements
Content: Steve Meredith and Michael Yeo
Illustrations: Gilbert Dashorst
Contents
- Bookings
- Subscribe
- Purpose and Australian Curriculum Connections
- How to use this guide
- Before and after the visit
- When in the garden (Guidelines for school groups)
- Trail Map
- Plant information, key points and discussion ideas
Bookings
Bookings are essential
Whether teachers are planning a self managed visit or a session planned with the education manager, for reasons of risk management, emergency alert and OHS, bookings are essential for all school visits.
Phone: 82229311
Fax: 82229399
Online: www.botanic.sa.edu.au
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To discuss possibilities or book the Education manager for a session
Phone: 82229344 or Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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© 2013 The State of South Australia, Department for Education and Child Development and the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide. This publication is protected by copyright. It may be reproduced by South Australian teachers for use with their students.
Purpose and Australian Curriculum Connections
Target year levels: R - 2
Key ideas:
- The structure of a rainforest and the key adaptations of plants within it.
- The importance of rainforests and their sustainability.
Students will investigate a range of plants in
Students are encouraged to observe, analyse, inquire, record, hypothesize and connect knowledge they already have with new learnings.
TfEL: Provide an authentic context in which to engage learners and build their understanding whilst using a range of learning modes.
Australian Curriculum Connections
General capabilities
- Literacy
- Critical and creative thinking
- Ethical behaviour
Cross-curriculum priorities
- Sustainability
Foundation
Geography: Where people live and their location on a map.
Science: Living things and their basic needs.
Year 1
Geography: Features of places and how they can be managed and cared for.
History: The sequence of time.
Science: Living things have a variety of external features.
Visual Arts: Shape colour, patterns and design.
Year 2
Geography: How are people connected to places.
Science: Earth resources are used in a variety of ways. Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves.
Visual Arts: Shape colour, patterns and design
How to use this guide
This guide is designed to provide background information for teachers on each plant included in the walk. Some suggested student responses are included but they are by no means exhaustive. Many of the questions invite an open ended response and are of a sensory nature.
Finding the plants:
The plants on this trail may be found by referring to the appropriate map and by looking for the plant nameplate. The plants may be visited in any order. Allow about 1 hour to complete the trail.
Small tags on the nameplate will also assist in locating plants listed in the Bicentennial Conservatory. However, do not follow the large blue signs in the building.
Time:
Allow about 1 hour for this session.
Before and after the visit
The plants on the trail are numbered and may be found by referring to the map of the Adelaide Botanic Garden and by looking for plant name labels.
- The student guide should be photocopied so that each student has a copy of student activity materials and the map.
- Prior learning – it would be useful if students have a basic understanding of some of the terms used in the trail.
- This excursion is outdoors; students may require sun protection. In the colder weather raincoats or umbrellas are good. There are lots of protected spaces in the garden.
Before the visit:
Discussions:
The structure of a rainforest.
Vocab introduction:
|
JP |
Primary |
Secondary |
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Emergents |
Emergents |
Emergents |
|
Canopy |
Canopy |
Canopy |
|
Understory |
Understory |
|
|
Parasite |
||
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Epyphite |
||
|
Greenhouse effect |
||
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Convergent evolution |
After the visit:
Encourage students to bring their family back again at a different time of the year.
When in the Garden
(Guidelines for school groups)In the garden students must be supervised at all times.
Before starting your walk please remind your group that:
- Gardens are peaceful places for people to relax and enjoy
- Walking slowly and talking quietly ensures everybody and everything will enjoy the gardens
- Plants are fragile, touch them gently
- Flowers, leaves, bark, seeds etc. growing on plants or lying on the ground are there for all to enjoy. When you have finished with plant material found on the ground always return it to the garden
- Keeping to paths and not walking on beds or borders avoids damage to plants.
The garden is a special place. Please leave it as you find it.
Map
Plant information, key points and discussion ideas
Please note: The first three plants are outside the Bicentennial Conservatory. Plants
1. Strangler Fig - (Ficus thonningii)
Although not growing as a strangler here, this plant is capable of such growth in natural rainforest. The twisted pattern of the trunk and aerial roots gives an idea of its ability to encircle and kill a host tree.
Stranglers often start their life high in the upper canopy from seed dropped by fruit eating birds, possums or bats. Up high, the seedling grows quickly because of the more readily available sunlight.
Strangler figs can kill the host tree by squeezing its trunk, cutting out the sunlight and competing for nutrients from the soil. Young healthy host trees may outgrow the strangler.
The visible roots growing directly off the trunk indicates rainforest air is very moist.
Key Ideas: Plants in rainforests may have unusual features. Plants and animals can help each other.
2. Kauri Pine - Agathis robusta Rainforest
The tall, straight trunk of the Kauri Pine is suited to catching light above the rainforest canopy.
This rainforest giant from
Key Ideas: Rainforest grows in layers. Plants have designs that help them grow in those layers.
3. Weevil Lily - Molineria capitulata Rainforest
Unlike many flowering plants that have their flowers displayed above the leaves, this plant has yellow flowers on the stem near the ground. At some times of the year only the brown, dead flower clusters may be visible. Insects that live on the ground probably pollinate this plant. A weevil is one known pollinator.
Key Ideas: Plants have many different designs, usually for a specific purpose.
4. Hidden Log
When old trees fall down in rainforest they are quickly covered by many other smaller plants including mosses and ferns. Amongst the plants growing over the fallen log in this spot is an orchid with swollen stems. Plants like this one that live upon on other plants, dead or alive, are called epiphytes. The swollen stems at the base of the orchid help the plant to store water that is not easily obtained when living off the ground. Look for other tiny plants growing over the log.
Key Ideas: Plants have features that help them live in many different places.
5. Fish Killer Tree (Barringtonia calyptrata)
People that live in rainforests have many different uses for plants. Poisons from the bark and fruit of this tree can be used to stun and catch fish. Look for the unusual flowers and fruits hanging from long string-like stems.
Key Ideas: Rainforests are home to millions of people around the world. The forest provides for all their needs.
6. Fishtail Palm (Caryota)
Palms are a common feature of rainforests. The fishtail shape of the leaves gives this palm its common name. It is capable of reaching 27m, the same height as the tallest part of the conservatory.
Key Ideas: There are many fascinating shape and designs in the natural world if students take the time to look.
7. Pandanus
Pandanus often lives in wet spots near the edge of ponds and swamps in rainforests. The plant is lifted above floods by a network of ‘stilt’ roots that also help them to ‘breath’ in waterlogged mud. The long, strap-like leaves of pandanus have been used to make rope, mats, baskets and even sails for boats.
Key Ideas: Some plants have unusual features to help them cope in wet, swampy soils or near the sea.
8. Drip Dry Leaves
Rainforests are constantly warm and wet. Plants have different features to keep dry and prevent fungi from growing and killing the leaf.
Find leaves in this area that with the following features deigned to quickly get rid of water:
¨ a waterproof waxy coating
¨ leaves on an angle
¨ drip tips at the bottom of the leaf.
These structures are best seen on new complete leaves.
Key Ideas: Too much water in rainforest can lead to attack by fungi, mosses and other small plants.
9. Climber (Epipremnum pinnatum)
Climbers are able to quickly grow and reach the sunlight at the top of the rainforest. This climber is using hundreds of tiny roots to hold on to the trunk of the palm tree.
Other climbers nearby use twisting stems, leaves with spines, or tendrils to pull their way to the top of the rainforest.
Large woody climbers are called lianas and may run for over 100m in length through the rainforest.
Key Ideas: Plants need light to grow. Some plants have special features to help them reach the light.
10. Wild Banana - Musa banksii
This banana plant grows wild in Australian rainforests. Wild bananas are not generally eaten because they have little flesh and are full of seeds.
Farm grown bananas have no seeds and are full of tasty fruit.
Key Ideas: Many foods originally come from wild rainforest plants.
11. Moreton Bay Fig, Ficus macrophylla
This massive tree is native to the forests of NSW and Queensland. The fruits of native figs are all edible but vary in quality and size. They taste best when ripe and soft. These figs were pounded, mixed with flour and honey, then baked to make fig cakes. Here in Adelaide the fruit drops almost continually filling the air with a distinctive fermenting aroma.
12. Leaf Feel – (Amomum queenslandicum)
Encourage students to feel different leaves near this spot. Find Amomum queenslandicum at the end of the walkway and feel the underside of the leaves, they are soft and velvety. They feel this way because of fine invisible hairs. Apart from feeling nice, the hairs may protect the plant from leaf-eating insects or from losing too much water.
Key Ideas: Plants need to protect themselves from both climate and animals.