Curriculum Plan: What will we learn on our Rainforest Adventure?

Tropical Rainforests are a treasure chest. They support the greatest diversity of living things on planet Earth and fascinating relationships between plants, animals and people. 

To launch this learning adventure, behavioural ecologist Seirian Sumner invites pupils to form a new ‘science communication team’ known as the Rain-Shakers.

Their challenge starts with an exploration of this amazing eco-system as pupils consider how they themselves are connected to the rainforest through the products they use in their every-day lives. They will then go on to find out about what threatens the Amazon rainforest and what people and organisations are doing about it.

Finally, pupils will celebrate their learning by creating a ‘Great Work’. This will provide an opportunity for children to share with their community the knowledge and ideas they have developed together for positive actions to conserve the rainforests.

Objectives and curriculum links

This plan enables students to:

• Develop geographical knowledge about the location and climate of the tropical rainforests
• Understand the principle of diversity and how living things are connected together within the tropical rainforest eco-system
• Focusing on South America, develop an understanding of the negative impacts of human activity on the rainforests, and the positive ways in which people are working to conserve them
• Develop a sense of agency and that working together we can all contribute to a more sustainable future. 

We've designed the lesson to help teachers cover the following subject areas:

This medium-term plan has been developed in partnership with Richard Dunne, founder and director of The Harmony Project.

Richard is a former state school headteacher of an Ofsted-graded ‘Outstanding School’. He has created a new way of learning inspired by nature’s principles of Harmony, principles that teach us how the world works according to natural laws and principles that enable it to be sustainable, resilient and well.  These principles include interdependence, cycles, diversity, adaptation and health.  

This approach to learning is framed around big questions, with subject skills and knowledge applied, and secured in a coherent, joined-up way that makes sense to children.

It's celebrated at the end of each half-term through what are called Great Works and opportunities for children to present or perform their learning outcomes in creative ways. It's an engaging and empowering approach, and we plan to work further with Richard to develop more enquiry-based medium planning documents and supporting resources in the coming months.