The study of different biomes is a popular topic everywhere. Rainforests hold a particular fascination for many students, perhaps because of their exotic nature. What you'll find on this webpage is an eZediaMX template for a multimedia project on rainforests, along with some suggested websites to start you on your way locating resources for the students. You won't have to look far as some, like Jim Cornish's site and the Passport to Knowledge site, has just about everything included.

This project introduces three elements that have been included in the other projects at this site: (1) object timers; (2) drop-down menus; and, (3) effects. Apart from the menu, the object timers and the effects have been concentrated on the first frame.

Each of the pictures, except the very first one, that you see on the first frame (Figure 1) is set to come in on a time cue and as it does, it has a special effect that will occur - a cross-fade. To do that, place your pictures on the frame the way you want them. Double-click on the picture and in the dialog box, click on effects and select one that you would like to use. Once you've got that worked out, click on View > Object Timers. eZediaMX has handy slider bars that allow you to control when things happen by simply sliding the individual timelines for each object to the starting positions. You can also double-click on the thumbnails of each object that shows up in the Object Timers dialog box and type in a time if that's your preference.

The effects have also been applied to the text elements you see on the frame. Because of the unusual font I used on the title, I turned it into a graphic by choosing the Text to Graphic option in the drop-down menu and then I selected the effect. By changing my unique text choice to a graphic, I can be sure that you and I will be seeing the same thing - whether you're on a Mac or a PC. When you see the project running, it looks rather cool because the text appears to be pushing itself out from underneath the foliage. The other text elements appear on the frame one after another.

The other feature I've included in this project is the drop-down menu. I really like these. They look cool and are easy to use. If you look at Figure 3, you can see the menu in use. For detailed instructions on how to create the drop-down menu, go to the other page at this site under the eZediaMX "How-to" section.

Sections included in this project template are as follows:

• Title frame
• Introduction
• How rainforests are different from other forests
• The types of rainforests around the world
• Characteristics of locations where rainforests can be found
• The main layers of a rainforest
• Why is important that we have rainforests
• Bibliography
• Quote

You can change the titles for each frame, re-organize them, alter the menu, delete frames, etc. Nothing has been locked down. You'll notice in Figure 2 that I use what I call an "onion skin" effect to provide an area where text will stand out against a patterned background. I've saved all the bits and pieces in the well for this project, but if you want to see how I did it, I've provided detailed instructions here.

The template is empty and ready for you and your students to add your own content and creative flare. Have fun!

Figure 1: The colors are a little muted in this screen capture. This is the opening frame of the rainforest project. The first frame makes significant use of the object timer feature and effects to have each element appear on the frame, one after the other.
Songs to go with rainforest activities. Samples of the songs are online. No music is provided but chords are noted for those who are musically inclined. The songs are suitable for elementary grades.
http://www.efn.org/~dharmika/ggftrop.htm

Eisenhower National Clearinghouse: Rainforest Week - PreK-4
Check this site out for both resources and lessons.
http://www.enc.org/thisweek/calendar/unit/0,1819,117,00.shtm

What is a cloud forest?
The answer to this question can be found at a site discussing a particular type of rainforest in Costa Rica.
http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/reserve-santa-elena-monteverde/what_is_a_cloudforest.htm

Rain forest amphibians
http://kids.osd.wednet.edu/Marshall/homepage/amphibians.html

Passport to Knowledge: Passport to the rainforest
From the combined resources of NASA and the National Science Foundation comes the Passport to Knowledge site. Packed with multimedia resources, pictures, and quality information, you won't want to miss this stop on the Internet. NOTE: This site works best with Internet Explorer. In fact, it can be downright hostile to Netscape 7. If you're in Netscape and nothing seems to happen, then switch to Internet Explorer and load the same site. Click on the educators link and then the state-by-state link to get all of the curriculum standards addressed by the project. Not every resource is available via the website. They'd like you to purchase some of the extras. However, the amount of material available online is more than enough to make this worth your while. You'll even find lessons.
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest/main.html

Take a Walk in the Rainforest
From PBS comes a site with lots of pictures and information focusing on the rainforests of Costa Rica. Take the self-guided tour.
http://www.pbs.org/tal/costa_rica/index.html

A Journey Through a Rainforest
This is a little different in that it is simply the account of one person's visit to a rainforest, complete with pictures. It brings the subject a little closer to the student in that it sounds just like someone they might know who is telling them about their adventure.
http://www.photo.net/cr/rara/

Enchanted Learning's Rainforest site
Lots of pictures and information are available for students and teachers at this site by Enchanted Learning. Teachers will find handouts they can use, too.
http://www.allaboutnature.com/subjects/rainforest/animals/Rfbiomeanimals.shtml


Teaching Ideas and Lessons:
A couple of websites have been repeated from above as I didn't want teachers to miss them.

Jim Cornish
Jim Cornish's Rainforest Project
Jim Cornish does a tremendous job of organizing resources and ideas that involve using the Internet to extend learning for his students. He generously shares this with others. Check it out at:
http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/rainforest_teacher.htm

Eisenhower National Clearinghouse: Rainforest Week - PreK-4
Check this site out for both resources and lessons.
http://www.enc.org/thisweek/calendar/unit/0,1819,117,00.shtm

Katrina Macht
Ms. Macht provides the following extended lessons on the rainforest for the middle school level with these highlights (quoted from her website):

Essential Questions

• How do the plant and animal relationships within a tropical forest affect the forest community?
• How are tropical forests and deciduous forests connected?
• How do human actions impact the plants and animals of tropical forests?
• What does the future hold in store for neotropical migratory birds?

Student Outcomes

The student will:

• Describe the characteristics of the tropical rainforests and identify some of the organisms that live there
• Explain the roles producers, consumers, and decomposers play in a forest community
• Analyze the different relationships that exist between organisms in the tropical forests.
• Explain the impact of human activity on forest ecology.

http://www.csam.montclair.edu/ceterms/rainforest/teachers/unitplan.html

Rain Forest Activities
From abcTeach, this page provides links to a variety of rainforest resources aimed at younger children or those wanting simpler reading tasks. There's everything from songs to writing paper available at this site for teachers.
http://www.abcteach.com/RainforestFacts/RFtableofcontents.htm

Florida Geographic Alliance
Brenda Ward has produced a series of lessons on the rainforest for grades 5 to 7. Objectives are noted for each lesson. I used the discussion questions in the introductory lesson from this site to structure the eZediaMX project.
http://fga.freac.fsu.edu/misc/rain.htm#lesson2

Passport to Knowledge: Passport to the rainforest
From the combined resources of NASA and the National Science Foundation comes the Passport to Knowledge site. Packed with multimedia resources, pictures, and quality information, you won't want to miss this stop on the Internet. NOTE: This site works best with Internet Explorer. In fact, it can be downright hostile to Netscape 7. If you're in Netscape and nothing seems to happen, then switch to Internet Explorer and load the same site. Click on the educators link and then the state-by-state link to get all of the curriculum standards addressed by the project. Not every resource is available via the website. They'd like you to purchase some of the extras. However, the amount of material available online is more than enough to make this worth your while. You'll even find lessons.
http://passporttoknowledge.com/rainforest/main.html

Maureen Mooney has designed a webquest on the rainforest for grade three students. It's available at:
http://www.mmooney49.1hwy.com/rain.html

Project Template and Project Well
Both of these files are bigger than some of the others I've posted. The template is about 6.5 mb zipped and the Object Well is only about 1.4 mb.

Download the eZediaMX project template

Download the eZediaMX project well

Get the free eZedia player here to see the project up and running: http://www.ezedia.ca/products/eZedia_player/
eZedia works equally well for Macs or Windows machines.

Note: The pictures on the first frame come from:
http://www.abcteach.com/RainforestFacts/layerpics.htm


Design variations
Before I headed into work today, I started thinking about showing you a quick design variation on the template. Right now, I have selected fairly dark colors for the background to reflect the impression of the forest floor such as you see in the four pictures on the first frame that represent four layers in the rainforest, getting darker as you move towards the bottom.

Without changing much, you can give an entirely different impression. The dark green frame color you see on the first frame has been applied to all frames. If we change that to white by going to Frames > Setup > Color, we get quite a different effect even though the background image is the very same. It was so different that I found I had to change the color of the buttons and the "onion skin" paper on the Introduction frame. Take a look at Figure 4.

Figure 4: Same introduction frame with the background color beneath the picture changed to white and the onion skin paper and buttons changed to match the new color scheme. Compare this to Figure 2.



Here's one of the other frames. The only change has been the background color. Compare this one to Figure 3:

Figure 5: The only change has been the background color.