Our team had a great time answering inquisitive questions about life in the rainforest from second grade students in the United States.
During a Skype chat with Summerville Elementary School, in South Carolina, staff members from our research and education team shared their knowledge and experience from living and working here at the Manu Learning Centre (MLC), in the remote Peruvian Amazon.
Katherine Mataya (our Senior Field Staff member) and Johanna Markiewitz (our Education Field Coordinator) were invited to the schoolroom Skype chat by Johanna’s cousin, Ms Morgan Moore.
The class had just read The Great Kapok Tree, a beautifully illustrated story by Lynne Cherry, about rainforest conservation and how we must look at the Amazon and its wildlife with new eyes. The schoolchildren were learning about how animals survive and grow in their environment.
Katherine and Johanna shared photographs of various animals, including the owl butterflies as an example of mimicry and how the margay’s physical characteristics suit their arboreal lifestyle. While video footage from our camera traps helped students to visualise how primates and other arboreal species move through the canopy.
The students were very inquisitive and thoroughly enjoyed their “real-life” connection to the forest.
A central part of our work here at the MLC is education and we host both local and international students at our reserve. We bring the importance of biodiversity conservation to life through experiential learning with the aim of inspiring the next generation of environmentalists. This is the first time that we’ve Skyped with students, using technology to bring the importance of biodiversity conservation to life in the classroom. We hope there will be many more Skype chats to come…