In partnership with educators across the US, the Morpho Institute is actively developing curriculum resources that use the Amazon rainforest to engage K-12 students in making local to global connections.
NEW! Resources for teaching about the Amazon and Climate
Sustainability and Conservation Activity Guides
Middle and High School
These resource guides offer ideas and resources for weaving scientific and cultural aspects of the Amazon rainforest into science, geography, and social studies courses.
Examining Landscape Change
Students explore land use and land cover change at hotspots around the world, view satellite images to investigate deforestation in the Amazon, and use Google Earth to explore change over time in their home communities.
Treasuring the Amazon
Students become familiar with the value of the Amazon in supporting a vast diversity of species and an array of indigenous groups who have lived sustainably in the rainforest for thousands of years.
Investigating Ecosystem Services
Students explore the influence of the Amazon rainforest on global weather patterns, water cycling, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity and consider the impacts of deforestation.
Aiming for Sustainability, in the Amazon and at Home
Students explore the “Triple Bottom Line” as a way of thinking about sustainability – balancing the need to protect the natural environment while ensuring economic vitality and healthy communities.
Calculating Ecological Footprints
Students experience the tragedy of the commons, then calculate their ecological and/or carbon footprints and consider ways in which they might be able to modify their lifestyles in order to have a smaller impact on the planet.
Exploring Food Choices
Students compare their day-to-day diets with those of people living in a relatively self-sufficient community in the Amazon rainforest. They consider ways to reduce the environmental footprint of American food choices.
Interrupted Case Studies on Community-based Conservation
High School
Using these interrupted case studies, students will learn about the Maijuna indigenous people’s use of forest products, as an approach to community-based conservation in Peru. Students will take the perspective of a visitor to a Maijuna village to learn about their conservation success story and uncover how to be an agent of change in their home community. As the story unfolds, students are asked to answer questions, reflect on conservation in their local community, and finally participate in a citizen science project.
Maijuna Stingless Beekeeping
Maijuna Palm Fruit Harvesting
Maijuna Wildlife Management
Partner Collaborations
DataClassroom
Middle and High School
Use camera trap data in the Peruvian Amazon to examine mammal diversity in an Indigenous conservation area
Science Museum of Minnesota
Upper Elementary and Middle School
Selected activities from the Science Museum of Minnesota's Tropical Rainforest: An Activity Guide for Teachers.
Wildlife Rescue: Design a raft to rescue animals off an island in the Amazon River.
Rain Shelter: Design a model rain shelter to keep the Amazon conservation team dry!
Amazon Rainforest Conservation Virtual Venture: Help solve conservation challenges and help all types of rainforest animals.
Curated from the Web
An ever growing set of resources and classroom connections curated from the web to help you find rainforest related topics to build awareness, teach key content, and educate for a sustainable future.