Time to head off to the Amazon again; well, virtually, for now! On board today with Marcella Haddad and Emma Espley were more than 190 Key Stage 2 pupils and their teachers from three schools located in different regions of the UK, namely Meltham Moor Primary School in Meltham, West Yorkshire (https://www.melthammoor.org/), The Breakspear School in Ickenham, near Uxbridge, Greater London (https://www.breakspear.hillingdon.sch.uk/) and Toner Avenue Primary School in Hebburn, Tyne and Wear (https://toneravenue.uk/).
Following Adriana Meirelles’ one year sabbatical to go and live in Brazil and be closer to her extended family, we decided it was time to revise and update our offering. Our virtual events are now condensed into two and a half hour sessions and are more regular and cost-effective for schools. There are also workshops tailored specifically towards primary and secondary-aged pupils.
After a formal welcome and introductions, as well as sharing the aims of the workshop and proposed format for the session, we moved on to our ‘starter’. I launched Digimap for Schools and projected a map of the UK (https://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/). We then all identified and briefly introduced our location to enhance pupils’ locational and place knowledge.
Our first task was to challenge any misconceptions that pupils had. We asked them what they thought Brazil was like and where they believed the Amazon was located. Some interesting comments were added to the chat feed! We then played a movie clip, which the children watched intently: https://stepintotheamazon.co.uk/resources/
Next, with help from Marcella and her box of Brazilian artefacts, kindly lent to her by Adriana, we explored aspects of the tropical rainforest biome, e.g. its climate; soils; fauna and flora. After quizzing pupils, some background information was provided about each item and Marcella then added in anecdotes from her first-hand experiences of the Amazon rainforest.
We needed a change of state, so the below activity was instigated.
When challenged by their teachers and ourselves, each pupil was able to justify their position well.
Afterwards, we considered the importance of the Amazon together. We touched upon its biodiversity, the number of resources it contains, its role as a carbon sink and a climate regulator, why it is also known as a ‘pharmaceutical wonderland’ and as a home to many indigenous communities.
Through a think-pair-share and 5Ws+how activity, we contemplated some of the issues facing the Amazon.
It was wonderful to witness so much interaction and discussion taking place in each classroom.
Since we had all concentrated very hard and given our all, we took a short screen break.
On our return, we embarked upon a layers of inference activity to stimulate further higher-order thinking.
Youngsters embraced this activity enthusiastically and had some profound responses to share when we ‘zoomed in’ on each classroom.
We then played a ten minute movie clip, created using audio and visual footage that both Marcella and Adriana had captured during their time spent with the Kambeba indigenous community within the heart of the Amazon. The children were asked to think about how the Kambebas live in harmony with their natural surroundings and what we can learn from them in order to lead more sustainable lifestyles. Pupils were mesmerised and had plenty of questions to ask Marcella afterwards, which she answered willingly and comprehensively.
Our final activity of the morning encouraged a degree of reflection.
Pupils were able to recall lots from the information drip-fed throughout the morning and listed many actions that they now intended to take in order to reduce their impact on our planet and contribute to its sustainability.
Teachers were asked to complete a short online feedback form with the children so that we could capture some staff and pupil voice; this is important to us at Step into the Amazon as it enables us to perfect our workshop content and delivery.
Some of their ‘concluding comments’ can be found below.
Informative; different; special; fun; active.
Very interesting and very informative.
Interesting, engaging – something we couldn’t necessarily learn otherwise, particularly the first-hand experiences of the Kambeba people!
Brilliant; informative; educational.
Informative; interesting; useful; cultural capital; thought-provoking.
An enjoyable and worthwhile way to spend a Friday morning, it seems!
Our next virtual multi-schools event will take place on Tuesday 12th December, from 9.30 am until 12 noon. Why not join in too?