We managed to squeeze in another week-long initiative before all the Christmas festivities well and truly kick in. This time, we were joined by more than 120 Year 5 and Year 6 pupils and their teachers from two schools, namely St. Wulstan’s Catholic Primary School in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire (https://stwulstans.sch.life/) and The Olive School in Blackburn, Lancashire (https://www.oliveblackburn.com/).
After formally welcoming everybody and introducing both Marcella and myself, as well as sharing the aims of the workshop and proposed format for the sessions, we moved on to our ‘starter’. I launched Digimap for Schools and projected a map of the UK to pinpoint our locations and explore our connections with these places (https://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/). Never miss an opportunity 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 an animation, which the children watched intently: https://stepintotheamazon.co.uk/resources/
Next, the children attempted a true or false quiz based upon a series of images and statements about the tropical rainforest biome, e.g. its climate; soils; fauna and flora. When revealing the answers, further detail was provided about this fascinating biome and Marcella also added 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, pupils were able to justify their positions 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.
Break called. On our return, we contemplated some of the issues facing the Amazon through a think-pair-share and 5Ws+how activity. It was wonderful to witness so much interaction and discussion taking place in each classroom.
Next, we attempted a jigsaw puzzle and questioning activity in pairs or small groups to stimulate further higher-order thinking. Youngsters embraced this activity enthusiastically and had some profound responses to share when we zoomed into their classrooms. Well done to the Year 6 pupil from St. Wulstan’s Catholic Primary School who completed the puzzle first.
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 offered many thoughtful responses to my questions.
We also mentioned about Taissa (one of the Kambeba youngsters)’s experiences at COP28 in Dubai, where she was invited to speak. She has just returned from COP29 held in Baku, Azerbaijan and we are looking forward to hearing all about it in more detail shortly (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCiMH64vjvS/?igsh=OGUzbW5jd2RzcjM0).
Two optional extension tasks were set for teachers to complete with their pupils over the next couple of days should they wish.
In fact, all classes engaged whole-heartedly with both activities and the results shared with us throughout the week were very moving. On the Friday afternoon, we questioned the youngsters from the Kambeba indigenous community, who had joined us in ‘real time’ despite the whole community being extremely busy with preparations for a forthcoming festival. Marcella and the Year 6 teacher from St. Wulstan’s Catholic Primary School proficiently translated the Kambebas’ responses to the questions that UK pupils had posed to them. Individuals, both in the UK and Brazil, were also encouraged to share images of objects or places special to them and explain why this was the case. Whilst there were many differences due to their contrasting locations, there were, however, several similarities; this task emphasises what really matters to us all. Having pupils in the UK connecting with children of a similar age from the heart of the Amazon was truly heart-warming and rather magical too.
Credit: Francisco Uruma Kambeba.
As well as their teacher, several children at St. Wulstan’s Catholic Primary School have Portuguese heritage, so they also wrote the following message to Taissa:
Ola Taissa,
Tudo bem? Nos somos alunos numa escola no Reino Unido e gostamos muito de aprender sobre o Amazonas. Gostavamos que a Taissa visse a nossa escola para conhecer todos os alunos. Existem 120 alunos na nossa escola.
Obriagad e muitas felicidades.
Alunos da escola de Sao Wulstan
Translated into English:
Hi Taissa,
All good? We are students at a school in the UK and we really enjoyed learning about the Amazon. We would like Taissa to visit our school to meet all the students. There are 120 students in our school.
Thank you and best wishes.
Students at St. Wulstan's Catholic Primary School
Our final activity of the afternoon encouraged a degree of reflection.
Pupils were able to recall lots from the information drip-fed throughout the week and listed many actions that they now intended to take in order to reduce their impact on our planet and contribute to its sustainability. The link between local actions and global impact was also reinforced.
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:
Thank you once again for an amazing workshop, the children thoroughly enjoyed the content and have learnt so much!
We need to leave, but thank you so much for this amazing opportunity!
This workshop was a wonderful opportunity to help the children consolidate their knowledge of the rainforest. We are coming towards the end of our topic and we will miss it.
Our next virtual multi-schools event will take place late January. See the below flyer for further details or contact Emma Espley directly to reserve a specific date (emma.espley@gmail.com).
