The Tropical Rainforest

Our Year 8 students have been learning about the vast and endangered tropical rainforest this term during their Geography lessons. The students have been captivated in learning about the effects of deforestation, climate change and the many endangered species which the rainforest is home to.

Nour B. 8D

In our geography lessons this term we have been learning about a topic called ‘Between the Tropics’. This topic includes general learning about the tropical rainforest as well as learning about the Savanna desert, endangered species e.g. the rhinoceros and also studying a variety of case studies of the forest.

My form, 8D, have particularly enjoyed this unit as it has been very engaging and interesting because it considers what will happen to many species and how climate change affects the environment of the tropical rainforest. We were involved in plotting climate graphs and also doing a detailed case study on Malaysia.

We began the topic by doing what we normally do at the start - mind mapping what knowledge we already have that links to the tropical rainforest. I myself only knew basic details, such as how the rainforest was being cut down, known as ‘deforestation’ and realised the alarming rate this was happening at!

We studied the various layers of the tropical rainforest, which species live there and the climate, which then led on to an exciting project were we were assigned to make a model, labeling the layers of the tropical rainforest. We first started looking at climate graphs and started to draw these; I particularly enjoyed the lesson as it was interesting to look at data recordings of what the weather and climate is like in tropical regions. Then we studied deforestation and its positive and negative impacts; I really enjoyed this part of the topic too as I got to really understand what was happening around us in the world. Mrs Haacke, my geography teacher, gave us very useful tricks to help us remember the causes and effects.

Everyone has learnt ever so much and has many fun memories to share from this popular subject. We now realise that some species are endangered, such as the White Rhino but it raised awareness for my entire year group on how serious our planet’s situation is getting and how we must all do what we can to help.