Embedded Files
Learning intention: To understand that rainforests have different characteristics depending on their location
Learning intention: To understand that rainforests have different characteristics depending on their location
Success criteria:
I can compare some features and characteristics of Australia and Indonesia
I can compare some features and characteristics of Illawarra and Borneo rainforests
I can locate tropical and temperate regions and understand that tropical and temperate rainforests have different characteristics
I can describe distinguishing features of trees
I can identify local rainforest vegetation
Lesson content
Lesson content
Types of environments
Inquiry question: How does the environment support the lives of people and other living things?
Earth's Environment
GE2-1 Examines features and charactersistics of places and environments
GE2-2 Describes the ways people, places and environments interact
GE2-3 Examines differing perceptions about the management of places and environments
GE2-4 Acquires and communicates geographical information using geographical tools for inquiry
Lesson description
Lesson description
Lesson two introduces the types of rainforests that exist in the world before comparing Indonesia in relation to Australia. Students use geographical tools within Google Earth to find comparative data between the two places. They learn features and characteristics of rainforests, discovering the differences that exist between the forests of each region.
Outdoor learning component: Identifying and reflecting on rainforest plants in school environment
Estimated time
Estimated time
60 minutes
Supporting materials required
Supporting materials required
Interactive whiteboard
Lead pencil
Access to school grounds (or just beyond if no rainforest vegetation in school grounds and have permission to leave school grounds)
Different environments - Australia and Indonesia
Different environments - Australia and Indonesia
Would a rainforest in Indonesia have the same features characteristics as a rainforest in Australia? That depends where Indonesia is. Let's do some geographic research and find out more?
Australia vs Indonesia - a map fight
Australia vs Indonesia - a map fight
Borneo is an island in Indonesia covering 743 330km2 of land.
Australia is the world's 6th biggest country covering 7 686 850km2 of land. Even though Indonesia is world's biggest group of islands (archipelago), it only covers 1 904 569km2 of land.
Use 'MapFight' to see the comparison in size.
Type 'Australia' into the red 'select area' box. Select Australia from the options. Then type 'Indonesia' into the blue 'select area' box and select Indonesia from the options. Click 'compare'. You will see the maps overlapped and it also tells you how many times bigger Australia is.
Now you know that Australia much bigger than Indonesia, but did you know that the population of Indonesia is 268 million and Australia only has 26 million. That's more than 10 times more people living in a place that is 4 times smaller!
Indonesia - our Australian neighbor
Indonesia - our Australian neighbor
Launch Google Earth
Change the 'Map Style' to 'Exploration'
Click on 'Projects' / 'New Project' / 'Create Project in Google Drive'
Click in 'Untitled Project' and write the title 'Australia vs Indonesia'
Click 'Search' and type in 'Australia'
Click 'Add to Project'
Now do the same steps after searching for Indonesia, then Borneo, Illawarra, Your school, Mt Keira. (make sure you save each to your project)
Add more information to your project by clicking on ‘New Feature’ then ‘Fullscreen slide’, and add a title, background and information here
Click on 'Projects' again and zoom right out until you can see all of Australia as well as Indonesia above. Can you also find:
Bali, Komodo, Sumatra, Papua New Guinea?
Daintree rainforest?
Play through your presentation by clicking ‘Present’
Your teacher might ask you to ‘Share’ your project
Quiz time
Quiz time
Don't worry, it's not hard and you can keep Google Earth open to check your answers!
Where are rainforests found around the world?
Where are rainforests found around the world?
There are two main types of rainforest - tropical and temperate. Tropical rainforests are found in the warm and wet areas around the world. Temperate rainforests are found in the cool and wet areas around the world.
Tropical rainforests
Tropical rainforests
Launch Google Earth/ click on 'Map Styles' / scroll down to 'Layers' and select ' Add Gridlines'.
Search for 'Indonesia'
Find the equator line going through Indonesia. The equator is an imaginary line around the middle of the Earth. Now find the line south of the equator called the ‘Tropic of Capricorn’ and the line above the equator called the ‘Tropic of Cancer’. Places on Earth within this band are in the ‘tropical zone’. This is where you will find well known tropical rainforests.
Scroll around the globe within this zone and find the following places: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Queensland, Brazil, DRC (the Congo), Columbia, Madagascar. Do you see how green the land is in this zone?
Temperate rainforests in the world
Temperate rainforests in the world
Look on the map below to see the areas in the world that have temperate rainforests. Some of these locations include Australia (New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania), New Zealand, North America, Canada, Norway, Japan, Russia and the UK.
Do you notice that these places are no where near the equator?
Some temperate rainforests are found closer to the equator, but only at high altitudes in mountain ranges.
What do temperate rainforests look like?
What do temperate rainforests look like?
Some temperate rainforests have pine trees, but the temperate rainforests of New Zealand and Victoria look different to those in the northern hemisphere. Click on the picture to play a video showing a temperate rainforest of New Zealand.
'Rainforest and Redwoods, New Zealand, North Island' (4.44 min)
What type of rainforest is on the Illawarra escarpment?
What type of rainforest is on the Illawarra escarpment?
The Illawarra is too far south of the equator to be in the tropical zone, but it is coastal and too far north to be in the temperate zone, so what type of rainforest is it? Click on the picture to find out.
Hint: What does the prefix 'sub' mean?
Familiarising ourselves with trees and their features
Familiarising ourselves with trees and their features
Blindfolded hug-a-tree
Blindfolded hug-a-tree
You will pair up with a buddy
Take turns putting on a blind fold. Your partner gently spins you around so you don't know which direction you are facing.
Your buddy takes you by the arm and shoulder and leads you to a tree in the school grounds.
You are allowed to listen, smell and touch the tree you are taken to, but you are not allowed to remove your blind fold.
Your buddy will lead you back to the starting point and gently spin you again.
Guess the location your buddy has taken you to.
Discuss: What helped you work out which tree it was?
Is there rainforest vegetation in your school?
Is there rainforest vegetation in your school?
Conduct a rainforest vegetation hunt in your school or area surrounding your school.
Vocabulary activity
Vocabulary activity
Check the following rainforest vegetation hunt activity and decide if your class would benefit from this pre-loading vocabulary activity.
A set of vocabulary words is placed face down in a pile in the middle of the field. Students are arranged in teams (approx 5 in each team). Students are given a definition of the word and they need to huddle and discuss what the word could be. One person from each team runs to where the vocab cards are scattered and sees if they can find the vocab word matching the definition. There could be 5 copies of each definition card to make sure each group has success in finding the matching word.
Repeat with the other vocab words.
Oldest tree?
Oldest tree?
Which tree do you think could be the oldest one in your school grounds? What changes do you think the tree would have noticed over its lifetime?
Writing from the perspective of a tree
Writing from the perspective of a tree
Find a tree that you connect with in your school grounds.
You will compose a piece of writing from the perspective of this tree.
Spend some time observing the tree.
Before beginning your writing, you will need to consider:
How the tree would interact with animals
How the tree would interact with people
How the tree would interact with other vegetation
At least one big change that has happened over the life of the tree
Building the trees character by describing what the tree likes and dislikes
Reflecting on rainforest vegetation
Reflecting on rainforest vegetation
Did you find more or less rainforest vegetation in your local area than you expected?
What questions do you have about rainforest vegetation? You may choose to start a 'Question carpark' (a place within the classroom to leave your questions on post-it notes). This can be re-visited in spare time and students can be encouraged to research and respond to others' questions, as well as giving the teacher an idea about students' misconceptions and what they would like to learn more about for future lessons.
Reflective journal prompt
Reflective journal prompt
Which tree from your school grounds did you most appreciate? Draw a labelled picture which shows what you liked about it. Try to use some vocabulary that we used in this lesson.
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