Key Stage 3 programme - Plants and people of the rainforest activity tour and optional workshop

In these sessions, secondary school students learn about the human and physical geography of the tropical rainforest whilst exploring Kew's historic Palm House. Choose between the 45 minute activity tour and the 90 minute activity tour and workshop.

The interior of Kew's historic Palm House.

Overview

Students learn about topics such as ethnobotany, deforestation, fair trade and sustainable farming as they explore Kew's indoor rainforest, located in the Palm House.

Length: Activity tour - 45 minutes | Activity tour and workshop - 90 minutes.
Group size: 15 students.
Minimum supervision required: 1 adult per 10 students.
Programme cost: Activity tour - £25 per group of 15 students | Activity tour and workshop - £50 per group of 15 students.
Administration fee: £80.

Learning outcomes

School visits at Kew Gardens support and enhance the curriculum offered in schools. We aim to give students opportunities that are difficult or impossible to create in the school environment.

As teachers ourselves, we design our sessions to match the learning outcomes in the National Curriculum. At the moment, the new government has withdrawn the changes planned for 2010/11 and will be producing new curriculum guidelines. Once they have done that, we will re-visit the learning outcomes for our sessions.

The learning outcomes shown apply to the curriculum as it is at this time. This session offers students the opportunity to learn to:

explain why the rainforest climate is hot and humid based on Earth’s position in space and convection.
identify a number of products sourced from the rainforest.
discern between sustainable and unsustainable harvesting of rainforest products.
recognise that plants in the rainforest provide food, shelter and other materials for indigenous people and wildlife, and that destruction of habitat can produce unpredictable knock-on environmental effects.
recognise that plants in the rainforest depend on indigenous wildlife for pollination and seed dispersal, and will realise that organisms can’t be considered (in conservation/preservation) in isolation; the entire habitat must be maintained.
recognise that the rainforest ecosystem is fragile, and deforestation is happening at an alarming rate.
articulate several reasons for rainforest conservation.
understand the spirit behind the Fair Trade label and recognise the ethical decisions in their shopping choices.