Abstract:

The Rainforest Connection (RFC) provides real-time science video-meetings between students and scientists. The project goal is to use videoconference technology to bring rainforest research from Panama directly to students within their classrooms, making these ecosystems more real to students. For seven years, the RFC has been webcast from tropical forests in Panama, Belize, and Australia to students in any classrooms in the world where webcams and sufficient bandwidth are available. During the sessions, students and teachers learn about ecosystems, see examples of organisms in video and photos, interact with scientists conducting research in tropical forests, study the process of scientific research, pose questions directly to researchers, and become aware of efforts to preserve forest habitats. Recorded video lessons enhance the live interactions and the content of the programs, and can be viewed online or downloaded.
The RFC is a collaboration of several institutions of education, research, and business. Ecologist Dr. Jacalyn Willis initiated the RFC (http://rainforest.montclair.edu) to bring interactive science lessons from tropical locations to school partners of the center for science education (PRISM) at Montclair State University in New Jersey, USA (http://prism.montclair.edu). Staff scientists and educators worked with the Verizon Access-New Jersey video portal (http://accessnewjersey.net), and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (www.stri.org) in Panama to make it happen. Current participants include classes all across the USA, in countries as distant as New Zealand, and as low-tech as a small community school in a forested area of Belize in Central America.