The Rainforest Connection 2008 brings Panama's tropical forests into classrooms in February. Brought to students across the USA by Verizon's Access New Jersey video portal - http://www.accessnewjersey.net/. See schedule of participants and webstreamed live video as it happens, as well as archives from the past three years.

Topics for this season's video-chats:

The Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is both history and current news! In operation for nearly a hundred years, it is now expanding to handle massive ships and more traffic, while conserving water for city use. The canal connects now only oceans but also bring continents closer. Come visit Panama and its fabulous canal to learn of technology in a rainforest paradise!

Tribal Peoples of Panama
Share the  lives of Panama's indigenous tribal Americans! Kuna are self-sufficient people who live on many of the gorgeous Caribbean Island. These artistic people produce colorful, intricate textiles that represent their lifestyles. The Embera, rainforest tribes, exist on the mainland and live today just as they have for the past gew hundred years. Both cultures have a complete and fascinating knowledge of how to subsist within the environments using both flora and fauna to produce medicines, food and transportation.

The World of Ants
Rainforests are magical places. Each forest is a unique system in which the diversity of life is laid out before the visitor, waiting for us to seek understanding of the mysteries. There are hundreds of thousands of species of insects in rainforests. These include moths, butterflies, beetles, ants and mosquitoes to name a few. The world of ants is fascinating, with much to learn from these small creatures: where and how they live, what they do for a living, how they are organized and much more. Join us from a rainforest in Panama to learn what ants can teach us.

Food Webs in Action
A tree is not "just" a tree, bu also a home to many animals and other plants. The "almendro" or Dipteryx tree is one of hundreds of species of trees in a rainforest. Dipteryx is ones of the tallest trees in a forest, remarkable for its beauty and incredible for how it serves many animals. Dipteryx trees produce flowers and fruits that freed many different creatures. These trees and their associates provide an example of the complex interconnections among animals and plants. Explore food webs at the source.

Predators Stalk Within a Food Web
Predators get such a bad reputation for eating each other. And yet, when we study them we learn so much about ecosystems. Adaptations, anatomy and function, social organization, food webs, senses and intelligence can all be studied through the intriguing lives of predators.

Staff: Gregory Willis, Anna Mazzaro, Harry Lagerman, Guillermo Sanchez

From Panama by web-cam through Marratech software or Polycom videoconference. By appointment only, through Jacalyn Willis, PhD. squirrelmsu@yahoo.com

Note: All sessions are booked for this season in February but new programs will be announced soon. Al live sessions may be viewed by computer via the internet at Verizon's Access NJ: http://www.accessnewjersey.net/

from The Sparta Independent:

Rainforest Connection to Sparta Middle School

Sparta-Middle School students from Theresa McMahon’s STEP class and Marilyn Steneken’s seventh grade science class participated in the video conference, “Rainforest Connection Live.”

The conference, broadcast from a tropical rainforest in Panama, was sponsored by Montclair State University (PRISM - Professional Resources in Science and Mathematics).

Dr. Jackie Willis, PRISM’s director, with assistance from Patrick Higgins, Sparta’s educational technology coordinator, helped the teachers coordinate this interactive connection. Students were able to converse live with biologist, Guillermo Sanchez, a rainforest ant expert. Mr. Sanchez spoke with students and answered their questions about the leafcutter and bullet ant that reside in the Panama rainforest.

According to McMahon, “Rainforest Connection Live gave students a purpose for learning and inquiring about the natural world. Connecting with scientists in the field makes learning about science meaningful and engaging. It is a fascinating way to teach science in the classroom!” (Article)