Congo African
Rain Forest Explorations
Congo African
Rain Forest Explorations
Teacher
Background
A brief guide to the Conservation Choices experience is
located on page 72, the InZoo component for this unit.
Pre-Visit
Lesson
PROTECT Wild Places Many animals need large
undisturbed areas in which to forage and
reproduce. It is a goal of WCS to help African
countries provide that kind of protection for their
wildlife heritage. In many countries, even the parks
that exist on a map are not really protected. WCS
works with local governments toward creating parks that provide
real protection for their inhabitants, which include not only animals
and plants, but indigenous peoples as well. Creating parks is not a
simple thing. It means identifying the right area, working with local,
regional, and national government agencies and personnel, training
people to guard and maintain park interiors and boundaries, and
conducting ongoing studies within the parks.
It is important to realize that these conservation strategies are
interrelated. In order to create a park, it is necessary to work with
people and do basic research. But strategies all cost money and
conservation organizations, like WCS, must always make choices.
By making a conservation choice in this exhibit, you and your class
become a part of the real, living process of conservation.
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Letters from the Field
Rain forests are inspiring places that provide vital
ecosystem services, but they are disappearing quickly
due to human actions. Conservation, the saving
and protecting of natural resources like
rain forests, is complex. Yet it is very
important for students to begin to
understand the issues involved. WCS
conservation workers divide their tasks into
three main categories: basic research, working with local people,
and creating effective protected areas. A typical field project involves
all three of these strategies, each interacting with the others. In Congo
Gorilla Forest, students will have the opportunity to choose how
they want WCS to spend their conservation admission fees. This
lesson will help students begin to understand these choices and the
real people, projects, and places they involve in central Africa today.
The most innovative aspect of the Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit
is that it invites the visitor to become an active participant in the
conservation process. Through this exhibit, WCS is relying on you to
learn about modern conservation methods and decide how you
want to support African forest conservation. The uniqueness of this
experience should be stressed to your students. There are no other
zoo exhibits in the world like this, where a zoo gives visitors the
opportunity to participate in actual conservation projects. This
packet contains three letters from WCS field scientists. Each discusses
a conservation project, a person involved in it, the animals involved,
and the relevant conservation issues.
NY STA N DARDS: 4, 5, 7
N ATIONAL STA N DARDS:
I, II, III, IV, V
OBJECTIVES
Students will:
◆ be able to identify threats
to their own ecosystem and
rain forests;
◆ understand that
discovering animal needs +
involving local people +
protecting habitats = saving
wildlife.
MATERIALS
◆ Letters from the Field
◆ discussion questions
◆ poster board or chart
paper, markers, crayons
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Congo African
Rain Forest Explorations
Congo African
Rain Forest Explorations
Pre-Visit
Lesson
Pre-Visit
Lesson
Procedure
1. Motivation: The class should be divided into three groups.
Students will receive letters from the field
written by WCS field scientists working on projects in
central Africa. The letters
are in this packet, on the
following pages. Each group
will focus on one of the three
letters. Ideally, the letters will be
mailed to each child at home. If
this is not practical, put one in a
school “post box” for each child or send a letter to a
designated member of each group. Do not tell the students
the letters are coming.
2. After the students receive and read their letters, tell them that
each of the writers has worked on a project in the Congo
River Basin. Students should know they will learn more about
these scientists’ work when they visit the rain forest at the zoo.
At the zoo, each student will be able to vote on the conservation
strategy and program he/she wishes most to support.
3. Write the discussion questions below on the board. Each group
should meet and use the questions as a jumping off point to
discuss their letters and the conservation issues involved.
a. What animal is the scientist who wrote your letter studying?
What kinds of questions is he/she trying to answer?
b. Why are the rain forests threatened near your scientist’s
study site?
c. How are local people involved at that site?
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d. How could money at your site support:
◆ discovering
animal needs?
◆ involving local people?
◆ protecting wild places?
e. Do you think this site would be a wise choice to direct your
money? Why or why not?
4. Once students have had a chance to discuss their letters, each
group should create posters or bumper stickers with slogans
for a “campaign” for its Conservation Choice, which it will
then present to the class as a whole.
5. After these presentations, use the questions below to direct a
class discussion of the three conservation measures.
a. What do the three sites have in common? What are some of
the differences?
b. Which site sounds like it most needs your money? Why?
c. How will you decide? Is it difficult? Why?
6. After student groups have presented their campaigns and
discussed the issues, explain that each student will be able
to make his/her own choice of a project at the exhibit. The
projects will feature the same animals featured in these letters:
gorillas, mandrills, okapis, and others. Each student should
write on a piece of paper what choice he/she expects to make.
After their zoo visit, you may want to ask students to compare
what they actually chose with what they expected to choose.
If they made any changes, why?
N.B. Project choices at the exhibit will change with time. You may
want to explain to students that their choices in the exhibit may not
be exactly the same as the ones they have just studied, but they will
be similar.
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