Rainforest / Museum Visit

Our class went to visit the museum as part of our study on rain forests.  Here is what we learned.

Pheromones
Everybody got a container which had a little cotton ball of smelly stuff inside and we and had to go around and hunt for the smell that was the same as the one we had.  We weren't allowed to talk (because butterflies don't talk) and we had to be like a butterfly and sniff the pheromones.  This is how butterflies find each other.







Drinking Nectar
Everyone struggled to be like a butterfly in the rain forest and use their compound eyes and proboscus to suck the sour, but delicious, nectar (juice) out of the flower.  We all got there in the end.

Samara & Andrew









Rainfall
The Sahara is where it rains most in the world, then it is Asia, then Dunedin.

Damian & Briarna









Temperature
The temperature in the rain forest can be anything from 25 - 40 degrees C.  When people enter the rain forest they immediately get a sticky feeling and that is because of the humidity.  The rain forest heat is to help the plants grow faster.

Aaron & Natasha

Epiphytes
Bromeliads are epiphytes.  Epiphytes don't need soil to grow.  They perch on high branches of trees so they can reach lots of sunlight.  Epiphytes get their food and water directly from the air.

Alex & Vaughan















Palm Leaves
Palm leaves are big so they can catch as much sunlight as they can.  Only 2% of the sunlight reaches the forest floor which is where the palm leaves grow so they need to be big to catch what they can.  Most of the plants on the forest floor have big leaves.

Elle & Liam





Butterflies
The butterflies at the museum ate mashed up banana and fruit.  A male monarch butterfly has bigger spots than the female.  The life cycle is eggs - caterpillar - chrysalis, butterfly.  The only time a butterfly grows is when it is a caterpillar. They can tell each other apart by pheromones.  







Bromeliads 
The bromeliad can be found on tree barks. Rain fills the centre of the bromeliad and many animals, like frogs and tadpoles, live in this wee pool of water.

Storm & Zay













Humidity
Humidity makes stuff go foggy.
It is very hot.
You can't see it.
It makes you sweaty.
It works like this - water vapor rises into the air (this is evaporation)  As it rises it cools down and this will make the fog on your bathroom mirror.

Ryan & Sam





Spiders
When spiders get big they shed their skin - exo-sketeton.  There are lots of spiders in the rain forest and one of them is the tarantula.

Ethan & Alex











Animals
There are lots of animals that live on the forest floor and in the trees.  Quail is a bird that would normally live on the floor of the forest.  The museum has a gecko which lives in the trees.  There are lots of types of lizard in the understory and they use camouflage to stop being seen.

Jason & Chilay