Challenges for Elementary School Students (CHESS)

Future BESTS - July 28-Aug 1

Tropical Rain Forest (Grades 2-3) - 9 am-12 pm

Put on your explorer’s helmet and bring your bug net! Tropical rain forests are one of the…

Earth's most important ecosystems, even if you live in Iowa. Find out what makes a tropical rain forest, and where they are. Are there any non-tropical rain forests? We’ll create a forest in our classroom as we learn about the important groups of living things that make up the ecosystem. How do tropical rain forests affect you here in Iowa? Does anything you do here make a difference for rain forests? Find the answers to these questions, and many more you will discover as the forest and its inhabitants “grow up” around you.

Instructors

Margaret Sadeghpour-Kramer has been teaching for 35 + years, from elementary through teacher education classes. She currently teaches elementary and middle school classes for the Belin-Blank Center's WINGS program and GWAEA's College for Kids program. She is a life-long learner, with a BS in Science Ed, a Masters in Science and Writing, a Masters in Science Ed from U of I, a PhD in Science Ed from U of I, and has been both student and teacher in numerous environmental science and teacher education programs. She brings field experience in tropical rain forests in Central and South American and Australian rain forests to this hands-on class about how forests, tropical and Iowa, are important to us all, with a focus on solutions rather than problems.