Amazon Expedition

Follow Dan, a young biologist, as he goes on a once-in-a-lifetime expedition into the depths of the Amazon rainforest to spot a wild jaguar. Pay close attention to the dangers he encounters, the modes of transportation he uses, the shelters he builds, and the food he eats. It will come in handy as you plan your own expedition!

Before you plan your expedition, you need to choose where to go! Use this interactive map from Google Earth to explore the Amazon rainforest virtually. Where will you start? What will you discover on your journey?

Now that you have the destination, you'll have to choose what to bring! Watch this video to get clues and look through the Expedition Kit Photo Cards to decide what's most important. Remember, there's not much room in a canoe and you're going to be doing a lot of hiking through jungle terrain on foot.

Read about how a 28-person team of scientists discovered an undisturbed rainforest hidden in a Mozambique volcano! What helped them find this rainforest? What new species did they discover when they arrived?

We don't need to go into space to find uncharted territory. All around the world, there are still hidden places to be found and new species to be discovered.

Follow the instructions in this video from the Natural History Museum to create your own expedition journal. You'll need some cardboard (an empty cereal box works well), paper, scissors, a straight stick, a hole-puncher, and a rubber band.

Pretend you are four days into your expedition, already surrounded by dense forest with no one but your team and the animals around you.

Create an expedition journal so you can report back to scientists when you get home. Write a few sentences about what happened each day along your way. Scientists often draw the creatures and plants they come across, so consider including some illustrations, too. Think about:

- What mode of transportation did you use to get into the jungle?

- Where have you been sleeping?

- What have you been eating?

- What animals have you seen so far?

- What are you hoping to find at the end of your adventure?

If you don't want to write in a journal, try making your own expedition video recording what you've done, or draw a comic book of your journey.

If you're on an expedition, you'll need to practice your animal spotting and plant identification skills!

Take a walk outside or look out different windows in your home to get different views of the nature.

On a piece of paper, mark down how many different plants and trees you see. If you have time, you can even draw them out to show family or friends later.

Can you identify the different layers? Remember, the rainforest layers include the emergent, the canopy, the understory, and the forest floor. You may not have a rainforest out your window, but some of the same kinds of layers might be visible in the landscape around you.

Try and get a closer look and check for insects, rodents, and birds! Where would they be living? Have they left any tracks behind? What adaptation skills have they developed to survive where humans live?