Your
'field trip' to the rain forest provides an opportunity to take out
the map
or globe - to see if you can locate Limoncocha. It can be found at
0° 25'S, 76° 58'W, just North of the Napo River. What North
American towns or cities are directly north of
Limoncocha? What river does the Napo empty into? What ocean
does that river empty
into? Roughly how far does the water travel before it reaches this
ocean? Where do
the first waters of this river begin flowing?
Math/Geography Lesson: With the globe, compasses and
an "imaginative visualization" technique (compass
hinges at the center of the earth and pointers on the equator), a geography
lesson (latitude
and longitude) can be the perfect starting point from which to explore
and reinforce
various mathematical concepts: angles and arcs in a circle, parallel lines/
planes, and measurement
to name a few. Tip: open the compass from 0 degrees to the North
or South
of the equator to form varying angles and arcs; rotate the compass at these
angles to
form circles of varying circumferences in parallel planes (lines of latitude).
Extend arcs
north and south from the equator to the poles, then swing them back up or
down to the
equator in the opposite hemisphere to form circles of equal circumference
(lines of
longitude).
If you wish to draw these lines, use round balloons
and markers, or you can buy papier mache
spheres in most craft stores (or you can make some by applying papier mache
over round
balloons). Discuss with students the divisions of the degree
system of measurement,
and why latitude/longitude, angles and circles all use the same measurement
system. Ask students how latitude and longitude would differ if the
poles were
East and West instead of North and South. Discover what geometric
object is produced
by the rotation of a compass set at 90 - and identify the most important
of these "objects"
on the globe. Use math to determine the number of latitude/longitude
lines of angles
divisible by various factors... With math the possibilities are always endless...
Social Studies Discussion: Limoncocha, the Ecuadorian
rain forest village visited in Children of the
Amazon and home of the Amazon River Elementary
School is a Quichua
village. The Quichua (called Quechua in Peru) are just one of the
many Native American
groups who inhabit the Amazon, along with the many colonistas (colonizers).
Yet, some Native
American groups in the rain forest would also refer to the Quichua as
colonizers. The
Quichua language, after all, is the lingual remnant of the Incan empire
and thus its origins
are clearly Andean. Some historians claim that bands of Inca-influenced
Quichua speakers escaped down the Andes and into the forest when the
conquistadors
swept through the highlands way back in the 16th century. They founded
a large
city, Tena, then followed rivers, settling deeper and deeper into the rain
forest interior.
(The Quichua people in Limoncocha originated in Tena.)
However, many Quichua-speaking Native Americans who
now live in the rain forest claim
that they have always lived there, as their current lifestyle, oral tradition
and mythology
would indicate. So why would they speak the language of the Incas?
Well, once
the Spanish penetrated the forest, large numbers of Native Americans (including
entire language-groups)
died due to contact with foreign diseases for which they had no immunity,
while others where virtually enslaved on rubber plantations. Furthermore,
to encourage the use of a common
Native American language (since there were many), Catholic missionaries
actually taught
Quichua to Native American rain forest groups. -
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