Forest in the Clouds


Middle schoolers may have their heads in the clouds, but that's OK—if the clouds are part of the Canopy in the Clouds/Dosel en Las Nubes web-based curriculum, created by UC Berkeley graduate student Greg Goldsmith. 

Greg GoldsmithThe website helps learners experience what it's like to move through Costa Rica’s Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, where Goldsmith does his doctoral research on plants. Gorgeously green, photographic panoramas can be explored in 360 degrees as well as up and down, and are sprinkled with clickable links that open videos or text about the plants and animals inhabiting this rare forest ecosystem from canopy to floor.

Goldsmith worked with middle-school teachers to create 26 lesson plans. One teacher who tried out the curriculum found many students used free class time to explore the panoramas and videos again and again, and were eager to ask Goldsmith questions via the website. “Afterwards, they were saying things like, ‘I want to be a scientist.’ They thought scientists are cool."

At Howtosmile.org, the Build a Treetop Walkway activity gets learners planning the way rainforest researchers do, considering materials, transportation, and cost of getting up to the treetops without damaging the fragile canopy environment.

Photo © Drew Fulton