Watching “Exploring the High Frontier” will help you appreciate the remarkable diversity of species in the rain forest canopy. You will learn how plants and animals have adapted to life in the tall trees. You will know that rain forest plants represent a largely unexplored powerhouse of pharmaceutical plants that could offer cures to many different diseases. And you will understand that this delicate treasury of life and beauty is threatened by the activities of human beings. As you watch wildlife biologists at work, you will learn that the demands of this profession are physical as well as intellectual. A wildlife biologist has to be an athlete as well as a scientist, someone who is equipped for adventure as well as painstaking conservation. Do you think you have what it takes to be a wildlife biologist?

Grades K-4

Flying Frogs, Leaping Lizards
You met many amazing animals as you watched “Exploring the High Frontier.” What was your favorite? The gibbon? The harpy eagle? The flying snake? Using modeling clay or papier-mâché, make a model of your favorite rain forest creature.

Grades 4-8

Field Notes
Neil Rettig first watched a harpy eagle chick in the 1970s. But he didn’t see this magnificent bird make its first flight until many years later. Watch the sequence in which the harpy eaglet takes off into the treetops for the first time. Pretend you are Neil Rettig. Write two field notebook entries about the event. Make the first entry a scientific conservation of the animal’s behavior. Make the second entry one that expresses Neil’s emotions as he watches the flight.

Equipment for Exploration
Imagine that you are Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, the botanist who studies plants high in the rain forest canopy. You are preparing for an expedition to study moss mats, epiphytes, insects, worms, and so on. Make a list of the scientific, climbing, and personal equipment you will need to bring for a successful sojourn in the rain forest.

Grades 9-12

Biodiversity
The rain forest canopy is home to more living creatures than any other place on Earth. Many species have not even been named or described yet. Using the Internet and other research sources, make a list of as many rain forest inhabitants—mammals, reptiles, rodents, birds, plants, and insects—as you can discover in an hour. As a class, list all the animals on the blackboard. Divide them into categories. How many living things have you found?