Offered to schools free of charge, Forest Explorers focuses on the temperate forests of the Pacific Northwest and the tropical rain forests of Costa Rica. Through comparisons of these two types of bioclimatic zones, Forest Explorers introduces students to important environmental concepts such as habitat, food chains and interdependence of species. In 1998 more than 8,500 of the County's 20,000 second-grade students participated in Forest Explorers. The program begins in the classroom, where teachers use a curriculum packet developed by the zoo's education staff. The curriculum is designed to help teachers satisfy Washington State Essential Academic Learning Requirements and the Washington state environmental education mandate, and can be used in many subject areas other than science.
Classes then visit the zoo.
First, the students attend an interactive assembly in the auditorium of the zoo's Seattle Rotary Education Center, where staff and children learn about the various layers of each forest through role-playing. The students dress in costumes representing the forest floor, logs, and shrubs, and use animal puppets, making the concepts clear and the learning fun. Staff then leads a tour of the zoo's Tropical Rain Forest and Temperate Forest exhibits. Back at school, the youngsters are given follow-up activities from the zoo curriculum packet to reinforce what they learned at the zoo. In addition, each child is provided with a booklet of family activities for use at home or on an outing to the zoo.