The Rainforest Connection is an e-mail project that allows me to incorporate my research in Panama into what I do here with elementary school teachers. It gives them an opportunity to discuss with me what I do as a scientist, and to have their students interact with me on a personal level because they can write to me directly. I write journal entries at a fifth-grade reading level that describe what I see and do. Several hundred teachers are involved, which means I'm writing to thousands of children in New Jersey from a field station on the island. I hope to incorporate video conferencing when they upgrade the equipment.
Children already have an interest in animals and habitats.
They just need to get outdoors and see what a forest is and understand the complexity of a habitat and the roles of different organisms within an ecosystem. Once they understand that, children usually have great respect for the importance of preserving a habitat. Using textbooks has done a terrible disservice to education in this country because we don't use them well. They can be used as resources but not the primary source of information. We reach out to school districts in Newark, Passaic and Hudson counties to improve mathematics, science and technology education for students in grades K-12.