Year 7 students have been learning about ecosystems in Geography and building tropical rainforests in creative lessons as part of their studies.

Rainforests are Earth’s oldest living ecosystems and home to more than half of the world’s plant and animal species, even though they cover just 6% of the Earth’s surface. Students learned how a relatively small patch of rainforest can contain as many as 1,500 different plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies.

Most are structured in four layers: emergent, canopy, understory, and forest floor, and each layer has unique characteristics based on differing levels of water, sunlight and air circulation. Students used their knowledge of this when creating their own small scale model of a rainforest.