Workshops Empowering Teachers to Promote Rainforest Conservation
From August 16-22, CONAPAC presented our annual teacher workshops for our Partner Community teachers. These workshops are sponsored by Explorama, the JBQ Foundation, and Tree Foundation. This year’s theme was Descubriendo la Biodiversidad a través de las Plantas, (Discovering Biodiversity Through Plants).
The guest faculty consisted of: Biologist Ricardo Zarete Gómez from IIAP (Instituto de Investigaciones del Amazonas Peruano or Peruvian Amazon Research Institute) and Dr. Pamela Montero from Tree Foundation.
Ricardo taught the basics of forest botany and how to apply it directly in kindergarten and primary classrooms, including age-appropriate scientific techniques.
Pamela’s session used herbivory (evidence of insect herbivores having eaten leaves) to discover biodiversity, which included math skills lessons. (While Pamela could not attend in person, CONAPAC Director Megan McDaniel led the session using a video lesson from Pamela.)
As a side note: Pamela Montero was in fifth grade when the 1999 Jason Project Welcome to the Jungle from the Amazon Basin, was taking place in Explorama’s ExplorNapo Lodge. She was selected as the school liaison to spend time with Jason Project scientists broadcasting their studies live from the middle of the rainforest, quite a feat in 1999. She went on to earn scholarships and her PhD in Conservation and Ecotourism at the University of Florida.
Both sections included theory and in-the-field practice.
As always, the objective was to instill/teach/promote environmental science lessons that could be applied directly and immediately in the classroom. As soon as teachers were back in the clasroom, they were sharing evidence in the CONAPAC teacher WhatsApp chat of the lessons they taught to their students.
“Hoy, en el área de Matemática, los estudiantes de quinto ciclo trabajaron una actividad relacionada con el daño foliar causado por insectos herbívoros. Observaron y midieron las partes dañadas de las hojas, comparándolas con el área total de cada hoja para estimar y calcular el porcentaje de área consumida. Luego, clasificaron el nivel de daño como leve, moderado o severo. Esta actividad permitió relacionar los porcentajes y las mediciones con una situación real de nuestro entorno.”
--Teacher on CONAPAC WhatsApp
These workshops are an integral part of CONAPAC’s Adopt-A-School program and we were excited to include the kindergarten teachers in this year’s workshops, as students are never too young to learn about the rainforest! The workshops provide an opportunity for teachers to learn from experts about the incredible rainforest just outside their classrooms and how to creatively integrate lessons and activities about this ecosystem, for all ages of students, into their education plans. It’s exciting to hear how teachers are already using this information to teach about the rainforest in a variety of subjects, from science to math to language arts and beyond.
At the beginning of each Peruvian school year, a partnership between CONAPAC, the Detroit Zoological Society and Amazon Explorama Lodges delivers much-needed school supplies to more than 2,800 students and teachers in remote rainforest communities. We need volunteers to carry this out.
To support all of these programs, the DZS collects donations from a global donor base of committed and generous individuals who care deeply about the rainforest and the people who live there. The money is transferred to CONAPAC in its entirety, so that every penny can go to the intended purpose. The DZS also coordinates the volunteer participants for the annual school supply deliveries and community engagement trips at the start of school in Peru.
Week #1 School Supply Deliveries
Location: Iquitos + Amazon and Napo River communities
Dates: April 3 - 11, 2027
Cost: $1,950 per person
Deposit: $500 by October 31, 2026
Balance Due: December 31. 2026
During the second Adopt-A-School week, the volunteer team experience is something different from the first week. While the first week is filled with school supply deliveries each day, the volunteers during the second week spend just one day delivering school supplies and then concentrate their time in one community for the rest of the week.
Week #2 Community Engagement
Location: Iquitos + Amazon River communities
Dates: April 10 - 18, 2027
Cost: $1,950 / per person
Deposit: $500 by October 31, 2026
Balance Due: December 31, 2026
Every child deserves the opportunity to learn and succeed. And it's never too late to add a contribution to help us give them the tools they need. (All donations are received by our partners, the Detroit Zoo; 100% of your donation is transferred directly to CONAPAC.)
Want to donate?
We have several long-time donors and partner organizations who work tirelessly for CONAPAC; with you, we can do so much for our communities.
Our work is only possible with the many other donations, big and small, that we receive throughout the year.
