School Projects and Educational Tools, too
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday
Miniature diorama of a Coral Reef
These
mini-dioramas were projects of students and became part of the former
St Paul School Museum. SPUQC. This lesson is dedicated to the students
who made them, and to many visitors who appreciated the value of these
masterpieces.
Hands-on, these dioramas took shape,
Bruised and cut and stained,
Sweat and tears, imagery and faith,
That Nature's image is made.
On-site, these scenes now in glass cases,
Are faithful to science and art;
They reveal the earth's beautiful faces,
But with the spark of life apart.~
The
idea of miniaturized dioramas depicting ecological scenes was pioneered
by students taking up ecology subject at St. Paul University QC. Their
works - two dozen mini-dioramas depicting major ecosystems - were
displayed for 15 years at the school museum, then the centerpiece of
natural history.
A
diorama is a “view window” reproduced from an actual or imagined event
or scene made by artists who have a background of painting, architecture
and sculpture combined, and of course, history. In this particular
case, the diorama artists must have a working knowledge of ecology and
biology.
One
who may have visited any of the following museums has a better
understanding as to what a diorama is in terms of structure, content and
medium: National Museum in Manila, Ayala Museum at Greenbelt in Makati,
and National Food Authority Grain Industry Museum in Cabanatuan. But
the dioramas in these museums are large and spacious. It gives him the
feeling that he is right on spot where the event is taking place or
where the scene is located. This is enhanced with the right ambiance of
lighting, musical background, narration or dialogue and the like.
The
mini-dioramas at the former SPUQ museum are much simpler and smaller.
They are works of amateurs but nonetheless exude the quality works of
artists cum ecologists. Here are seven mini-dioramas depicting the
Tropical Rainforest, the Ocean, Pacific Lagoon, Coral Reef, Alpine
Biome, Savannah and the Desert,
1. Tropical Rainforest
The
earth once wore a broad green belt on her midriff – the rainforest –
that covered much of her above and below the equator. Today this cover
has been reduced - and is still shrinking at a fast rate. The nakedness
of the earth can be felt everywhere. One place where we can witness this
is right here in the Philippines where only 10 percent of our original
forest remains. Even the great Amazon Basin is threatened. As man moves
into new areas, puts up dwellings, plants crops, becomes affluent,
increases in number, the more the tropical rainforest shrinks. Our
thinking that the forest as a source of natural resources is finite is
wrong. Like any ecosystem, a forest once destroyed cannot be replaced.
It can not regenerate because by then the soil has eroded, and the
climate around has changed. It is everyone’s duty to protect the
tropical rainforest, the bastion of thousands of species of organisms.
In fact it is the richest of all the biomes on earth.
2. The Ocean
Scientists
today believe that eighty percent of the world’s species of organisms
are found in the sea. One can imagine the vastness of the oceans –
nearly 4 kilometers deep on the average and 12 km at its deepest - the
Marianas Trench and the Philippine Deep - and covering 78 percent of the
surface of the earth. Artists and scientists re-create scenarios of
Jules Verne’s, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” such as this
diorama, imagining man’s futuristic exploration in the deep led by
Captain Nemo, the idealistic but ruthless scientist. Such scenarios are
no longer fantasy today – they are scenes captured by the camera and
other modern tools of research. And the subject is not one of
exploration alone, but conservation, for the sea, limitless as it may
seem, is facing the same threats of pollution and other abuses man on
land, in water, and air. The sea is man’s last frontier. Let us give it a
chance.
3. Pacific Lagoon
The
vastness of the Pacific Ocean is disturbed now and then by the presence
of islands – big and small, singly or in groups - that appear like
emerald and pearl strewn on the dark blue water, presenting a most
beautiful scenery that attracts people to experience true communion with
nature. Originally these islands were the tips of volcanoes, at first
fierce and unsettled, but later became tame to the elements that
fashioned them through time into lagoons, and other land forms of varied
geographic features. As seen in this diorama, this island typical of
Boracay is rich in vegetation, coconut trees grow far into the water and
on the white sand that cover the shores. The coral reef teems with many
kinds of marine life, from rare shellfish to aquarium fishes. In fact
the whole island is a sanctuary of wildlife. It is a natural gene bank, a
natural museum of biological diversity.
Second
to the Tropical Rainforest in richness in species diversity is the
coral reef, often dubbed as a forest under the sea. Corals are simple
animals of the Phylum Coelenterata, now Ctenophora, that live in
symbiosis with algae. Algae being photosynthetic produce food and oxygen
that corals need, and in return receive free board and lodging, and
carbon dioxide. Within this zone grow many kinds of seaweeds, some
reaching lengths of several feet long as in the case of kelp (Laminaria), and Sargassum,
the most common tropical seaweed. As a sanctuary it cradles the early
life stages of marine life until they have grown to be able to survive
the dangers and rigors of the open sea. Coral reefs are formed layer
upon layer through long years of deposition of calcareous skeletons of
Coelenterates which is then cemented with sand, silt, clay and gravel to
form into rock. Limestone is a huge deposit resulting from this process
Scientists believe that without coral reefs islands would disappear and
continents shrink. Above all we would not have the fishes and other
marine organisms we know today.
5. Alpine Biome
Isolated
from the lower slopes and adjoining valley, this ecological area has
earned a distinction of having plants and animals different from those
in the surrounding area. Because of the unique climate characterized by
an intense but short summer and extreme cold the rest of the year, the
organisms in this biome have acquired through evolution certain
characteristics that made them fit to live in such an environment.
Alpine vegetation is dramatic owing to its ephemeral nature. Here annual
plants bloom with a precise calendar, attracting hordes of butterflies
and other organisms. The trees are gnarled as they stand against the
howling wind, mosses and liverworts carpet the ground, streams are
always alive, and migrating animals have their fill before the cold sets
in. We do not have this biome in the Philippines, but atop Mt. Apo in
Davao and Mt. Pulog in Benguet, the country’s highest mountains, lies a
unique ecosystem – a combination of grassland and alpine. This could be
yet another biome heretofore unrecorded in the textbook.
Home
of game animals in Africa, the Savannah has the highest number of
herbivores of all biomes. It had always been the “grand prix” of hunters
until three decades ago when strict laws were passed prohibiting
poaching and destruction of natural habitats. The diorama depicts the
shrub-grass landscape, a stream runs into a waterhole where, during
summer, attracts animals from the lowly turtle to the ferocious lion
which stakes on preys like zebra and gazelle. Beyond lies Mt. Kimanjaro,
Hemingway’s favorite locale of his novel of the same title (Snows of
Kilimanjaro). It is said that the beginning of the Nile River, the
longest river in the world, starts with the melting of snow atop
Kilimanjaro, right at the heart of the Savannah.
7. The Desert
Scenes
of the Sahara flash in our mind the moment the word “desert” is brought
about to both young and old, in fantasy or reality. Here lies a
wasteland, so vast that it dwarfs the imagination. Deserts are found at
the very core of continents like Australia and North America, or extend
to high altitude (Atacama Desert) or way up north (Siberian Desert)
where temperature plunges below zero Celsius. In the desert rain seldom
comes and when it does, the desert suddenly blooms into multi-faceted
patterns and colors of short-growing plants. Sooner the desert is
peacefully dry and eerie once again, except the persistent cacti and
their boarders (birds, insects and reptiles), shrubs and bushes that
break the monotony of sand and sand dunes. But somewhere the “desert is
hiding a well,” so sang the lost pilot and the Little Prince in Antoine
de St. Exupery’s novelette, “The Little Prince.” I am referring to the
oasis, waterhole in the desert. It is here where travelers mark their
route, animals congregate, nations put claims on political borders.
Ecologically this is the nerve center of life, spiritually the bastion
of hope, a new beginning, and source of eternal joy particularly to
those who have seen and suffered in the desert. The desert is not a
desert after all.~
Other biomes:
Tundra -
type of biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and
short growing seasons. It is the coldest of all the biomes.
Taiga - The Russian word for forest and is the largest biome in the world. It stretches over Eurasia and North America
Temperate Deciduous Forest -
dominated by temperate broad-leaf trees that lose their leaves each
year. The four seasons are distinct. The trees lose their leaves in
colorful display characteristic in autumn; they lay bare often in snow
in winter, resume growth in spring, and are most luxuriant in summer
which is also the time of flowering and seed formation.
Grassland
- characterized as lands dominated by grasses rather than large shrubs
or trees. The largest grasslands are the prairies of North America, and
pampas in South America
Chaparral - a shrubland or heathland
plant community found primarily in the U.S. state of California and in
the northern portion of the Baja California peninsula.
Lake - Examples: Sea of Gallilee, Aral Sea, Laguna Bay, Victoria
River - Mekong, Danube, Rhine, Nile, Mississippi, Yangzhe River, Brahmaputra,
--------------------------------
Biomes
are defined as the world's major communities, classified according to
the predominant vegetation and characterized by adaptations of organisms
to that particular environment. The importance of biomes cannot be
overestimated. Biomes have changed and moved many times during the
history of life on Earth. More recently, human activities have
drastically altered these communities. Thus, conservation and
preservation of biomes should be a major concern to all.
