STEM READY

 What would you say to a deeper look at the dependencies between land and water, between lizards, frogs, insects, and fish, amphibians and crustaceans? Now, let’s throw in environmental factors such as natural and synthetic habitat, temperature, humidity, hours of lighting and tide…that’s right, tide? What would you say to the adventure of documenting these dependencies up close as they impact the life cycle of 15 to 20 species struggling to thrive in an engineered echo system? If this sounds like the kind of project that would capture your imagination, grab the attention of your students, then River Bottom is the system you are looking for.   River Bottom at its simplest is an attempt to emulate the basic characteristics of the most ecologically diverse place on the planet, the Amazon rain forest. Our deep water vivarium was design with the theory that if you synthesize natural habitats, and control the environment, then life will find a way. To date the River Bottom concept has produced some spectacular results.   As previously stated the concept for River Bottom came from the four layers of the rain forest, Emergent, Canopy, Understory and Forest Floor. To foster multiple species in a single deep water vivarium it seemed to be the model to emulate   River Bottom is a teaching platform for the sciences. It is a practical, hands-on teaching aid in the areas of:    

• Biology - The study of living organisms 
• Zoology - The scientific study of the behavior, structure, physiology, classification, and distribution of animals 
• Ecology – The relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings. 
• Ethology - The science of animal behavior. 
• Botany - The scientific study of plants 
• Climatology as it impacts living organisms. (This can be loosely translated to weather) 
• Hydrology – Specifically the study of water quality   

This platform can also be used as a multimedia technology teaching aid, providing young students the opportunity to learn valuable computer and communications skills. Our parent company H-Evan Games is creating an online, sharable archive of narrated video and documented experiments from students around the United States. We highly recommend a project where students film, edit and produce a documentary similar to the River Bottom promotional DVD. This can be shared in a school assembly and will be a great source of pride for the entire production team. Modeling your documentary after popular shows like Meerkat Manor or March of the Penguins will introduce young students to the production process where credits will forever document their individual contribution to a greater whole .