KS2 Prepare a wall display about the Amazon with a map of Brazil showing the Amazon basin with the British Isles drawn on it at the same scale. Give pupils different aspects to illustrate, eg the river, forest, rubber tapping, hydroelectric power. The excellent materials about Brazil and the Amazon on the Global Eye website www.globaleye.org.uk could be used in a variety of creative ways: set a sequence of questions for an online investigation; put together a class assembly on “What’s happening to the Amazon?”; or let the pupils browse and choose their five most interesting facts about the Amazon.

KS3 Draw a timeline of economic development in the Amazon. Ask pupils to predict, with reasons, what might happen in the next 30 years.

Investigate the different views held about how the Amazon should be developed by evaluating different websites, eg compare the Rainforest Action Network at www.ran.org with Amazonlink.org, a Brazilian non-governmental organisation www.amazonlink.orgamazonengl.htm Select an issue and ask the pupils to say what they think and why.

KS4 Plan a 10-day tour of the Amazon that would give you first-hand information to make up your mind about how the region should be developed.

www.world66.comsouthamericabrazilmanaus will get you started. Justify your itinerary.

Do the GCSE Rainforest web enquiry “Should the Brazilian government and people have the right to exploit the Rainforest as a resource?” at www.sln.org.ukgeographyenquirywe26.htm.

What can be learnt about the impact of economic development on the Amazon from satellite images? Start at www.junglephotos.comamazonamspaceamsatlinksamsatlinks.shtml and present your answer as annotated sketches.