For the past three weeks, the minds of fifth-graders in Annetta Evans’ classroom at Haines Elementary School have been somewhere else.

And that can’t all be attributed to spring fever or daydreams of summer vacation.

The students’ minds also have been deeply enveloped in the study of the world’s rainforests and the endangered animals that live in them.

The project incorporated science, math, social studies, reading, writing, art and technology, Evans says.

“The kids took over and I got out of the way, which is good,” she said. “It was a production.”

To begin, the students created a large tree and vines to represent the vegetation of the rainforest. That part of the project was completed by spring break.

“We made a bit of a mess, but it was fun,” 11-year-old Kaci Anderson said of the tree work. “It turned out really cool.”

Students next created a slide program using the Adobe Spark Video application. Through photos and their own voice recordings, they presented facts about rainforests and the animals whose lives are endangered because of loss of habitat, poaching and other factors.

Fifth-graders Jordan Smith, 11, and Thomas Smithson, 10, built the website that features the introductory slide show and the videos students created to share information about the animals they chose to study, Evans said.

Students were instructed to incorporate only free-license photos to avoid copyright violations and they wrote their own scripts for the videos, which ranged in length from 30 seconds to about a minute and a half.

In addition to producing a video, students also worked to create paper maché replicas of their animals.

This week the classroom was opened to visitors, including parents, other Haines students and media representatives.

The visitors viewed the videos on iPads by first keying into each animal by focusing on photos or QR codes (Quick Response codes that can be read by iPads and other devices to take the user to the website) and then tapping the screen.

Hyrum Bradford, 11, used a QR generator app to create a QR code for each student’s video. Hyrum also printed out each code and pasted it on construction paper for display, Evans said.

“I kind of turned them loose,” she said. “There was a lot of collaboration between students. They helped each other out.”

Kaci Anderson and Neah Thomas, 11, helped ensure that the students completed the voice recordings by finding a quiet spot and supporting their fellow students through that phase of the project, Evans said.

The fifth-graders proudly displayed their creations as they escorted guests around the classroom on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Some students dressed the part of rainforest scientists.

McKay Anderson, 11, (Kaci’s twin sister), borrowed her dad’s binoculars, hat and socks for the day along with her brother’s hiking shorts. The shirt and boots she wore were her own.

McKay guided Paige Anderson, 8, (a shirttail relative) through her presentation of the pygmy three-toed sloth.

Paige enjoyed using the iPad to watch the video and to view McKay’s paper maché sloth hanging in the “tree” near the ceiling.

“I think it’s great,” Paige said “I get to learn about more animals in the rainforest.”

See more in the May 27,2016 issue of the Baker City Herald.