How can the Amazon, which holds 1/5 of all of the world’s fresh water, have a lack of clean, drinkable water? This is just one of the questions an intrepid bear named Bella set out to answer during her Amazon Adventure!

In July, Bella, a tiny bear from the United Kingdom, joined thirty K-12 educators in the Peruvian Amazon for the 2014 Educator Academy in the Amazon. Her mission? To learn as much as she could about the Amazon, its water, its wildlife, its people, and its global importance. 

Bella spent 10 days exploring the the Amazon and worked with Amazon Rainforest Workshops faculty to learn how to make the Amazon come alive in classrooms around the globe.

In addition to focusing on bringing fresh water to Amazon villages, Bella had a very diverse experience! She explored the rainforest from top to bottom and investigated the Amazon and Napo Rivers, and their tributaries. She also learned about amazing Amazon wildlife, the indigenous Yagua people, rainforest medicines, and much, much more.

During her time in the rainforest, Bella learned that the Amazon regulates our climate and temperature, produces oxygen, freshwater, provides food, new medicines and much more. Bella now knows that the Amazon rainforest and the ‘services’ it provides, is a perfect example of how complex and amazing our planet really is.

While she was in the Amazon, Bella…

Explored the Amazon and its tributaries in a dugout canoe

Met with the local medicine man

Got up close and personal with rainforest wildlife

Explored the rainforest canopy

Helped paint a new kindergarten classroom

Learned about how CONAPAC, a Peruvian NGO, is helping to provide clean water to schools and families in remote Amazon villages.

And made a bunch of new friends!

Now that she has returned to the UK, she will share what she has learned with children in the UK and in the USA – helping to spread Amazon Awareness around the globe!

We look forward to following Bella’s blog posts and helping her develop classroom resources for students and teachers.

Stay tuned! Bella will be posting more details about her Amazon adventures at: http://seawatch17.wix.com/bella-world-of-water#!blog/c1cwr

Registration is now open for the 2015 Educator Academy in the Amazon! Why don’t you plan on joining us? Info available at www.amazonworkshops.com

Christa Dillabaugh is our Education and the Rainforest Editor.  A former middle school and high school science educator, she coordinates experiential field programs for educators and students in the rainforests of Central and South America.  She currently serves as education director for Amazon Rainforest Workshops and loves traipsing through rainforest mud in search of teachable moments!  You can read her Amazon field notes at http://amazonworkshops.wordpress.com/