Review: EdTechLens - Rainforest Journey - Simple Living. Creative Learning

We were given a one-year online subscription to use to review this awesome Rainforest Journey program from EdTechLens. Rainforest Journey is a one-year online, digital learning life science program for kids in grades K-5.

Rainforest Journey is the first e-learning science program from EdTechLens. It covers the life sciences component of the elementary school science curriculum and covers the same concepts in increasing complexity for grades K-5. It is a fun, interactive and media rich program with that thoroughly teaches all aspects of the rainforest.

How did we go?

As this program covers grades K-5, our boys used it in different ways. As B is in grade 4, he used it as a supplement to his normal homeschool science curriculum where as R, who is in grade 6, used grade 5 more as a review.

There are two ways in which this course can be delivered. In the guided option, the children are required to view the course content in order, unlocking the next lesson as they go. This means there is no skipping lessons. The other way is to open the course. This allows the children to view the course content in any order they wish to. I chose open for our boys, though they are completing the course content in the order it is written.

This course is complied of 5 units – The Big Picture of the Rainforest, Adapt or Die!, Animals, Plants and Fungi and Ecosystems. Each unit contains 1-5 chapters and 2-4 lessons per chapter. After completing the chapters, there is a vocabulary page which goes over some words and their meanings; an illustrations page and the three assessments.

The first assessment is the depth of knowledge where your child answers the questions, these all have multiple choice or matching answers. The Open Ended Assessment is where they write/type their answers in the space provided. The last of the assessments is the Factual assessment. This consists of 10 questions in which have multiple choice answers as well.

In grade 4, we found that the lessons had a short audio narration that they could listen, but in grade 5, this wasn’t there, R had to read all of his. All of the lessons had stunning photos of the rainforest and some of the lessons also had a short video to watch.

In the parent/teacher area, you are able to manage your class and students, view their progress and see their scores on the quizzes they have completed. This is also where you mark their open ended assessments.

Also, in the parent/teacher login under the teacher resources, there are some great hands-on activities to go with each unit. These are simple hands-on activities that are great for reinforcing what the child has learnt through the lesson.

Even though this is an online program, you are able to download the lessons and tests in pdf form which is great for review. I stored them all in a binder ready for the boys to review when they want. Our boys used the printed out Open End Assessments to organise their thoughts before actually typing in the answers in the test online.

I love that this program can be used on my android phone as well as on our iPad. As we live in a smaller country town, we do a lot of driving into the big city and the boys were able to complete their studies on the long trip. We also found this website to be easy to navigate, so once our boys had their login details, they were able to login and continue where they left off. This meant that I didn’t need to be sitting next to them, helping them navigate around the website, showing them where everything was.

Our boys have really enjoyed using this program and have learnt a lot about what makes up a rainforest. Their favourite part was the amazing photos. It made them feel like they were really there, in the rainforest. I really recommend this program to those with children who love learning about nature and animals.

If you are interested in this program, check out these cool videos. For some sample lessons check out this page and for the pricing, check on this page.