SCHOOLROOM IN ADVANCE TAKES ROOT AS RAIN FOREST

ADVANCE -- A schoolroom at Advance High School has taken root as a rain forest, evolving into a dark, humid world filled with plants, animals and the raucous din of the jungle.

The rain forest display is a project of the school's Science Club, comprised of 60 students from freshmen to seniors. They're hoping the display will raise people's awareness about the plight of the world's rain forests.

"We cut down (grape) vines to string them across and make it more jungle-looking," said senior Trent Statler, 18, of the display. "(It's) kind of like Tarzan's vines."

The display is open to the public, but club members are asking for donations from those who view it. The aim is to raise enough money to buy at least one acre of rain forest in the Latin American country of Belize, east of Guatemala, and have it preserved in the club's name, club President Jackie Polete said. Each acre costs $50.

"We're shooting for two acres, but we'll be happy with one. At least we can say we did something," said Polete.

Club members, she said, began putting together the display Monday. It opened Friday.

The display ties in with an educational focus at the school on rain forests, reflected in colorful posters designed by students that hang from the school's hallway walls. Polete said the school started working on increasing student awareness about rain forests in October.

Last week, high school students, dressed as a toucan and other tropical wildlife, visited school district elementary students to talk to them about rain forests.

Polete said the idea of the display developed after high school science teacher Nancy Lanpher told the club to come up with ideas about the types of projects it could do concerning rain forests.

Students have shown a lot of interest in the project, said Polete.

"I've never seen people get so excited about putting something like this together. It's like everyone's ecstatic and they can't wait to get in there and work on it."

Inside the schoolroom, green construction paper overlaid with paper designs of banana and coconut trees covers the walls. The ceiling also has construction paper over it, but it is of a heavy blue that blocks most of the illumination from the room's lights providing an effect similar to that of a rain forest's spacious, sun-blocking canopy.

Plants set about the room in a flowing, walkway-border fashion include ferns and two banana trees. A black, stuffed animal Gorilla clings to one banana tree; on the other tree is a creme-colored, stuffed animal monkey, clasping a clump of bananas.

Even a small, garden waterfall the cascade of its water calling out in splashes and murmurs is part of the setup. The humidity is the product of humidifiers positioned about the room.

A stereo sound system provides the rain forest's sounds those of bongos, monkeys and birds, Polete said. A fellow student, she said, is also providing a live parrot for the display.

"There's a ton of work in here," school Principal Bob Levy said, glancing in on the display. "This is a pretty neat deal."

Lanpher said the community had really helped with the project. Plants for the project have come from businesses, students' parents, elementary teachers, and the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School, which offers horticulture classes, said Polete.

As for the actual rain forests, Polete said people need to be concerned about problems such as deforestation. There are products used in the United States that come from rain forests, she said.

Lanpher said those products include chocolate, vanilla flavoring, medicine, Brazil nuts, cashews, kiwi fruit, and even the flavoring in Chiclets gum.

The display will be open today from 1 to 4 p.m. and during the school day Monday, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Lanpher said.