Yesterday we finished our second and final day of the brand new field trip I wrote for our SEEDS4 Nature Detectives Program. The lesson plan, as a whole, is a bioblitz where we get the kids out exploring the refuge and recording anything and everything that they observe along the way. They rotate through stations throughout the day, each with its own focus to allow for a more diverse and inclusive species list. I lead the "evidence in nature station" where I got the kids thinking about and looking for signs/evidence that an animal was there, even if we couldn't see the animal itself. My station included a visit down to see New Deer (the newest of all the dead deer) where they got to add at least three more species to their bioblitz list (mule deer, coyote, and maggots). The other stations focused on plants (roots and shoots), bugs (buggy bushes), and flying organisms (up in the air). In addition to collecting the species observations, students worked to construct an ecosystem model using the biotic and abiotic obervations they made throughout the field trip. They drew lines to represent connections/interactions between various organisms and their abiotic environment. The model was then used in discussion about what would happen if certain things, such as the object with the most connections, were to be removed from the ecosystem entirely. The kids really seemed to enjoy the field trip, so it was definitely a success all the way from the lesson plan I wrote to the facilitation by myself and our awesome volunteers!
I will say that much of the lesson plan incorporated the existing work of the BEETLES project, which is a really awesome organization that writes some pretty great environmental ed based curriculum. The rest was written by me as either supplement or additions to the BEETLES lesson plan. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, especially being that I've never written/designed an entire four hour long field trip! That being said, I far prefer facilitating programs to writing them, so I am really looking forward to my next job in Seattle!
How Neat Is That?!
I will say that much of the lesson plan incorporated the existing work of the BEETLES project, which is a really awesome organization that writes some pretty great environmental ed based curriculum. The rest was written by me as either supplement or additions to the BEETLES lesson plan. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, especially being that I've never written/designed an entire four hour long field trip! That being said, I far prefer facilitating programs to writing them, so I am really looking forward to my next job in Seattle!
How Neat Is That?!
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