After much discussion, my fifth grade students decided to narrow down the focus of their study. Instead of trying to research an entire nature preserve that included forest, creek, estuary, and prarie ecosystems, we decided to do an in depth study of our school butterfly garden.
You can see our garden in front of our building!
The students want to identify the plants and animals that call our garden home. In this identification process, we will work to trace the energy flow within the ecosystem, recognize the diversity in such a small area, and highlight concepts such as life cycles, adaptations, symbiotic relationships, and more!
Day One Activities:
- iPads and field guides used to capture pictures and videos of some of the various plants and animals that we observe.
- What did we see, discuss, and explore? Everything from sunflowers to mating grasshoppers to invasive lady beetles to praying mantis.
- And more! The pure excitement in capturing pics and free discussion was amazing! We talked seed dispersal, changing seasons, and plant adaptations. One great idea followed another! Loved it!
Next steps…
- Our garden experts are visiting us this week and have given us email addresses for contact.
- More ID of plants and animals.
- Start drawing out our skeleton of app…what do we really want to show? Exciting!
October 27, 2011 App Team Meeting 1
From our first meeting, we have some VERY cool ideas!
- History of the butterfly garden being built.
- Informational (plants and animals)
- Virtual garden (build with plants and pavers/bricks)
- Seasonal changes...link to weather?
- Possible webcam
- Approach from bird's eye view
- Later linked to school website.
- Name the plant game (similar to I Like To Learn site)
- Invasive Species section
We identified our 3 sources of information-
- garden
- 2 experts (Mr. Hartley, Ms. Yako)
- web sources to ID plants/animal
Next step...
Outside research
Pulling best pics
Splash page
Organize our info.
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