In the Classroom
Nine Graduate Student Fellows are working with Ms. Peg Dabel and Mr. John Eby and their students each week throughout this school year. For the first few weeks in the fall, students learned how scientists make observations and hypotheses using their senses, followed by activities dealing with classification and biodiversity. The students then took their observation skills outside, where they learned that biodiversity exists in some pretty unusual places on their school campus even in the soil! Students encountered the world of entomology, learning about the different insect orders and how their mouth parts, legs, and wings are adapted for specific functions. Students then made several trips to their schoolyard, where they collected insects using a variety of netting techniques. In order to learn about the plants of their schoolyard, students learned that plants can be identified by a careful examination of the leaves and their morphology.
Having studied many of the organisms that they may encounter in their school yard and on their field trips, the students learned about how these organisms interacted with one another, how they were dependent upon one another, and how they were related to one another.
Making Observations and Generating Hypotheses and Expectations Using Our Senses
Learning About Classification
Bioregions of California
An Introduction to Insect and Spider Body Parts
Plant Observation and Morphology
Sagehen Creek Natural History Reserve Field Trip, October 20-23, 2006: Students traveled to the reserve to observe and collect a variety of plant and insect specimens.
2005-2006 AMS activities
2004-2005 AMS activities