Ecosystem+Exploration

During the ecosystem unit of study students are given the opportunity to discover all of the living and nonliving things in our ecosystem we live in. With access to a field, wooded area, and a creek in the back of our school students collect items for investigation from our ecosystem. Students also take cameras outside to collect evidance of items that we could not bring inside with us.
 * Description**

We begin the ecosystem unit by breaking up the word and defining what it means. Students make a list of different things they expect to find in our ecosystem. Heading outside with buckets, cameras, and nets we collect things from our ecosystem. When we gather back together as a group we share all of our findings. Then students use the things we found to create a map of interdependece of everything working together. This opportunity gives students the hands on experience to learn about the ecosystem they are living in.
 * Analysis**

Students really enjoy this activity. It is an activity that can get really messy and take a few days to complete, but learning the connection bewtween all living and nonliving things in our ecosystem is always clear. Students are engaged and excited through this whole process. Becuase this lesson was chopped into several days the mess really dragged on. In the future it would be helpful to take a full day to go in depth and create a project. This would allow students to deepen their knowledge to a new level.
 * Reflection**