Schoolyard Ecology

With spring right around the corner, teachers are thinking about third quarter grade cards, state assessments, and spring break! This is a tough time of year to keep students motivated, as many would rather be outside enjoying the nice weather than preparing for math and reading tests. Now is a great time to grab their attention with some hands on activities and remind them that school is still in session for at least another three months!

A great way to keep kids engaged, despite the warmer weather, is with schoolyard ecology lessons. As a warm-up, use the activities in Counting Animal Populations to give kids some practice with the Mark and Recapture population sampling method.  In this lesson, students begin by predicting amounts of different candies in a jar. They then simulate two "capture and release" events with the candies and gather their data, recording information on worksheets and answering questions as a class.

Once they understand sampling methods, create some pill bug traps so your students can try out their newfound knowledge in the real world. Pill bugs are common creatures found in a wide variety of areas, and they are a favorite of young children. They also provide an excellent subject for scientific investigation! To make a pill bug trap, cut a raw potato in half and hollow out a portion of each half so that a cavity is formed. Use toothpicks to join the halves again, and drill a small hole in one end of the potato that leads into the hollow cavity.  This is how the pill bugs will enter!

Give one trap to each group of students, and decide on a question to investigate. Examples might include “Do pill bugs travel to different locations, or do they stay in one area?”, “How do weather conditions affect the number of pill bugs in a certain area?”, or “In which locations are pill bugs most likely to be found?”

Place the traps in the dirt next to buildings or beside moist, rocky areas. Either partially bury the traps or cover them with leaves and grass. Remind students that they must create a fair test by changing only one thing (the independent variable) and keeping everything else the same (constants). In other words, if students are investigating how weather conditions affect the number of pill bugs in a certain area, they might choose a time period of warmer temperatures and a period of colder temperatures during which to set their traps. The way in which traps are set, the area being studied, the distance apart, number of traps, and the location of the investigation must all remain constant in order to create a fair test. 

After 24 hours, carefully check the traps for pill bugs and gently remove them from the potatoes. Use fingernail polish to mark their backs (the polish will come off as the pill bugs molt later on) so individual pill bugs won’t be counted twice in future experiments. The investigation can be repeated several times, with data gathered and averaged to form conclusions about the habits of pill bugs. 

For other schoolyard ecology activities, try one of the following lesson plans:

Schoolyard Ecology Lessons and Activities:

Investigation of Schoolyard Litter

In this lesson, students do an analysis of litter. They collect litter on the schoolyard, sort it, and deterimine the amount and type. They record their results and submit them online.

What Birds Are Flying Around Your Schoolyard?

Students analyze birds in their schoolyard using a long-term census. They practice identifying birds, count them, and record their results. They create a final report and graph their results.

Aquatic (Pond) Ecology

Using their neighborhood pond as their test study, students conduct experiments and perform activities based on the environment around the pond.