The Cheetahs, Great White Sharks and Tigers built self-contained terrarium projects using recycled plastic bottles and old bird seed. A layer of sand below the soil in the bottles acts as a water table, keeping the water cycling through the soil and preventing root rot. An earthworm consumes organic material in the soil, and when the bottle is in the sun, it heats up and exhibits evaporation and precipitation. Thus, this unit was a very concrete way to explore ecological concepts such as the water cycle and food chains. Although the unit is coming to a close at school, parents of interested students (as well as those from other classes) can find lots of ideas online for building their own versions of this project! Check out http://makezine.com/projects/tabletop-biosphere/ for some more information. For a more arid take on this project, consider using succulents:
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In taxonomy, the word bugs refers to a specific group of insects. But to most kids, the word simply conjures up images of creepy, crawly, hands-on fun. Thus, they are a great choice for a topic of study in an inquiry-based science classroom even though these creatures can be quite different in terms of biology.
We will be exploring earthworms and a variety of larva-stage insects such as mealworms, waxworms and hornworms. We can observe their behavior and diets as well as the fascinating structural changes they experience throughout their life cycles. |
ProjectsBraque posts photos and resources here to accompany many science units and explorations. Archives
November 2017
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