Teacher Information Sheet

Who, What, When, Where and Why-The Scientific MethodS
5th Grade Field Studies

Field Site: Monte Vista or Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge

Program Length: 3 Hours

Teacher: _________________

Date: __________________

Number of Students: ________

Teacher Preparation

1. Assign teachers/chaperones one of the three field lessons enclosed. A refuge staff person or volunteer will teach the INTRODUCTION.
2. Insure students bring the following: field clothes (long pants, hats, jackets, old sneakers) water bottle, pencils, nutritious lunch.
3. Fill out name-tags for each student and divide class into three groups.
4. Recruit at least three chaperones/teachers who will be responsible for managing smaller groups

Schedule

Introduction - As a whole group students will review field research design. This will include the scientific method: designing a good investigation problem, understanding the hypothesis, procedure design, data collection and analysis, and drawing a conclusion. This will also include naming and knowing variables, as well as some key terminology: biotic and abiotic, wetland, climate, succession, adaptation, classification and species.

Divide into three groups for three one-hour stations.

Water World :Using the tools provided students will investigate their water habitat, They will decide on a research problem, from a hypothesis, collect and disseminate their data and finally draw a conclusion.

Bird Brains (Station 2) and Insects Anyone? (Station 3): Using the tools provided students will investigate either birds or insects in their wetland habitat, They will decide on a research problem, from a hypothesis, collect and disseminate their data and finally draw a conclusion

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