Wildlife Research
Fifth Grade Pre-field Trip
Teacher Instructions:Set
up each discovery centers around your classroom (see set-up instructions
for each center). Each center will take 10-15 minutes to complete. You
can have students work cooperatively or individually on each center.
You may need to help each group read and interpret the instructions.
For poor readers you will
need to go through each station as a class. You can choose one center
each day and work through it together.
Science as a Way of Knowing-
Students follow a story and then apply the various part of the scientific
method to the actions of the character in the book. Then they create
a picture of the story using their imagination and art as a way of knowing
the world.
Biodiversity- Students are presented with multiple packages filled with
diverse materials-they must make a determination of which package contains
the largest diversity of items and which items are the most abundant.
For example one package would have various types of paper clips, another
colored paper. They would count and categorize the objects.
The Aesthetic and Functional Value of Wetlands- Metaphors and Simile
are tough, but truly bring out the best in descriptive science, because
good scientists must be able to describe what they are observing. In
this activity students will be given a wetland picture and asked to
describe what they see in their field journals-using at least one simile
and one metaphor. (As a group chose he best two in each category and
bring them with you when you come to the wetlands.)
Habitat Changes- Wetlands Extinction Game- Students explore habitat
change as a way to manage problems on National Wildlife Refuges.
Species Manager- Using the annual bird count information, students will
graph the results and draw conclusions from their graphs.