A Seventh Grade Trip to the Outdoor Lab
Seventh grade students utilize a more complex understanding of change, cycles, patterns, and relationships in the living world during trips to the Outdoor Lab. Outdoor Lab experiences build on basic principles related to learned concepts by exploring organization and classification of organisms; the dynamic relationships among organisms, populations, communities, and ecosystems. Students build on scientific investigation skills by following investigation questions. Students use models and support their conclusions using evidence.
7th Grade Ecology Day
During Ecology Discovery Day, seventh graders travel around the lab in small groups to learn about various ecological topics by completing a packet at interactive stations. Adults (teachers, chaperones and Lab staff) are strategically placed around the lab to act as facilitators of the day and provide instructional guidance as needed.
Topics covered at the stations include:
- Predator-prey relationships
- Symbiosis
- The role of decomposition in an ecosystem
- Forest succession
- Organismal identification using a dichotomous key
- Water quality monitoring
- Scavenger Hunt of Life Science concepts
- Scientific reflection and conclusions
