Second Grade Science Field Trip At School III

"Getting children comfortable in the outdoors may be one of the greatest gifts we can offer the next generation. Given what we know about the physical and psychological consequences of a sedentary, electronic media-dominated lifestyle, it also might be one of greatest health tips we can offer. A childhood rich in outdoor experiences provides an inexpensive antidote for a number of medical problems, including depression, attention deficit disorder, and obesity.

But there is more. Letting young children freely explore their world outdoors can instill a lifelong connection to the natural world." This is the opinion of the people at www.gametime.com, and I expect that it rings true to most everyone.

 

Curriculum expectations are always based on the Ontario Ministry of Expectations. Many of the activities will reinforce, rather than teach, those expectations. As such, no assessment ideas or rubrics are included. Outside, students and teachers have the opportunity to see, experience and enjoy the wonders of creation about which they are learning.

Understanding Life Systems: Animals 

Overall Expectations (Ontario curriculum expectations):

• assess ways in which animals have an impact on society and the environment, and ways in which humans have an impact upon animals and the places where they live; 
• investigate similarities and differences in the characteristics of various animals; 
• demonstrate an understanding that animals grow and change and have distinct characteristics.  
  

Why would we stay in the classroom when we are learning about animals? Second grade teachers have the opportunity to coordinate with the Kindergarten and fourth grade teachers to host a mobile petting zoo to cover curriculum expectations, as described in Second Grade Science Field Trips II. In addition, you can take your class on a couple of at-school field trips to learn about the "little things that run the world" -namely insects. (That's what entymologist or insect researcher O.E. Wilson calls them; discuss why he might use that phrase.)

Beetle and Bug Hunt

This outdoor lesson is part of a series of lessons put together by Full Option Science Systems (FOSS), and made freely available, with permission, by the Boston Schoolyard Initiative. It allows students to experience with Wonder the facts that they were introduced to in class.

When to Go Out
Students go outside a couple of times to look for insects at different stages of their life cycles.

Outdoor Objective
Students will utilize their prior knowledge to search for insects in the schoolyard habitat, and discover insects at different stages of their lives.

Materials
For Each Pair

• 2 Hand lenses
• 3 Jars with lids, or with squares of fabric and elastics
  

If you are going to keep the insects in the classroom, make sure that you poke holes in the lids; or use the fabric and elastics to close the jars.

Getting Ready
Time: 15–30 min. Flexible—depending on how much time you want to devote to it.

Conservation: You will need to teach students how to carefully look for insects without destroying their habitats. If students are too excited and acting recklessly, stop the investigation, return to the classroom, and review how to tread gently. Try again another day.

Seasonal Tips: To search for insects in the winter, ask, Where would I go if I were an insect trying to stay warm? Because of the cold, insects will take shelter inside rotting logs, deeper in the soil, under leaves, and other ground debris. Collect soil and debris on the ground and put it in a terrarium indoors. Within a very short time, life will spontaneously erupt, including plants, spiders, and insects. Look for acorns with little pinpricks in them, and galls (the growth on flower stems) and open them indoors.

Caution: Have students use a leaf or stick to carefully lift insects into the containers. Be careful to collect insects that don’t bite or sting.

What You Might Find
Some students will have no trouble with this activity. You may want to pair these students with more apprehensive ones.

Many students will not know how to look for insects without guidance from you. Model how to do it and show excitement when you see something.

“If you were there, you would have heard things like, ‘Look what I have!’ and then a sudden rush of students around that person. At one point, students turned over a rock and found an entire ant colony. Even I jumped!” Eric Meuse, Science Specialist 

If some students are apprehensive, they can have you look at an insect before they collect it. Once they know an insect won’t bite, they will be less fearful.

Guiding the Investigation  

1. Outdoors (or indoors) ask students what makes something an insect. Do not tell them the answer. Use this as a pre-assessment. 
2. Discuss what living things need to survive. Ask students where they think they might find insects or bugs and set the boundaries for the search.
3. Walk to one of the places students suggested and model how to gently turn over a rock or log to look underneath, how to look on the underside of a few leaves, and how to look under dead plant matter or logs. Tell students that you want to leave everything exactly as you found it to respect the animals that live there. 
4. With their partners, students search until they find an insect or bug to place in their container along with a piece of the leaf or wood on which they found the insect. 
5. Students can continue searching for another insect or sit together in your meeting spot and observe the insect while they wait for the rest of the class. 
6. Once inside, students display their insect on their desks and walk around the room looking at their classmates’ found treasures. 
7. Have a classroom discussion about observations and discoveries. Their experiences will likely help them to be able to review the things that they learned about insects.
8. Within 24 hours, return the insects to approximately the same location in which they were found.
   

 

BONUS: Rather learn about birds? Here is a freely available booklet to help wow your students as you look at schoolyard birds with them.