Observation and Journaling

By:

                                                

                                                      By 5th Grade Students Kylie, Amy and Taylor

 

                                                 

 

 

 

One thing that the 5th grade of Carpenter Hill does to learn about the environment is we go out to the back pasture/forest where everything is wild and natural.  All 65 of us study the ecosystem, both the biotic and the abiotic features.  We get into groups, then mark off "our area," the plot of land that we are going to study.  Once there, we study the organisms there, their habitat, and some of their traits.  We also study some plants, and how photosynthesis works.  We take samples of some of the specimens to find out more about them.  We go out two days in a row, for about one hour each day.  We log all of our findings in a field journal, and take samples of things that we are going to study further.

 

Classroom Interaction

 

We recently learned about environments, food chains and food webs.  Before our field study, we learned how food chains work, how energy gets passed down through the food chain and how energy can never be created or destroyed.  We spent about 2 weeks preparing for the field study in class.  The most important thing we learned was safety.  We learned about snakes, what's venomous and what's not, and what to do if we encounter one....or any other animal.  Then, it was finally time to go out.

 

Field Journal

 

When we went out to the back, we had to bring our field journal.  In our journal, we had to record our experience.  We wrote definitions to important words, environmnental conditions and had to draw many diagrams fo what we saw.  We also drew up a small map of our area and labeled all the places there.

 

Personal Experience

 

My group wandered around for awhile, until we found the perfect area.  It was hidden from view by some lush vegetation, including many shrubs and throny bushes.  The rest was spotted in flowers, bluebonnets, white flowers, purple flowers, buttercups and even blackberry plants!  There was a little clearing in the shade in our area, so that is where we laid down our things.  We saw many clues that prove that specimens have lived there. Ex: scat, footprints, bunny, plus fur and many other things.  As we said earlier, we started writing in our field journal.  We wrote down and recorded everything we saw for future study and reference.

 

Field Kits

 

When we went out back to our "areas" we were required to bring a field kit.  This kit contained everything we needed to study.  In the bag was a pair of tweezers to pick up anything we did not want to touch, a thermometer to tell the temperature of our area, a compass to be able to tell where we are located, a straw to poke around with and a magnifiying glass to study things up close.

 

 

What to Study

 

When we got to our spot we immediately started studying.  We studied many features of our environmnet including the biotic and abiotic components of our environments.  We found that many organisms liked to hide from predators in the tall weeds and under rocks.  We especially studied all the different plants in our area.  Did you know that in every bluebonnet petal there are hundreds of tiny little seeds!  Now that 's awesome!

 

Conclusion

 

After studying the environment for two days in a row, we headed back inside to compare data.  We looked at climate, soil conditions and many other things.  After comparing data, we realized how much we have learned and how much fun we had.  We will never forget this experience.