World news and international science abounds with debate and discussion on human presence and our effect on the environment. Students need the reference of direct experience to begin to understand the global principles of ecology. Forest Ecology presents students with the basic principles of ecology in their own backyard, providing a hands-on approach to understanding an ecosystem’s capacity to support life. The culmination to our Day in the Forest is a Quadrant Study, a real-life example of what factors might be contributing to the decline of two of our native birds, the wood thrush and ovenbirds, involving students in the hard science of soil sampling, measurement, counting, and identifying, so as to determine the “health of the forest.” This class is adaptive to serving as curriculum support to the concepts of ecology, or as introduction.
- Key Concepts:
- Carrying capacity
- Succession
- Limiting factors
- The role of light, temperature, and soil composition
- Interaction of organisms within an ecosystem.
- How materials are recycled in nature.
This class meets the following North Carolina Curriculum Standards: 4th Grade Science Goals: 1.04; 5th Grade Science Goals: 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04, 1.05, 1.06; 6th Grade Science Goals: 1.03 & 1.04, 7.01, 7.02 & 7.03; 7th Grade Science Goals: 1.01, 1.04, 1.06, 1.07; 8th Grade Science Goals: 1.01, 1.04, 1.06, 1.07