Our Wildwood, Summer 2019, Volume 45

FEATURE Ecosystems: Why Should We Care?

EXPERIMENTATION Alongside model making, students are immersed in the scientific method—testing ideas, making predictions (using logic and deductive reasoning), and hunting down evidence to support their predictions. Kids work in groups of six to set up experiments and build their models. Together, they collect data and materials, make labels, and learn to delegate, after which they branch off individually to make observations, predictions, graph data, and write their analyses. Migration Monopoly is another one of Anna and Sam’s outside-the-box activities designed to help 3rd graders understand why wetlands matter. In this game, which simulates bird migration, the science lab is transformed into the Pacific Flyway (one of four aerial highways birds use to migrate in the Americas). Each student represents a bird trying to migrate from the nesting habitat to the wintering habitat and back. Along their migration, “chance” cards are drawn. These cards describe events that help or hinder migration—habitat destruction or rehabilitation, weather, food, or predators. Throughout the game, students graph how many birds successfully migrate versus the availability of habitats, thereby illuminating the effects of chance events on bird populations. FIELDWORK Science doesn’t just happen in the classroom. Ballona Wetlands, the last significant wetlands in the Los Angeles Basin, lies essentially in Wildwood’s backyard. Ballona Wetlands has implemented a community hand restoration project—removal of the invasive nonnative species—which 3rd graders participated in. This nonnative plant has taken over much of the reserve, crowding out native plants, robbing water, and changing the chemistry of the soil. Herein lies the real-life model for students to compare against those made in the classroom. This interaction with

Igniting young minds, science teacher Anna Boucher kicks off the unit with a quote from Jane Goodall: “To create a world where we can live in harmony with nature, we need to understand. Only if we understand can we care. Only if we care will we help.” With this as the bar, students learn that wetlands serve myriad purposes: They are rest and refueling spots for migratory birds, they are water filtration for pollution, they are flood buffers and oxygen producers, they are carbon-dioxide-absorbing, and they are home base for a complex food web. We have lost 95 percent of our wetlands in Southern California to human impact—kids take that number seriously. Using model making, experimentation, an old-time favorite board game (with a scientific twist!), and a field trip to the Ballona Wetlands, Anna and her teaching partner Sam Palm-Shindell break down content into age-appropriate lessons aimed at imparting deep understanding while keeping students engaged. MODEL MAKING Wetlands are large, complex systems, and making a smaller version brings the abstract into concrete focus. “[By building models], they’re not just reading what an ecotone [a transitional region between two biological communities] is, they see it,” Anna explains. The models, built in large recycled plastic bottles, have two ecosystems—terrestrial and aquatic. Once complete, they are self-sustaining. Inside, oxygen is made by the plants and carbon dioxide is made by animals such as millipedes and aquatic snails. The plants become food for some of the animals. Dead material is consumed by other animals and recycled into nutrients for the soil. The water moves through a mini water cycle—condensation forms and behaves like clouds—when enough water collects, it drips back down. “They helped us understand how ecosystems are organized and what makes an ecosystem healthy,” 3rd grader Oz M. says.

“[By building models], they’re not just reading what an ecotone [a transitional region between two biological communities] is, they see it.” —ANNA BOUCHER, WILDWOOD SCIENCE TEACHER

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