Local Ecosystem Scavenger Hunt

By the end of this lesson students will…

• have a deeper connection to a local ecosystem
• be able to identify a variety of healthy and unhealthy ecosystem interactions
• construct explanations on how an area, and the people who are in it, supports or does not support organisms and ecosystems

• Identify an outdoor area that is accessible from your school (e.g. park, garden, field), and has interesting exploration spots (e.g. logs to flip over, diversity of organisms, etc.).
• Scout the area for safety (e.g. poison oak, boundaries to set, restrooms, etc.).
• Develop your group management strategy: consider recruiting extra adults to help out.
• Prior to the field trip let your students know to wear clothes for exploring outdoors.
• Make a schedule that includes travel time, plus the ecosystem exploration time (20-40 minutes) so that students can connect to an outdoor community space in a meaningful way.

The purpose of this section is for students to learn how to collect evidence that will answer the question: How is our ecosystem healthy or unhealthy?

1. Gather your materials: field journals, pencils, clipboards, etc.
2. If walking somewhere, consider engaging students in a warm-up observation game, such as I SPY, to see what they notice on the walk.
3. When you get to your field trip location gather the students and discuss questions:
   • When you look around, what pops out to you so far?
   • What features of the ecosystem can you already see?
   • What areas seem interesting to you?
   • Optional: if some students are familiar with the location, you might have them share some experiences.
4. Remind students that they will be exploring the area to look for the items and interactions in their field journals.
   • Consider demonstrating ways to observe organisms respectfully (e.g. safely turn over a small log or rock, inspect what’s there, and return it to the way it was found).
5. Set up the exploration: describe the safety rules, the boundaries, and the time allotted for exploration.
   • If you have adults, students can be split up into small groups to explore different “zones.”
   • Or, if you want the explorations to be more student-led, set easily visible boundaries so students can explore on their own.
6. Explore! Try to give at least 15-minutes for students to explore. Below are some tips:
   • Model being excited to observe an interaction from the activity sheet.
   • Remind students to explore widely and look for different things.
   • Sneak! Try to blend in or sit still for a few minutes to see what comes out.
   • Ask students to share what they’ve found with you or another student.
7. Come back together and reflect. Invite students’ observations and interpretation, including differences in opinion. This can be done outdoors, or back in the classroom. Ask questions such as:
   • What was an interesting interaction that you saw?
   • What type of organism does that observation/ interaction support or not support?
   • Was anything missing from your scavenger hunt? Or, did you add anything?
   • In what ways do people help and hurt this ecosystem?
   • Based on what you saw and have heard from others - do you think this ecosystem is healthy, unhealthy, or somewhere in between?

Studies show that when teachers explicitly connect field trip experiences to classroom learning and real life settings students will better retain information and see the relevance of science in their everyday lives. You can extend the learning from this field trip in the following ways:

• Repeat the activity in a different location to extend the learning by having students compare and contrast the ways in which they think an ecosystem is healthy or unhealthy.
• Find historical photos of your location, and have students analyze them for clues about how an ecosystem’s health has changed over time.
• Talk with someone working on a local conservation or parks project to see how they think about ecosystems and humans in their work.
• If your school uses the Amplify Science Curriculum, connect this to your unit on Rainforest Ecosystems & Restoration to build off of the idea that ”Human activities can have a negative impact on ecosystems; different communities are working to minimize that impact.”
• If your local ecosystem is impacted negatively by humans, consider having students Create a Campaign to advocate for change.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “ecosystem?” We’re willing to guess that an expansive, natureful area such as a forest or lake are high on the list. That makes sense because many curricula teach students about different types of ecosystems like rainforests.

On a base level ecosystems are areas where living and nonliving things interact to form a web of life that is relatively self-sustaining. Within an ecosystem, there are different roles that organisms play that help an ecosystem function. Those roles include: pollinator, decomposer, producer, predator, seed disperser, erosion controller and more. Within each of these ecosystems there are organisms that have adaptations that help them get their needs met and fulfill some of the important ecosystem roles and functions. But not all organisms can survive in a given ecosystem. Some are better equipped than others to survive. That’s why examining different ecosystems can be so intriguing - how do animals survive in a desert ecosystem with so little water? What makes them special?

This activity seeks to create a space to identify interesting questions about ecosystems in areas that are relevant to students, and include everyday spaces that aren’t so remote: gardens, city parks, fields, etc. Studies show that students do not often see themselves as part of nature. Or, if they do, it is often for resource extraction like mining or deforestation. Both of these lenses are only part of a larger story on our planet. The fact is, every ecosystem on our planet is affected by humans. We are a part of all of them. And, even the small nature areas have the capacity to support organisms. Humans, including children, can positively affect these nature areas. For example, check out this story about the “smallest park in the world”: Mills End Park in Portland, Oregon.