Activity Description of "Habitat Hunt"
| Title | Habitat Hunt |
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| Audience | High School students |
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| Abstract | Valerie Mertz (aevmertz) collaborated with other teachers about activities that might help students learn the components of ecosystems with a discovery or inquiry activity. Habitat Hunt was the result. (Much thanks to Maggie Desch, Vt. for her valuable input!).
Here's how it works. Your high school students compile a collection of specimens, descriptions, and data that describe their local environment. These are the clues to your location. Then you exchange your clue box with another school. Now it's their turn to analyze what you sent and solve the mystery: where in the world are you?
Goals: One purpose is to give students a meaningful reason for learning the particulars of their local ecosystem. Students produce better work when they are accountable to a real audience.
Also, by engaging in a mystery, students will have to use all kinds of critical thinking and cooperative skills to research, select, and prioritize clues. |
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| Author | Valerie Mertz |
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| Email | VMertz@ix.netcom.com |
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| Unifying Concept | Systems, order and organization |
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| Science and Technology | |
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| Science as Inquiry | |
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| History and Nature of Science | |
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| Science in Personal and Social Perspectives | Natural resources |
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| Life, Physical, Earth Sciences | Populations and ecosystems |
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| Other Standards | Science Teaching |
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VMertz@ix.netcom.com
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