Middle School Scientists Get Outdoors

This fall in 7th/8th Grade Science, we’ve been learning how ecologists study the relationships between living things and their environments. To do that, we headed out into the field — literally — to Stevens Creek Nature Park for our own ecology investigation.

On our first visit, we spent time making observations of the site, noticing what kinds of plants and animals were there and how the environment might be affecting them. Then, in small groups, we developed our own experimental questions and hypotheses about how abiotic (nonliving) factors influence biotic (living) factors in this ecosystem.

Each group chose a factor to focus on — like soil pH, distance from the stream, sunlight exposure, soil moisture, or proximity to a road or trail — and designed an experiment to test how it might affect plant diversity.

We used real scientific methods such as random sampling with transects and quadrats, percent coverage, and plant abundance measurements. We also used soil meters and plant identification apps to collect our data.

Now we’re digging into the data (pun intended!) to look for trends and patterns. We’ll be graphing our results and writing up our conclusions using the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning format — just like scientists do.

It’s been exciting to get outside, ask our own questions, and see what we can discover about how living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem interact.