Ecosystems

Bioblitzing at the Vernal Pool!

We participated in a worldwide Bioblitz called the City Nature Challenge. Volunteers, Scientists and Naturalists from 64 different cities all worked together over 8 days to collect and identify as many different species as possible. Team 1 students made over 250 observations and found 68 different species! For more information or to see all of our data click the link

To prep for the Bioblitz we drew pictures of species native to Massachusetts and identified them. See our images below.

City Nature Challenge 2018: Boston AreaMassachusetts is home to a great diversity of life, from the Berkshires to Boston to the Bay. Join us for the Boston iNaturalist City Nature Challenge – a fun competition with cities across the country to document the most species during April 27 – 30, 2018. You can participate by joining an event or documenting the plants, animals, and fungi you see anywhere in the greater Boston area with the iNaturalist app. See the map below for the area we will cover. The Boston City Nature Challenge is organized by Environmental Studies at Brandeis University, UMass Boston, Zoo New England, New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative, Mass Audubon, Encyclopedia of Life at Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, MIT Senseable lab, and Earthwatch Institute.

We found so many different organisms while exploring the vernal pools behind our school!

Bean Population Study

Using 6 different types of beans as model populations, students had to develop and implement a plan to conduct a population study in our classroom. They first had to make observations about the different populations and determine the characteristics of each species. Then they had to conduct a study, sampling and counting an area of beans on the floor to make estimates about the total number of beans in the classroom. We used a lot of math to make our estimates!