A project-based learning product from 9th grade students at Free State High School in Lawrence, Kansas
On this website you will find a catalogue of experiments and questions asked by 9th grade students in Ms. Abeita's Biology classes at Free State High School. All pages were student-created, and all questions and data were student generated and collected. Students worked hard to plan and implement their experiments over the course of two weeks, after having learned the basics of how ecosystems, and specifically prairie ecosystems function. We hope if you are visiting the site you are able to learn something about our prairie restoration ecosystem.
Every year a new group of Biology students will add to this page as a way to document and record how the prairie may change over long periods of time. It is a goal of this project to not only be a way for students to showcase their learning, but also to serve as a resource for very specific ecological knowledge of the prairie restoration site.
The prairie restoration that students worked on was built on a pre-existing practice football field on Free State's Campus. In conjunction with Dr. Helen Alexander, and other researchers at KU, Free State teacher Julie Schwarting spearheaded the creation of this site in the summer of 2014. You can read more about the set up, use, and history of the prairie at the website linked below.
For students: Go to your class, then click on your groups' page to edit. If you edit any pages that are not your own, I will be able to see in the edit history.
There is a lot of work and information on this site! Each class listed at the top of the page has 7-10 student groups, each with their own page and project. The most recent class' projects are in their respective hours at the top of the page. Previous years' projects are shown in the "archive" tab, and are sorted by topic. If you're looking for a specific student or project, it may be helpful to know what class to look in, and the names of the people you are interested in learning from. You are also welcome to use the search function to find specific topics. Happy browsing!
Special thanks specifically to Dr. Helen Alexander, Julie Schwarting, Native Lands LLC, Free State High School biology PLC and admnistration, Evergy Green Team, and USD 497 for being supportive of this project and mainteance of the prairie site. Our prairie is an essential component to the Biology curriculum and helps to connect students with the land and ecosystems they are a part of.