1. Backyard Biodiversity Project
Week 2
Tuesday evening, June 21, 2011
Carol and Sarah met in Congress Park in downtown Saratoga Springs to
conduct a f2f meeting, create our Scavenger Hunt, and fine-tune our
project. We also thoroughly enjoyed being in nature!
It was a balmy, summer evening (and also the longest day of the year)
and the park was alive with human and animal activity. We further
developed our project into three (3) inquiry based activities.
They include:
 Scavenger Hunt in Congress Park
 Journaling
 Individual Student Research Projects

2. Scavenger Hunt
Organisms with A plant that fixes
exactly (6) legs. Nitrogen. (clover)
(beetle)
 The Scavenger Hunt as the “hook” to get students to explore
Congress Park in a new way…they will be given a set of things to
find and they will use digital cameras to capture their data, upload
into a document and submit in competition with other students.
[Ex. “Find an organisms with exactly (6) legs.” and “Find an
organisms that fixes Nitrogen (N). (An article describing nitrogen
fixation and examples will be provided for their reference.)]

3. Journaling
 Following the Scavenger
Hunt will be an individual
(solitary) exercise where
students sit in (3) varying
locations of the student’s
choice (under the large
willow tree, near Spit and
Spat, by the pond) and for
15 minutes journal their
observations. Guidance will
be given to assist them in
conducting active
observations. Optional:
students will use digital
resources like
iPAD, webcam.

4. Student Research Projects
 The culminating assignment will be for each
student to select a topic based on the day’s
activities to research in-depth. (This will be both
the literacy-inclusive assignment and will be
formally assessed with a rubric.)
 Possible topics include: Mallard Ducks, Eastern
Gray Squirrel, White Clover, Sugar Maple, Box
Elder, White Mulberry.
 Students will be presenting their research within
the wiki and creating interactive presentations.

5. Sister Schools
 Two sister schools have been fictitiously set-up as a way for students to
share their backyards with other students.
 Lincoln Academy in Maine was selected because it is a small rural school
which includes students from surrounding communities and has easy access
to fresh, saltwater, and a combination of both and the integral part this
plays in their local biodiversity.
 St. Leonard’s College in Brighton, Australia was selected because it is the
school Carol attended for 10th and 11th grade. She remembers how her
friends there thought all the native plants and animals they studied were so
boring! The school is located about 12K outside of Melbourne which is a
city of over 2 million and the neighborhood is densely populated, very
expensive and open space is limited. The students would look at the small
strip of parkland which buffers road and houses from the beach. Students
at St. Leonards College have a required core course in Global Sustainability
in Year 10 and intensive Environmental Coursework in Year 9. They are
way ahead of the United States in term of education in these areas.

6. Second Life
 It has been a trying week for us
in Second Life. Liz is our new
heroine. We continue to
enhance our Pod with posters
and objects. However we are
frustrated by the inability to
bring things into the Island and
find useful tutorials from Second
Life itself. Please check in to see
our wiki and displays which let
you see slideshows via
slideshare. Note: as of
Wednesday night the screens
 Wednesday nights meeting at with links would not refresh and
the A-frame on the West open and SL was running very
Coast…for some reason Carol’s slow.
hair is always swishing and
Sarah moves her head like
Stevie Wonder.

7. Second Life
 Since we do not do
“table dances” in real
life (nor look or dress
like this) we decided
to play like kids for a
few minutes and take
our photo on the
table….then we flew
around, fell in the
ocean, and giggled
that school should be
so much fun!