Athens-Clarke County Great Smoky Mountains National Park Partners in Science, Technology, Education & Conservation

---

It is our goal to develop nine lesson plans that can be used in school yards to study local biodiversity and ecological interactions. Once developed, these plans should be applicable to a wide geographic area and might be incorporated into a program such as the international GLOBE program (see www.globe.gov). Each of these lesson plans involves asking scientific questions about the natural world, collecting field data in the school yard that address these questions, analyzing the information, and presenting it on the Web. Students learn a variety of skills, including critical thinking, how to collect and manage data, quality control, analytical skills, photography, and using computers as a tool, as scientists do. In short, we are developing comprehensive exercises to mentor students in science and have them produce data that is meaningful to the scientific community. Teachers will work with Ms. Edwards, Ms. Esco, Mr. McLucas, Dr. Pickering and Ms. Skillen to develop school yard lesson plans for conducting natural history studies on the following topics:

• Succession -- study of plant community changes over time. SStudents will set up permanent 20 x 50 meter plots and sample the community of plants within them. Succession will be studied by resampling these plots in future years.
• Herbivory -- students will study removal of leaves and leaf material, learning the critical distinction between the rate of removal and the standing crop of damage.
• Pathogen Damage -- students will measure the difference between t he susceptibility of plant species to pathogens.
• Caterpillar Diversity -- students will collect and rear caterpillars as part of a regional study of caterpillar diversity and their susceptibility to natural enemies.
• Ant Diversity -- using standard baits and other collecting techniques students will compare the diversity of ant communities in areas dominated by the imported fire ant and in areas without these exotic ants.
• Parasitoid Diversity -- students will help scientists to document the diversity and host range of parasitoids through rearing studies of insect
• Ant Predation -- students will conduct exclusion experiments and feeding trials to determine the effect of ants on prey communities.
• Seedling Survival -- students will conduct experiments to determine what factors are important to seedling survival.