Conceptual Framework
Participating in meaningful outdoor
learning experiences
The Biodiversity Monitoring Project
is designed to provide teachers with the skills and tools
needed to teach the scientific principles of biodiversity
monitoring using local forests, parkland or other natural
areas as a living ecosystem laboratory. Students, teachers
and community partners experience their local environment
first-hand, and become involved in projects that allow them
to understand and relate their local experiences to their
global environment.
Implementing activities for authentic
student inquiry
We believe that students can and should
be involved in the process of forming questions about the
natural world and be actively engaged in seeking answers.
Our focus on the process of science and authentic student
inquiry are major themes in both National and State standards
of learning.
Engaging students in understanding
critical concepts
Students involved in the project
will learn about ecology as the study of dynamic and changing
systems. They will develop skills that rely on the scientific
method to understand the complexity of ecosystems and monitor
changes in that system over time. Their experiences will give
them information to become good stewards of ecosystems locally
and around the world.
These types of school-scientist partnerships are at the core of regional educational initiatives, such as the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience requirements laid out in the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement and signed by State governments in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
