Field Investigations Examples

Intermediate (Grades 2–4)

Who Eats What?
Extend your classroom investigations of how animals survive in their habitats at different life cycle stages. Students search for examples of shelter, camouflage, migration, hibernation, and defense mechanisms. Discover how animals struggle to meet their own food needs to survive.

Prairie Seeds and Woodland Wonders
Identify and learn about plants and habitat restoration as they investigate plant life cycles. Collect and stratify seeds to grow the next generation of plants in your classroom or to help our ongoing prairie and woodland restoration projects.

Upper Elementary (Grades 4–6)

Can You Put Nature in a Box?
Engage your students in ecosystem investigations as they define a study area, use tools to measure and record important characteristics, and interpret their observations. Investigate differences in prairie, woodland, and creek ecosystems and make their own model ecosystem.

Navigating an Urban Stream
Explore the dynamics of stream ecosystems, learning how aspects of the water cycle shape our landscapes to form the watersheds that we all live in. Through field studies and hands-on work with a stream model, students investigate the living and non-living factors that affect steam ecosystems, including how humans impact and depend upon these precious water resources.

For more information contact the Ecology Center Coordinator at (314)540-4068 or martha@litzsinger.org.