Pre-Trip Visit – Cold Weather
 Activities
in your school begin four or five
days prior to the Eco-Trekker’s field study
and will include:
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Producers, consumers, & decomposers.
Food chains and food webs.
Competition.
Predators & prey.
Living & non-living factors.
 Take
a brief Pre-assessment
 Think
about how you will make your
eco-chamber.
Terrestrial Eco-chambers
Aquatic Eco-chamber
Silversides
Green Darner Dragonflies
Great Blue Herons
White-tailed Deer
 At
your first site, the science resource
teacher/naturalist will board the bus, let
you know what to bring for the morning,
and review the pre-assessment results.
Shoreline
Wetlands
 Pass
out science logs.
 Discuss the details of the day.
 How
would you plan and design a model
of a successful ecosystem?
 Scientists
collect data. You will record your
data in science logs.
 How
do non-living factors affect the living
factors in a successful ecosystem?
 Use
four of your senses to identify
non-living factors found at the shoreline
ecosystem.
 Thermometers
- determine the air
temperature and water temperature at the
shoreline ecosystem
 Using
a chart of the Chesapeake Bay, predict
the salinity of the water of Miami Beach’s
shoreline ecosystem.
 Digital
salinity meters - determine the
salinity of the water at the shoreline
ecosystem
 Seine
net - collect producers, consumers, and
evidence of decomposers
 Record
all the data you collected about
the living factors into your science log.
 How
do water and decomposed materials
move through a successful ecosystem?
 Use
four of your senses to identify
non-living factors found at the wetland
ecosystem.
If students quietly approach the bridge on
the boardwalk, it can be an ideal place to
observe wetland consumers.
 Thermometers
- determine the air
temperature and water temperature at the
wetland ecosystem
 Digital
salinity meters - determine the salinity
of the water at the wetland ecosystem
 Dip
net - collect producers, consumers, and
decomposers
 Look
carefully through the detritus for tiny
organisms hiding from predators!
 Aquatic
organisms called macroinvertebrates
can often be found in the detritus.
 Identify
common producers found in a wetland
ecosystem.
 Record
all the data you collected about
the living factors into your science log.
 At
your second site, the science resource
teacher/naturalist will board the bus and
let you know what to bring for the
afternoon.
Forest
Meadow
 How
does energy from the sun move
through a successful ecosystem?
 Use
four of your senses to identify
non-living factors found at the forest
ecosystem.
 Thermometers
- determine the air
temperature at the forest ecosystem
 Digital
salinity meters – discuss the salinity
at the forest ecosystem
 Used
by scientists to count and/or measure
something within a defined area
 Using
the given flags, identify producers,
consumers, and decomposers found in the
forest ecosystem.
 Record
all the data you collected about
the living factors into your science log.
 Why
is a variety of organisms beneficial to a
successful ecosystem?
 Use
four of your senses to identify
non-living factors found at the meadow
ecosystem.
 Thermometers
- determine the air
temperature at the meadow ecosystem
 Digital
salinity meters – discuss the salinity
at the meadow ecosystem
 Sweep
net – collect producers, consumers,
and decomposers
 Remove
the consumers from the sweep nets.
 Place them in bug boxes.
 Observe the consumers and identify them.
 Count the number of organisms.
 Record
all the data you collected about
the living factors into your science log.
 The
field study might be over, but not your
role as a scientist!
 We
enter the data you collected online.
 Use your data to draw conclusions about the
different ecosystems.
 Using
what you learned in the classroom and
on the field study, you will make an ecochamber.
 Backpack
 Plastic
bags (2-3)
 Hand towel
 Extra clothes: socks,
underwear, pants or
shorts, shirt
 Spare shoes/sneakers
 Rain gear (possibly)
 Sharpened
pencils
 Trash free lunch
 Dress
in warm layers (which can be taken
off as you get warmer).
 Hat and gloves
 Appropriate shoes and socks
for outside stations
(both wet work and dry work)
 Students will not be entering water when
water temperature is below 55˚F or the
weather conditions are not appropriate.
Dress appropriately! Remember, you will be outdoors at least 4 hours.
 You
must wear shoes if you go in the water
and have dry shoes to wear on the bus (no
sandals or flip flops).
 Sunscreen
 Hat
 Sunglasses
 Extra drinking water
Dress appropriately! Remember, you will be outdoors at least 4 hours.
Acceptable Footwear
 Footwear with laces
 Sneakers (preferably
old ones)
 Boots
Unacceptable Footwear
 Open-toed shoes such as:



Flip-flops, sandals
Teva’s
Croc’s
 No
matter what the weather, you will be
attending the Eco-Trekker field study.
 If lightning/thunder develop, we will go indoors.
 Be prepared for the weather!
Trash Free Lunch
 Reusable lunch bag
 Reusable water bottle
 Plastic containers used
to hold food
Your goal:
NOT a Trash Free Lunch
 Plastic bag for lunch bag
 Juice box
 Plastic baggies/Zip-lock
baggies used to hold food
 Lunchables