Every school has an ecological laboratory right outside the door.
Schoolyard ecology uses inquiry to learn about organisms that live right in the schoolyard or other nearby, easily accessible sites. Students will be much more aware of natural events in a place that they see every day. Schoolyard ecology emphasizes science that is accessible to everyone. They reflect on their first two steps to determine if their action answered their question, if their methods were sound, and how they apply what they learned to the larger world. An ecology study, then, can simply be the process of asking a question about something you observe, and then framing it in the form of an investigation.