Younger students may begin an imaginary trip in a Conestoga Wagon across the prairie to a new home in the Dakotas. When they walk through grasses grown taller than they are, they begin to understand this immense undertaking for families that loaded all their possessions into these small wagons. Students use magnifying glasses to study plants and insects up close and personal and to distinguish insects from fall seeds. They write about how they feel and what they see while sitting quietly in the prairie. It is amazing to see how much they have learned about individual prairie grasses and forbs.
Docents help older students collect data about the prairie ecosystem.
Since nets are popular, students love to collect and identify water creatures and sweep the fields for insects. They keep tabs on the development of the student prairie plot by conducting quadrat and abiotic studies. Groups of students select a section of the prairie, drop a square meter marker over the tall plants and carefully identify and count all the plants. Docents also assist students in the lab. Imagine 40 excited 7th graders creating their own pond and watching to see if it lives or dies, using microscopes to explore all sorts of little things, examining seeds, twigs, skulls and live insects.