As graphing proceeds for the next 12 weeks, students are graded on meeting deadlines, individual accomplishments, and group integration of graphing assignments. Computers are used only after students have demonstrated their ability to retrieve and plot data previously collected. This phase involves the final 8 to 10 weeks of the school year. Our research actually begins and overlaps with the graphing of our raw data. As we learn about the effects of changes, both seasonal and man-made, students participate in labs that solve many problems brought up by them during our visits to the ditch.
Students learn about the effects of temperature using goldfish in the lab.
Although labs keep students active during the winter months, this cannot replace research in the library. My students each choose an organism that their group members have developed an interest in over the school year to study in depth. Each year, students invariably push for a more detailed look at our ecosystem that requires digging further than the mud and water in our ditch. Choosing one aspect to specialize in, students each write, document sources, and substantiate with data how that particular event effected their organism during the data collection period. With each group member contributing about 1 written page along with graphs, illustrations, and references we compile a finished research paper of about 12-15 pages in length per group.