Standard A. Locate, organize and use information from various sources to answer questions, solve problems and communicate ideas. Standard B. Analyze and evaluate information acquired from various sources. Standard C. Apply acquired information, concepts and ideas to communicate in a variety of formats. Schoolyards, wetlands, fields, woodlands, and other outdoor areas are homes for a host of biological sounds from organisms that children can readily identify. The barking of a dog, the warbling of birds, the chirping of a cricket or the croak of a frog are all sounds that students can record and identify.
Students can use digital video cameras to record sounds or even tape recorders.
This would give the students a retrievable copy of the outdoor sounds they heard for further discussion. Students might also be able to photograph the source of these sounds with a digital camera. This should become a team exercise where your student groups might each develop and write a hypothesis, list the materials they would use, the number of each item, and a procedure. An excellent way to assess this activity is to have the teams repeat each other's experiment to see if they achieve the same results. This will also replicate the real world challenges facing a research scientist.