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. Spider webs are found in many areas around a schoolyard -on buildings, in pipes, on fences, hedges, bushes, trees, leaf litter, trees, tall grass, flower gardens, and under outdoor lighting fixtures. Although a spider may not be present during the day because many are nocturnal, their prey or remains of their prey will be found in the web.
Students can identify the types of webs found and in which environment they are located.
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. In teams, the students can form a hypothesis, then design and conduct an experiment to test their hypothesis. They need to write up their experiment in such a way and in enough detail that another group could repeat their experiment to see if the same results are obtained.