In addition to instructions for collecting, cleaning, cutting, and joining bottles, the book offers tips for integrating explorations in history, art, and music with the bottle biology experiments. Students are encouraged to work in cooperative groups. In sample activities, students experiment with conditions affecting the rate of decomposition, use bottles to study soil sedimentation and water holding capacity, and study predator prey relationships. Students combine multiple bottles to form EcoColumns that enable them to model many kinds of aquatic and terrestrial environments. The models they design include habitats and niches for plants and invertebrates.
Students keep journals in which they record observations, design charts, and develop graphs.
In sample extension activities, students introduce snails into the system and build ecosystems that reflect a community within a specific geographical region. Each chapter includes background information, instructions for building and filling columns, suggestions for extension activities and experiments, and bibliographic references. ENC does NOT distribute this resource.