Prairie Ecology Bus - Hands-On Science Lessons for Children

Tromping through the woods with 20 excited 7 year-olds, looking for bugs, slugs and other things that make my skin crawl, carrying about an inch of mud on the bottom of your shoes, and wearing a parka and gloves on a cold spring day is not most people's idea of a good time. But the staff from the Prairie Ecology Bus Center turns this outing into a fun and educational experience.

The Prairie Ecology Bus is headquartered in Lakefield, MN, just off I-90 in southwestern Minnesota. The bus is essentially a classroom on wheels. Its the only program of its kind in North America. Its modeled after a program in Sweden. There are seats on the bus similar to those on a Greyhound bus. In addition to seating, there are cupboards, countertops and overhead projectors. There are also monitors placed above the seats allowing for easy viewing by all occupants of the bus.

Once a year my first grade class boards the Prairie Ecology Bus and travels to a local wooded park to capture and study insects. The experience begins on our way to the park. One instructor drives the bus while the other uses the overhead projector and monitors to make a chart showing the children's favorite bugs. Then the children are asked to tell which bugs they don't like. We end up with a good list and a bad list. The instructor then leads the children the process of finding something useful or helpful about each insect and eventually moving all the insects to the "good" side of the list.

Once we arrive at the park, the PEBC staff teaches the children about body parts and characteristics of insects, contrasting them with other "bugs" such as arachnids. They also play a game with the kids to help them learn how insects are divided into families or orders.

Next the children are given instructions and containers for humanely collecting insects at the park.

They search for insects under logs, rocks and in other spots near the wooded trails under the supervision of the PEBC instructors, carefully replacing any objects they have disturbed.

Then the kids return to the bus with their insects. On the way back to school, several insects are placed on the overhead projector, and students are able to look closely at the insects.

After two-and-a-half hours, the children are returned to the school and the bugs are released.

The Ecology Bus staff run many different programs which include water quality, stream and lake biology, benthic macros investigation, forest ecology, forest wildlife, prairie ecology, prairie wildlife, ecosystems inventory, soils, to name but a few. There are programs appropriate for preschool-aged children through high school students.

Source:

www.ecologybus.org

http://www.martinswcd.net/martinswcdpebc.htm