Vital Signs data is used by students, the public, and professional scientists to better understand invasive and native species in Maine. For that reason, observations need to be of a certain quality to ensure their usefulness. Before students do their own data collection, they take time to explore and decide what good quality data looks like.
Doctors and nurses routinely check “vital signs” (temperature, pulse, blood pressure, breathing, etc.) to get a sense of a person’s health. Similarly, scientists use tools to check an ecosystem’s “vital signs” and assess health. Students practice the Vital Signs Fieldwork Skills that will ultimately help them collect high quality data to determine the health of their own local ecosystem.
Spend time using your senses to make and record observations of the natural world. From those observations, begin to think about the questions you have about the world around you.
Here is an assessment that I used for my classes after they finished their Vital Signs Investigations. They evaluate how well their team cooperated and shared the responsibilities for this project. I also ask them to evaluate the program and to give suggestions to make this better for them.
The cards developed here are to be used to label the tool bags and to help the teams remember to bring in all their equipment. The team name card is used to identify the team members and the name the team will use for their user name. The students write this information on the cards. The old first round MLTI computer bags work great for this.
This activity is used to help the students learn how to use the camera: the macro, focus in on an object, clearly communicate what the object is, and to evaluate their own and others pictures in a nonjudgmental way. The goal of this activity is to help them understand what good evidence would look like in pictures.
Students take their responsibilities more seriously when they feel an obligation towards their peers. This "contract" can be used to clarify between students on a team what each is responsible for. Students were asked to take the time to read out loud to the rest of the team what their responsibilities were, before signing - making it sort of ritualistic conveys that sense of gravity about their work.
Use the species cards to translate and bridge the gap between them and the use of dichotomous keys in classification. Have students use the keys and cards to create mini keys that would help to identify the species that they are studying in the field.
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