Students take on the role of naturalist discovering a plant for the first time. They look closely, name the plant, collect detailed information about it, and sketch it. As a fun extension, have the students exchange their work with another class, and see if they can identify the mystery plants.
Creative ways for your students to share their findings with an authentic audience
All the ways to participate in conversations and collaborate with the VS community!
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.
Self-organization and choice are two powerful motivational tools that get students excited and personally invested in the learning or investigating they are about to do. Use this process whenever you want students to team up to learn or investigate something in which they are personally interested, invested, and excited.
Public Service Announcements are short videos that try to convince people to pay attention to something, think differently, or behave a certain way. Students create a series of 30- or 60-second Public Service Announcements that explain, raise awareness, generate support, change behavior, or motivate action!
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