Fourth graders are truly becoming environmental experts.  Knowing how every organism is connected in a food web, they quickly realized that an oil spill can literally spread throughout an ecosystem by means of the organisms that inhabit it.  

With various materials to contain and absorb the oil, fourth graders are collecting data on which materials could serve each purpose.  Using a controlled experimental set-up (same amount of oil and same time to use the material), they're gathering evidence to support their decision to begin a real oil spill clean-up process.  

Fourth graders continue to dig deeper into their understanding of how an ecosystem functions.  After learning about the types of organisms in an ecosystem, each fourth grader was transformed into a producer, consumer, or decomposer in a river ecosystem.  Two students were also magically transformed into the river and the sun, two non-living factors that affect an ecosystem, too.  

Meeting and greeting one another, they learned the possible organisms they may depend up for food or to stay away from!  We created a model of a river ecosystem food web to see how everything from the sun to the river is actually connected.  Check out our food web design to the left!  We used string to represent the relationships between organisms.  It was "very complicated!" said a student!  Yes, food webs are quite complicated indeed!

With actual skulls from IL mammals, fourth graders are seeing first hand the differences between organisms in an ecosystem.  Because organisms depend upon one another in many ways, and because an oil spill can affect all living things in an ecosystem, fourth graders are spending time "getting to know" different organisms!

Besides investigating skulls, they are also looking at their pelts, or furs.  There are also rubberized molds of their tracks and scat for students to observe.  Soon we'll be seeing how every organism is literally connecting to another organism in one way or another!