Fifth Graders Visit Boone Y Camp

On Tuesday, April 23, King Elementary’s fifth graders got to experience the great outdoors at the Boone Y Camp.  Despite the cold and windy weather, students hiked around the campgrounds observing the natural habitats of Iowa and investigating stream ecology.  Students observed nesting ducks and beaver dams as well as freshly laid deer tracks.  Students also learned about aquatic invertebrates and then searched the local stream for a collection of invertebrates to observe and study.

Jeremiah McGregor holds the structure steady as Naturalist Mike Havlik adds the final pole.

 

This field experience was the capstone to the entire fifth grade science instruction.  Earlier in the year, students helped build a traditional Native American Tipi as an introduction to environments and using mathematical variables as part of science.  Students then worked together in class to investigate the effects of different variables; including length of pendulums and capacity of paper boats.  Understanding variables is an important part of preserving natural environments.  During the hike around the Boone Y Camp, students learned that only 1% of the natural prairie grass in Iowa still remains untouched after the development of cities and farms.

 

Later in the year, students learned what tools were needed to properly filter different mixtures and solutions.  This information was helpful when discussing how the forest floor acts as a filter as rainwater moves into the stream.  As students looked though the stream for different invertebrates, they discovered that the forest works well as a filter due to the high population of a certain invertebrate that prefers clean water.

Students also received information about habitats during a guest presentation from Polk County Conservation.  The information received during this presentation helped students identify animal habitats.  Fifth graders will end the year planning, planting and observing small terrariums.  Each group will plant five types of seeds and decide what variables to change in order to provide the optimum environment for each plant.

Click the picture below to view more pictures from all of the fifth grade field trips this year.

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