La Salle High School Students Explore Shrubland on Biology Field Trip

Scientific research is conducted in many ways and students in the classroom tend to get only the experimental form. In allowing the students to actually get out into the field and complete observations, they are getting an opportunity to study the world around them first-hand and not just get information from a textbook.

This assignment gives them an understanding of the methods of field study, it allows them to complete the observations which include a log of events, site description, and bird’s-eye-view drawing as well as helps to identify and find evidence of living organisms.

There is preparation in the classroom as to what to expect in a riparian-chaparral habitat (river and shrubland), how to collect date, what are microhabitats, what ecologists study regarding geographic distribution and density of organisms, etc.

Their final project is presented in a web page format that is accessible to all of the students in the class. This allows them to see what others have found and to share in the learning of the rest of the Biology students.

La Salle High School, 3880 East Sierra Madre Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 351-8951 or visit www.lasallehs.org.