Ecosystem Field Study in Central Park

Flowers. Mealworms. Green Leaves.

What a difference a few weeks make! This week, fifth graders took a quick walk to Central Park with science teacher Sam Woolford to continue their ecological field study. The boys had visited the same spots in the park in March and recorded their observations at that time. On this visit, the boys recorded differences they observed in those same spots, identifying what they saw as abiotic (never part of a living thing) or biotic (is or once was living). The visit is part of the fifth-grade study of balance and imbalance in ecosystems, where boys observe the relationship between the living and non-living elements they find.

Easy access to our Central Park classroom provides a fuller, authentic learning experience for this unit of study.