Reasoning
As science teachers we know experiments are the best way to reinforce phenomena studied within the classroom. However, many of these experiments, while reinforcing phenomena, do not always teach our students what scientists do most: “collect data”. But to be clear we don't simply collect the data, we also chart it and find a way to disseminate it to our peers in a digestible manner. This understanding of charts is also a large component in many standardized tests which administrators are always keen to focus on. This project is formed by the fact that over the course of a year I built a vivarium in my classroom. We are all likely familiar with a terrarium which is a largely self-contained ecosystem. A vivarium focused on a living creature like Lacertilians (Lizards), Lissamphibia (Amphibians), and insects inside a simulated natural habitat. In building a biome step by step in front of the students I noticed engagement from all my students not just those asking questions, but every student took time when entering or leaving the class to examine the tank. First, I started with soil. The soil includes a fault bottom of stone and sand as a filter and a pump to recycle the water back to the top of the tank and create artificial flow. Then structures in the tank such as climbing zones for future animals and planting pockets for vegetation. Then by slowly adding plant species, isopods and amphibians I created a study of ecosystem construction students were actively engaged in.
Fig 1 - generated image of students examining terrariums
Students rush into my room every day simply to see what was new in the vivarium tank looking to observe and even give the inhabitants, the class has now adopted, names to be included with the species name as they were introduced. This unit has the ability to be adapted for use on many different grade levels depending on how in depth you are willing to develop the ecosystem. For the purposes of my 8th grade class, we will simply be creating a terrarium to start with the possibility of extending to insect life and worms will depend on how successful the ecosystem building is towards a self-sustaining biome. By moving from Earth to Mars, assuming the two systems are analogous, we can explore the same phenomenon in a seemingly new and unique way. Datasets can be collected in a much smaller footprint as they have one snapshot of one reason to consider given the limited data available from Mars. This provides the opportunity to explore life science here on earth by adapting it to an alien environment. By using the different approach students can see the benefits that could also apply to stabilizing or repairing earth's environment. Since the earth’s environment does not possess the characteristics to show the effect quickly and we are assuming the two planets are analogous we should not expect to see changes overnight. Students need to adopt the adage, “Good things come to those who wait” so this unit will need to be taught in start and stop pieces with students logging data throughout the entire yearlong experiment.
There are many options when discussing colonization of another planet. We could be discussing whether life ever existed on Mars to begin with as would really fit in a planetary unit within general science class or be a complete science class on its own. We could be discussing options for overall global terraforming done remotely before humans arrive which would be an excellent endeavor for an environmental science unit in a general science class or on a high school or college level could be a course alone. However, all of these things are specific to the Martian trip and this unit is meant to be a stand in for earth's soil Biome. Working with the tools of curiosity we can establish a baseline for students who wish to learn more while advancing their science knowledge and hopefully encourage them to move forward not simply pass the current science class.
We all love our gardens on campus when we can build them provided lack of labeling does not lead to landscape crews destroying them. Also, the outside garden provides us with too much to start with to understand the complete soil building process to create the desired microbiome involved. This also gives us the opportunity to create experiments within our classrooms to avoid the trauma of our students losing their experiments midterm due to the landscaping crew or simply a bad growing season due to variables outside of the control of the students. And the key take away from this process is that we keep them asking questions and interested in their experiment through the entire year. The observation skills and the note taking skills that this year long experiment will be developing will follow them beyond this science class and serve them well into the future.
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