Andrina Giusti

Database Assignment

Project Wild Activity: Forest in a Jar (pg. 137)

Grade Level(s): 4th-6th grade

Subject: Science, Environmental, Language Arts

OVERVIEW: Students will be able to create a forest

environment by replicating it in a jar. Then they will
use Inspire Data to enter their observations into a
flow chart.

MAKING IT BETTER: In the book, students were

asked to make presentations over a duration of time.
The way that their project is in enhanced by Inspire
Data is that the charts will show progression over
time and then allow students to make their
conclusions, on the same chart. It can be made
interactive with links to a web page of pictures or
samples they took with a camera, or hyper-link their
sources to online encyclopedias to confirm their
hypothesis about the changes in their “mini-forest”
that are similar or different from an actual forest
environment.

OBSERVATIONAL JOURNALS WRITTEN &

DIAGRAMED: Students will build their forests in the
jar according to the directions in Project Wild, then
they will write their observations in the outline.
Questions will include: What are their observations,
what are their predictions, what are their references
for their predictions and observations, why do they
think they were correct or incorrect about their
predictions, and what conditions caused their
predictions to be correct or incorrect. Below is a
snapshot of the Inspire Data in an outline. This
information will be entered into a flow chart (shown
beneath the outline snapshot) with the other
members of their group so the class can see their
progress.
REFERENCES

Cook, Cindy (May, 1994) Forest in a Jar: An Educator’s

Reference Desk Lesson Plan. Rierie Elementary. Retrieved

on July 26, 2008 from

http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Science/Ecology/ECL

0028.html

National Park Service (March, 2008) Lesson Plan: Layers of

Forest. Rock Creek Park, Curriculum Based Environmental

Education. Retrieved on July 26, 2008 from

http://www.nps.gov/archive/rocr/naturecenter/Educational/la

yersoftheforest.htm