BioDiverse MicroUniverse

I: Overview   II: Wildlife (animal) to plant interrelationships   III: Soil to plant and animal interrelationships   IV: Influence of water cycle to plants, animals and soil   V: Let's get started on Implementation   Back to TORCH start page

Overview WHO ARE WE? My name is Julia Hamm, and I am a facilitator at McMath Middle School in Denton, Texas. I have taught science for three years and I enjoy getting my students excited about learning and taking responsibility for their own education. The McMath building is new this year and I would like the students to take responsibility for restoring the adjacent areas of the school to their natural environment through naturescaping. My partner in this project is Norma Braden Gilman; she is a facilitator at Edison Junior High in San Angelo, Texas. The hospital adjoining her school has donated the use of a large lot to be used for environmental education. A portion has been set aside for her classroom use. She would like her portion to be xeriscaped to its natural environment. Together we are building a program to allow our students to extend their knowledge of the environment through comparison of the various ecosystems and planning projects. Through this knowledge the students will facilitate their own learning and create their own ecosystem.     OUR PURPOSE IS . . . ... to participate in a joint project with our students. The students from our individual schools will research their own natural ecosystems and compare their findings. The findings will be used to design and implement the nature scape or xeriscape ecosystem at their school. We hope to incorporate the importance of biodiversity to all the requirements of a working ecosystem, such as: plants, animals, soil, climate and the water cycle. The students will be using the internet and E-mail to research and comunicate their comparisons.     BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Naturescaping is a process by which we work to conserve the land's own biodiversity. We will be working only with the plants and animals that are native to our region's ecosystem. The wildlife we choose will be the original species that developed in our area. Xeriscaping is a process by which we work to create a biologically diverse universe that will withstand the natural climate conditions without interference. This will naturally conserve water as the plants and animals integrated into the ecosystem will survive naturally with the existing environment. These processes will allow and integrated curriculum to develop in a hands on outdoor laboratory that will benefit our environment and schools simultaneously.