What an appropriate theme for the September issue! I’ve often wondered why field trips are usually scheduled in the spring when the fall is such a great time to be outdoors. And activities involving plants and animals are good ways to introduce students to scientific investigation and observation at the beginning of the year. These activities range from growing plants in the classroom or the schoolyard to studying bird habitats.
If you’re tired of the same old “scavenger hunt” activity, the article Forest or Field? has some good suggestions for how to make your field trip more meaningful by formulating questions to investigate, using activities prior to the trip to build background knowledge and experiences, conducting actual investigations during the trip, and analyzing data back in the classroom. I can imagine that this takes a lot of work, but I’m sure the experience is much more of a learning process than simply giving students a checklist. And your field trip can be part of your instruction, not just a social event!
When studying habitats, it’s easy to focus on the plants and animals, but we can’t forget the nonliving (abiotic) factors that influence the kinds of organisms that live there: elevation, types of soil, climate, rock formations, water sources, the terrain. Use SciLinks to find information on these abiotic factors to complement what students learn about the living things in a habitat.
How many of your schools are decorated with real pumpkins for the fall? The article Gourd-ous Decomposition shows you how to turn these decorations into a learning experience on plant life cycles, especially the process of decomposition.
I was excited to see so many references to SciLinks in the articles. As a summary, here are the links directly to the topics:

I always learn from each issue. For example, I had never heard of the term “thigmotropism” before reading the article How Plants Move. It’s a cool-sounding word that I’ll think of when I plant my tomatoes and beans next spring!