Reimagining art & ecology: there's no place like home.From Good to Great--Stevenson Grows Wild was an art & ecology project created by the teachers, students, and staff at Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School in Grandview Heights, Ohio Grandview Heights is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States. The population was 6,695 at the 2000 census. The city was originally part of Marble Cliff, one of the first suburbs of Columbus, which settled as a community in 1890 and incorporated as the "Hamlet of , in spring of 2002. This schoolyard habitat redevelopment was organized by the school librarian, Mrs. Burkey; the fourth-grade teachers Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Haddox, and Mrs. Pettit; and Professor Don Krug and Jennifer Kozman (graduate student) from the Ohio State University Ohio State University, main campus at Columbus; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1870, opened 1873 as Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, renamed 1878. There are also campuses at Lima, Mansfield, Marion, and Newark. . Ron Hirshi, a visiting author and ecologist on a weeklong residency, guided the teachers, parent volunteers, kindergarten through fourth-grade students, and staff on the project. Plants, animals, and people depend upon their habitat for sustaining their life cycle. In order to sustain the biodiversity of our home, planet Earth, we need to care for the existing plant and animal habitats and create new places. Kindergarten students observed beans growing in plastic bags to learn about the lifecycle. By working together we were able to make the school a place for animals to live, have food, and raise and protect their young. Taking pictures and writing stories about how the schoolyard habitat changed over the week helped us learn about biodiversity, habitats, and lifecycles. By creating our Web pages we were able to share how teachers, students, and parent volunteers became stewards "caring for our home" and helping improve our school habitat. What Is a Habitat? A habitat is the physical place, such as a desert, forest, or single tree, where a plant or animal lives and which is usually described by its physical features; also the natural home of a community. Where is your habitat? Where do you live? What do you depend on for shelter? Do you need the rivers for water, plants for air to breath, and other animals for maintaing your human life cycle? What Is Biodiversity? Biodiversity is a combination of two terms, biology (life) and diversity (differences). It refers to the variety of life that exists on Earth. What are some biodiversity issues? Habitat destruction (burning or felling of old-growth forests), overexploitation (overhunting of elephants and rhinos), pollution (industrial emissions that cause acid rain), global climate change (the greenhouse effect and destruction of the ozone layer), and invasion by introduced species (displacement of native songbirds in the U.S. by European starlings). Getting Started Step 1. Assess Your Schoolyard Habitat Spaces The first thing you need to do is identify the habitat elements that already exist in your schoolyard or garden space. You may be surprised to find out you're already providing some habitat for wildlife! Step 2. Provide the Four Basic Elements All species have four basic requirements for survival: food, water, cover, and places to raise young. Step 3. Practice Habitat Care in Your Own Community Conserving resources will not only help the wildlife in your own yard, but will help improve your community's environment. What is a life cycle? egg: the tiny orb laid by a female butterfly. Eggs are usually laid on the underside of leaves--they hatch into larvae Larvae, in Roman religion Larvae: see lemures. . larva larva, in zoology larva, independent, immature animal that undergoes a profound change, or metamorphosis, to assume the typical adult form. Larvae occur in almost all of the animal phyla; because most are tiny or microscopic, they are rarely seen. : (also called the caterpillar) this stage hatches from the egg. The larva spends its time eating, growing, and molting molting, periodical shedding and renewal of the outer skin, exoskeleton, fur, or feathers of an animal. In most animals the process is triggered by secretions of the thyroid and pituitary glands. (shedding its exoskeleton exoskeleton /exo·skel·e·ton/ (-skel´e-ton) a hard structure formed on the outside of the body, as a crustacean's shell; in vertebrates, applied to structures produced by the epidermis, as hair, nails, hoofs, teeth, etc. ). pupa pupa (py  `pə), name for the third stage in the life of an insect that undergoes complete metamorphosis, i.e., develops from the egg through the larva and the pupa stages to the adult. : the stage in a butterfly's life when it is encased en·case tr.v. en·cased, en·cas·ing, en·cas·es To enclose in or as if in a case. en·case  ment n. in a
chrysalis chrysalis (krĭs`əlĭs): see pupa. and undergoes metamorphosis into the adult, winged form.
adult: the winged adult which will mate and reproduce. Adults do not eat, they only sip liquids through a straw-like proboscis proboscis elongated, flexible feeding apparatus, formed of the fused mouthparts, in some insects. . ecology: the study of living things in their environment. flora: all the plants in a particular area. fauna: all the animals in a particular area. humans: there is a great diversity among different people around the world. WEB LINK www.dkrug.com/stevenson/ Dr. Don H. Krug is a faculty member in the Department of Curriculum Studies at the University of British Columbia Locations Vancouver The Vancouver campus is located at Point Grey, a twenty-minute drive from downtown Vancouver. It is near several beaches and has views of the North Shore mountains. The 7. in Vancouver, BC Canada. don.krug@ubc.ca |
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