Month | Long-Term Project Schedule |
Sept | Introductory lessons. Set up teams and review experiment methodology with students Go over all the stations with the students, Students fill in introductory pages of the Observation Booklet. Each team prepares arthropod cards. |
Oct | Go to plant stations every other week. Teams collect arthropods and other critters and classify them. They record totals and make observations in their booklets. |
Nov | Go to plant stations every other week. Teams collect arthropods and other critters and classify them. They record totals and make observations in their booklets. |
Dec | Go to plant stations once. Teams collect arthropods and other critters and classify them. They record totals and make observations in their booklets. |
Jan | Go to plant stations once. Teams collect arthropods and other critters and classify them. They record totals and make observations in their booklets. |
Feb | Go to plant stations every other week. Teams collect arthropods and other critters and classify them. They record totals and make observations in their booklets. |
Mar | Go to plant stations every other week. Teams collect arthropods and other critters and classify them. They record totals and make observations in their booklets.Each team makes a graph of their results. Teams compare data. Students look for overall patterns in arthropod type and frequency based on type of plant and season. |
In this long-term project, students collect data related to arthropods. A scientist that studies arthropods and other creepy crawlies is called an entomologist They learn the characteristics of arthropods and various subtypes. Students work as teams at different plant stations. They shake vegetation to collect arthropods and other little critters on a white cloth or sheet. They then classify them, using their identification cards, count them, make observations, and record and ultimately graph their results. Over time, they should see arthropod habitat preferences and variations in arthropod populations due to seasonal change.
Arthropods are bilaterally symmetrical and have jointed body segments with a pair of appendages attached to each body segment. The body is covered with a cuticle (thickened substance) which comes off ("molts") as the arthropod grows. There is no internal skeleton. The circulatory system of arthropods is very simple, and they reproduce by laying eggs. Many insects go through metamorphosis during their life cycle. So, a butterfly is the adult insect, but the caterpillar is the same insect in one of its early stages and looks more like a "worm" than an insect. Many arthropods, like mosquitoes, spend most of their life in an aquatic form before they metamorphose into flying insects.
Identification of arthropod types is not easy, because there are so many "creepy crawlies" out there. Arthropods are divided into two major groupings. One group (called chelicerates) includes spiders, scorpions, ticks and horseshoe crabs. They have no antennae and the first pair of appendages are pincher-like. The second major grouping of arthropods (called mandibulates) include most of the common arthropods, such as bees, flies, butterflies, ants and beetles. We will be concentrating on the more common arthropods, which are characterized by a three-part body – head (a), thorax (b) and abdomen (c). Wing covers or elytra (d), wings (e) and antennae (f) are usually present.