Outdoor Education Program : Wetlands

Wetland Wonders
Wetlands are vibrant ecosystems, among the most rich and diverse of all natural habitats. See signs of beavers at work, catch water bugs and discover some of the amazing adaptations of aquatic invertebrates. Also, listen and look for the many wetland birds that inhabit this beautiful fen.
Grade 4,7 (This program can be modified to suit any grade)

Life Systems - Habitats and Communities
4s1	demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of habitat and community, and identify the factors that could affect habitats and communities of plants and animals;
4s2	investigate the dependency of plants and animals on their habitat and the interrelationships of the plants and animals living in a specific habitat;
4s3	describe ways in which humans can change habitats and the effects of these changes on the plants and animals within the habitats.
4s5	classify organisms according to their role in a food chain (e.g., producer, consumer);
4s7	describe structural adaptations of plants and animals that demonstrate a response of the living things to their environment (e.g., the height of a plant depends on the amount of sunlight the plant gets; many animals that live in the Arctic have white fur);
4s8	recognize that animals and plants live in specific habitats because they are dependent on those habitats and have adapted to them (e.g., ducks live in marshes because they need marsh plants for food and shelter and water for movement);
4s9	classify plants and animals that they have observed in local habitats according to similarities and differences (e.g., in shape, location).

Life Systems - Interactions Within Ecosystems
7s1	demonstrate an understanding of the interactions of plants, animals, fungi, and micro- organisms in an ecosystem;
7s4	identify living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) elements in an ecosystem;
7s9	interpret food webs that show the transfer of energy among several food chains, and evaluate the effects of the elimination or weakening of any part of the food web;
7s12	identify signs of ecological succession in a local ecosystem (e.g., the presence of blueberries in an area recently devastated by fire; the presence of pioneer organisms that start the process of succession in sand dunes).

Wetland Wonders