Middle School Showcase at the Mt. Bio Lab

In this science outreach activity student try their hand at estimating percent cover and observing functional traits, demonstrating that we can learn many things about an ecosystem, even without species-level identification!

On Friday, April 3 over 100 local middle school students visited CU Boulder for a science outreach event held by the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). During the Middle School Showcase students toured research labs on campus learning from researchers about the exciting work they do, and participating in hands-on activities.

In the Mt. Bio lab students learned how scientists study plants from Ecuador to Colorado and how researchers can make comparisons even between vastly different ecosystems.

Students try identifying unique plants and using real scientific strategies to estimate their abundance.

Just like our team in Ecuador, students used a visual key to help estimate the distribution of different plants. Students identified small, medium, and large plants in a plastic tote terrarium, allowing them to compare this mico-ecosystem to real data from field sites in Ecuador and Colorado. We talk about how researchers can study the similarities between ecosystems, even among locations with totally different species. Learning to understand the deep relationships between ecosystems all across the world is a key part of ecology!

Some of the example instructions for the Mt. Bio Lab’s interactive plant cover activity. Educators interested in using these resources in the classroom are invited to contact the Mt. Bio lab; we love to share our science in fun and accessible ways!