Hands-on science
Rugby sophomore Allison Leer gladly traded an hour in her biology classroom for one outdoors last week.
She wasn’t alone.
Fellow classmates in Frank Martz’s biology class were happy to be under blue skies last Wednesday morning, Sept. 8, at the walking path for a lesson in botany.
“It’s definitely more interesting to learn from other than a textbook,’ Leer said. “It’s more fun to see things first hand.”
Martz agrees.
“I love to take my classes outside and I think they get more out of the experience,’ he said. “Biology is a subject that can be learned by observing the world around us.”
The students were gathering different species of leaves and needles along the path as part of a botany project. They placed them in small plastic bags.
During the field trip Martz pointed out the differences between a Colorado blue spruce and a Black Hills white spruce that were side by side.
“At first glance they make look the same, but as you can see they have different features,’ Martz said to his students.
The students eventually classified the various specimens into a booklet.