1. They go into the Lab to observe aquatic animals and how they are adapted to an aquatic lifestyle.  For instance, a common theme throughout aquatic systems worldwide is a dark back or dorsal surface and a light colored belly or ventral surface.  A dark dorsum helps the animal to blend into the dark bottom when a predator is looking downward but a light colored venter will blend in with the sky when a predator is beneath the animal.  This is an adaptation that is passed on through the generations and it is ubiquitous within aquatic environments (more scientifically, it would be called convergent evolution).
2. Seventh graders use hand nets to catch animals in the pond and then keep a record of how many of each species was found. 
3. Then they do the same thing at the stream. 
4. Finally, they collect physical data from various bodies of water (Specifically, Temperature, pH and Dissolved Oxygen).

The idea is to then pool the data from all four rotations and compare to look for differences and similarities between bodies of water.  Maybe, different insects are found in the pond than in the stream.  Are there any correlation’s that might explain this?  Well, the stream has more Dissolved Oxygen and the temperature is lower.  The colder the water the more gas can be dissolved – think about the escape of gas when opening a warm soda.  Perhaps the stream insects need more oxygen.  A little research in the library would validate this.  Hopefully, the Lab animal observations helped students to understand the challenges or benefits of living an aquatic lifestyle.

The teacher can use this data to have students understand the importance of consistency when collecting data.  Predictions can be made and hypotheses tested by taking similar data from Four-Mile Run in Arlington.  At the Lab we will eventually use the student’s data to develop a base line from which to notice any environmental problems in the waters of the Lab.  Because we only get your child for a day, we rely on the classroom teacher to help kids to make the connections between learning in the classroom and their Lab experience - between the intellectual endeavor and the hands-on real world.

Students are divided into working groups of 4-5 students and each group is provided with a packet of questions / activities and a map.  Groups are self-guided through as many stations as time allows.  Some activities are not specific to any one station.  At a station the students are asked questions regarding some natural situation in front of them.  They collect stream macro-invertebrates, look at poison ivy, lichens and fungi, measure the pH of the stream, pond and a spring, identify birds and leaves, and examine a decaying animal carcass.  Some of the ecological principles that students will focus on are water quality, symbiotic relationships, forest succession, ecological bioregions, predator/prey relationships, trophic levels, food webs and energy transfer.  Other activities cover classification and identification, photosynthesis, evolutionary adaptation and nature writing.

Depending on the time of year, students come with varying levels of understanding of the concepts.  Labstaff, teachers and adult chaperones are responsible for working with the groups to help them to think about the questions, tempering the amount of help given with students’ prior knowledge.

Students rotate through three activities related to evolutionary adaptation.  Adaptation can be defined in two ways: 1) the process of genetic change at the population level in response to changes in the environment or 2) a morphological, behavioral, or physiological attribute that increases an organism’s survivorship long enough to successfully reproduce.  Adaptations are built by natural selection and are always heritable.  One definition makes adaptation a verb – to adapt; the other a noun – an adaptation.  These concepts are inextricably related because an adaptation allows an organism (a population, really) to adapt to its environment.

1. Camouflage game – This game examines predator – prey relationships and how coloration can help an animal to blend in.  Several “prey” take up positions in the forest with bandannas of various colors on their heads.  “Predators” try to spot as many exposed colored heads as they can.  We then look at why some colors serve to hide the prey more than others do.
2. Lab animal adaptations – In this activity, students examine animals and their morphological structures to understand how these are adaptations.  For example, skulls of a bear and various rodents are used to show dietary specialization (or generalization) is a function of mammalian tooth structure and arrangement.  The same is true of bird skulls and the shape of their bills.  Body shape, feather structure, bone structure and cranial capacity are other concepts that are explored.