students can document the different loca- Projects like this also can make the
tions and ways insects contribute to the local power of mathematics very real to kids. If
ecosystem. Are there dead trees or rotting they aren’t careful, they might just learn a
logs being slowly devoured? Leaves on few things about converting between metric
plants serving as food for insects? Creative and english units, using decimals, measur-
use of inexpensive digital cameras can add ing themselves, organizing data, and the
quite a bit to your science curriculum. like. Fundamental math concepts like ratio
become real when they determine how many
Measuring
true wetas they weigh, and perhaps how
many their cat weighs. For example, a ninety-
Looking at the math curriculum, you can use
pound student weighs almost 40,823.3133
simple technology tools to deepen your stu-
grams, which we round to 41,000 grams (for
dents’ appreciation and understanding of the
another math lesson!). Constructing a simple
insect world. With a spreadsheet or a simi-
fraction, this student weighs the same as
lar data analysis tool, you can help develop
about 455 true wetas. A typical nine-pound
concepts of scale, ratio, and proportion.
cat would weigh 1/10 as much as the student,
For example, many kids find “factlets” like
or about 45.5 true wetas, as proportional rea-
world records to be particularly interesting.
soning comes into play.
One Web site lists the true weta from New
Continuing this line of reasoning, is there
Zealand as the heaviest insect in the world
an object in your classroom that you could
at 70 grams. How may true wetas does each
use to represent a weta in weight? If you
of your students weigh? That same Web site
have access to a digital scale, you can test a
lists a stick-insect with a 36 cm body length,
variety of objects to see which comes clos-
and some butterflies with a wing span of 32
est. That could become a semi-official mea-
cm. Just as with weight, your students can
sure, just as a “smoot” has, in honor of MIT
compare themselves by length to a variety
student Oliver R. Smoot, who lent his body
of insect life forms. In any of these cases,
to be used in measuring the length of the
drawing in multiple insects and making
Harvard Bridge between Boston and Cam-
comparisons helps them to make sense of
bridge as a fraternity prank. your kids can
the diversity of the insect world from large
look up Smoot in Wikipedia and be off on a
to small.
whole new adventure . . . .
imPortant Considerations for inseCts in the Classroom
Insects can be:
• Studied in the wild, with no disruption;
• Locally collected, brought into school for careful observation and then
released back to the spot from which they were collected;
• Purchased or raised for educational use, kept in containment in school.
For this last group, best practice dictates that at the conclusion of
your studies, you do not release the insects into the wild (it is illegal in
some states).
Instead, you could maintain them in the classroom, donate them
to another classroom, nature center, or zoo. If you have to euthanize
them, the most responsible and humane way to dispose of them is to
freeze them, place in a sealed, airtight container, and bury the con-
tainer.
When purchasing live organisms or eggs, check with your state
department of natural resources to make sure that the organisms being
transported are allowable in your state. Some organisms require per-
mits, and without them, hefty fines may apply.
—Editor
© synergy learning • 800-769-6199 • March/april 2010 Connect • page 21
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