Plot Study in the Humboldt Garden

During the Ecology Unit in the winter semester, students visit the Humboldt Garden to have firsthand contact with an ecosystem. Working in teams, students record information about abiotic and biotic factors within their plot. Later in the classroom, students will share their data with others and look for patterns.

Measurement is a necessary first step in being able to detect those patterns. It is fitting that the activity takes place in the Humboldt Garden since precise documentation was central to his method. During their exploration of South America and Mexico he and his partner, Aime Bonpland, carried with them a virtual traveling laboratory with more than 30 state-of-the-art instruments to measure the physcial environment. In collecting this data the Prussian explorer hoped to better understand the "unity of nature."

The measurements we take are just a beginning. Students measure soil temperature and air temperature at the surface and at waist level. For many it will be the first time that they pay careful attention to the scale within a thermometer. This skill will be useful to them as they continue their work in science in later grades. Back in the classroom the children will make a comparison table of temperatures at different levels in different plots. When the sun begins to strike the garde, there can be large temperature differences in a small area. This simple exercise gives the student an understanding of how differences in exposure can generate different micro climates.